Sam Fonda has plans for year three

Weathered Ground Brewery celebrated its second anniversary last weekend with a festive event on the brewery grounds in Cool Ridge, WV. Brilliant Stream took that opportunity to sit down with co-owner/head brewer Sam Fonda, Jr. and take a little look back and a look forward. We picked up some details about upcoming operational expansions.

“We’re very happy with the way we’ve been received and the friends we’ve made,” Sam said of his experience opening and operating a brewery in southern West Virginia. He says the anniversary party was a “big high five” for all the regular customers who have made the first two years successful.

Sam said the big news at the brewery is that the two-year anniversary is coinciding with two significant business operational expansions. A brewpub kitchen expansion and the start-up of beer canning will keep the Weathered Ground folks very busy over the next months.

Moving to an in-house food service

Being out in a rural area poses several problems for them when it comes to food service. The food truck or guest caterer option that many urban and suburban brewery taprooms utilize is not really available to them on a consistent and reliable basis. There aren’t really other close-by restaurants for customers to get takeout or to get deliveries. Just having a few snack foods wasn’t enough to make customers happy. So, to get customers to stay longer and come more frequently, Weathered Ground clearly saw it needed to have a regular, consistent. and attractive food service. The kitchen expansion will provide that.

It revolves around the installation of a premium, brick-lined pizza oven and transforming the former private event room into a food serving and recreation area. Soon to be available will be a variety of pizzas, salads, wings, and specialty foods as the brewery moves to a full-time, in-house food service. They are currently in the process of hiring a food service contractor to run the operation for them.

When the new kitchen gets done, the brewery will be open longer hours and more days per week. Sam says it has been hard to predict business patterns at the taproom. He’s found them quite variable in highs to lows from day to day and week to week. His goal for the new food service is that it increases the number of customer visits, helps even out, and makes business patterns more predictable.

Currently, Weathered Ground’s beer sales are split about half and half between the taproom and distribution. Selling more beer through the in-house taproom at full retail prices would definitely help the bottom line. A small brewery easily makes much higher margins on taproom sales than it does on beer sales through distribution. Using food service to attract more beer customers to the taproom seems like a good business strategy in this case.

Weathered Ground cans coming in September

Adding a beer canning operation involves finishing the installation of the canning equipment, constructing a walk-in cooler addition, and beginning to package beer in 16 oz. cans by early September. They will start off by canning two of their most popular brands: Cool Ridge Lager and Haggard IPA.

While it’s not been finally determined, Weathered Ground would likely begin by canning batches of at least 200 4-packs at a time per brand. Canning one of their full 7-barrel batches of beer could produce somewhere around 375 to 400 4-packs of 16-oz. beer, more for lager and less for dry-hopped, hazy IPA. Initially, the cans will be primarily reserved for in-house sales, but a portion will always be allocated to distribution. They plan to get everything tested out and dialed in, see how sales go, then make adjustments. Down the road, more types of beer will be added to cans, some likely as small batch specialty runs, and more could hit distro.

To help introduce the cans, both the lager and the IPA are backed with promotional T-shirts, glassware and new label art.

If he has a worry, Sam is concerned that if the canned product really takes off, that to meet the increased demand, he will have to put some constraints on the other types of beer he brews. The brewery is currently operating pretty close to full capacity with virtually no extra room to add more tanks. If you need to brew a lot more Haggard IPA and Cool Ridge Lager to satisfy extra demand created by the cans, some of the other beers you previously brewed would have to be made less frequently or eliminated. The remedy for this would be expanding the brewery’s equipment by adding more tank space, but that is not in the immediate plans. Of course, those are growing pains most breweries would love to have.

Sam Fonda wants to help beer tourism

Sam wants to be a part of putting West Virginia beer on the map, and starting to sell beer at Snowshoe Mountain Resort is part of his strategy. He says the brewery will add a self-delivery route to the Pocahontas County region. With Snowshoe guests coming from all across the Mid-Atlantic states, he hopes he can be a part of helping West Virginia develop a stronger image as a beer destination.

“It’s a hidden gem,” he said. “People don’t know this is here, and it’s awesome.”

Plans for a few new brews & bottles

Even with the expected extra work of canning Cool Ridge Lager and Haggard IPA, Weathered Ground still plans to have a couple of surprises for its fans this fall and winter. “We’ll definitely have some new sours out there,” Sam said. He will also have a maple syrup variant of Struggle Street Breakfast Stout and plans to package their big wintertime brews, such as Struggle Street and Burley Barleywine, in 500 ml bottles. Expect these to be out in distribution.

Weathered Ground Brewery will continue to be a leader in doing collaboration brews. Sam says several more are coming. One will be with Triple C Brewing from Charlotte.

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Year three at Weathered Ground promises to be another busy one if Sam Fonda has his way. West Virginia beer fans are hoping he meets his goals and more.

Listen to the original recording

Want to hear more from Sam? Here is a recording of the conversation Brilliant Stream’s Erin McCoy and Charles Bockway had with Sam Fonda, Jr. at the brewery’s anniversary event.

LiNKS

Weathered Ground named WV Brewery of the Year, 2018
Weathered Ground website