Beer was precisely the reason that Steam Bell Beer Works owner Brad Cooper was fired from his aggregate mining job, but he refers to that day, Sept. 19, 2014 as “Freedom Day.”
This was the opening to an email we received the other day, and we couldn’t help but be intrigued by the full story. The story is the founding of Steam Bell Beer Works in Richmond, Va., by Cooper, a homebrewer who needed a career/life change.
Since launching in 2016, Steam Bell Beer Works has thrived, and good stuff remains on the way — a second location is already set to open in February, and Cooper just received an agricultural grant from the State of Virginia because 40 percent of their materials/ ingredients come from Virginia.
Anyway, we thought it was a cool story and followed up with Cooper to learn more.
Give us the backstory on how Steam Bell Beer Works got started? And what does it mean that “beer was the reason” you were fired from that aggregate mining job?
Cooper: Steam Bell got its start with a bad day at work. I had been a homebrewer for a few years and had even worked part time at the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond for a few years but my full time job was in the mining industry. One day a coworker and I were talking, and we were complaining about our boss’s boss’s boss, or something of that matter, when he looked at me with a sigh and said, “Well, I guess we only have about another 40 years of this.”
When my coworker uttered those words, that was the turning point where I knew I had to go into business for myself. I had been interested in opening a brewery for a few years at that point but had been scared away by the cost of all the equipment and construction involved.
As for getting fired — Every time I would homebrew, I would bring in a few growlers for some of my coworkers to try when they got home. One of my former coworkers, instead of putting the growler in his car chose to put it in the office refrigerator. The company I worked for has a very strict, black and white, zero tolerance policy toward alcohol on company property, and we were both let go soon after.
What would you say is the focus of Steam Bell Beer? How are you branding yourself? What beers are your big sellers?
Cooper: As far as our beer is concerned, we wanted to focus primarily on beers not currently available in the marketplace. So many breweries out there have offerings of an IPA, a pale ale, a blonde ale, a wheat beer, a lager, etc. Once upon a time in a land where there were few options besides mass-produced American lagers, these choices were seen as new and innovative, but as craft beer has become more mainstream craft breweries have to branch out beyond these basic styles.
At Steam Bell, instead of finding a stout, it’s a Tiramisu Stout. We wanted to buck the trend of pumpkin beers so instead we brewed a beer with Virginia-sourced sweet potatoes and sorghum syrup.
Our flagships include:
- The Grisette — A light Belgian Saison brewed in the style of beer provided to the miners in old world Belgium.
- Brindled Brown Ale — An English Brown Ale aged on cocoa nibs and toasted pecans.
Our two flagship beers are our two biggest sellers, but the Tiramisu Stout is a close contender.
Click on page 2 for more details on Cooper’s business plan, sales breakdown and locally sourced ingredients.
So, how does one get started and ramp up beer sales? What were some key bullet points in your business plan at the outset?
Cooper: Ramping up production is a bit more difficult than just brewing more beer. Looking at the economics of it, to brew more beer, we needed more raw ingredients, and our suppliers have to be paid up front. Once the grain arrives in our warehouse a few days later it will sit until we’re ready to brew. Brewing takes up a day and fermentation time will take a few weeks following brew day. From there, the beer is moved into a bright tank for conditioning, carbonation and packaging. The packaged beer then sits in our warehouse until our distributor picks it up. From there we are on 30-day payment terms.
To scale up production requires a significant cash outlay without receiving payment on it for months. We were able to confront this by making Steam Bell a destination for people to come to. It’s no secret that the margins are higher on beer that we sell by the glass in the tasting room than they are on beer sold wholesale to our distributor.
We opened in an area of town we felt had a hole in the market for a venue where families are welcome, adults can grab a beer, enjoy various foods from onsite food trucks and enjoy live bands. We struck a jackpot, and while brewing on a 10-bbl system into 20-bbl tanks. We were having difficulty keeping up with the tasting room demand for the first few months.
The high traffic in the tasting room helped us from the offset to purchase better equipment, pay off our debts and make a few leasehold improvements.
How did you get this financed? And could you explain the agricultural grant process a bit more? Was that baked into your plan at the beginning?
The initial funding to open Steam Bell was all raised through private equity.
The Virginia Agricultural Grant we have applied for is available to benefit business that use a significant amount of Virginia Agricultural Products. We didn’t even know about this grant program until a few months in but made it a priority to connect with this group when we were ready to expand. We source as much as possible locally. The sweet potato beer we mentioned above, The Dawson, uses 200 lbs of sweet potatoes from Mechanicsville. We got all the peaches for our fall seasonal, Buckland, from a century farm in Crozet, and we partner heavily with Copper Fox Distillery on malt for some of our specialty brews.
What are the pros and cons of getting that many ingredients locally?
Anything local and small batch is going to be more expensive. For the higher price though we are actually paying for humans to be a part of the process whereas many larger multinational suppliers may have robots performing certain tasks.
For instance, at several times throughout the year, we have brewed beer using malt from the Virginia-based Copper Fox Distillery. Copper Fox grows their grain in Virginia, transports it to the distillery in Sperryville and malts it by hand. There is an actual human being that turns the malt by hand several times a day. I love seeing and supporting businesses like this, doing things in the same way they were done before mass production took over.
What is your sales breakdown like? Mostly tap room sales or distribution? And how many retail accounts?
Currently most of our sales are in the tasting room. Since opening we have sold approximately 90 percent of beer made on site in our tasting room. Now that we are more in the swing of things as far as a having a more concrete production schedule and better management of our supply chain, we are beginning to put more product out for distribution.
Since opening we have had beer in around 20 different locations in the Richmond market and have recently begun sending a little bit to the Charlottesville area. We are focused on growing our wholesale business but with two caveats.
We don’t want to extend ourselves much past Central Virginia. The further we get away from the brewery the less control we have over our beer and the more we get disconnected from our customers.
We are looking for the right partners to help us go to market. For us, that typically means smaller, independent spots that also prioritize localization and training for their staff. We know that by putting our beer into market, we lose the personalization of a member of our staff who may serve you a beer that he helped brew two weeks prior.
