Going behind the scenes at a successful brewery reveal so much more than making beer.

In fact, Miami Bay Brewing Company has a rich history dating back to the 1800s.

Today, its diversification and expansion of products, new distribution channels, unique partnerships and a direct to consumer approach represent how much this business has evolved as the marketplace demands.

So let's head out for a drink.

The business of making beer begins with creating a unique beer recipe that consumers love.

Yes, success is so much mor than that in the world of beer.

And I'm here today with Craig Kerr.

Craig has been here for 35 years at Miami Bay Brewing Company as a brewmaster and more.

Craig Kerr: It's hard to believe, isn't it?

Kristi: Really is.

Welcome to business.

Likely 60.

Craig Kerr: Thank you very much for having us.

Kristi: Give us a little history, if you would, on Mommy's Brewing Company and your time here.

Since you started, you were, what, two.

Craig Kerr: Just thank you so much.

I know it's hard to tell us a. Yeah, I started back in 1995.

We are Toledo's oldest craft brewery.

The building that we ar occupying is the Oliver House.

It was built in 1859, and it was designed by Isaiah Rogers, who also designed the Boston Statehouse.

The property was originally a hotel.

It was the most luxurious hotel in downtown Toledo and survive for 30 or 40 years as a hotel.

After that, it became a residential rooming house, turned int some manufacturing activities.

And, by the time we acquired the property back in the early 90s, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair.

Reall needed to be totally renovated.

So it was either, find somethin to do with it or tear it down.

So Jim and Pat Appel bought the property, and Jim said, we need to make a brewery.

Kristi Tell us a little bit more as we jump into the whole brew master piece of your job.

What does that entail?

A day in the life of you?

Craig Kerr: Well, startin to make beer is is interesting.

I started making beer as a hobby in my home and learned how to do all the basics of it, which is a very different activity.

Doing it in a kitchen sink versus 500 gallons at a time.

So we hired, we hired a company to build the brewing house for us.

So making beers is I describe it to peopl as kind of like making coffee.

Basically what we do i we take the sugar out of barley, we percolate water over the top, like you would make in a pot of coffee.

And that's the sugar that we get.

That's what makes the beer sweet.

That's what also feeds the yeast that turns it into alcohol.

So beer is made of four, four ingredients.

There's water, barley, hops and yeast.

The barley is the sweet part, the hops of the bitter part.

The yeast also can impact the flavo depending on what kind of use.

Kristi: As we look at brewing the perfect beer, what does it take?

Craig Kerr: Well, brewing batch of beer is very diligent.

You have to make sure that you do things right.

So the work that I do today I won't know for several weeks if it's if I did it right.

Very precise.

You have to be very you have to measure things carefully.

The temperatures have to be controlled.

When we make a beer.

That's, you know, a Raspberry Week that we just do once a year, you can just get fresh raspberries.

The raspberries might be different.

You can.

You can have a lot more leeway.

And you're not quite so concerned with making it taste like what it did last year, because you always want to make it better this year.

Kristi: The first step, as you say, okay, we're going to come u with a new product, a new beer.

What's the first step you have to take in doing so?

Craig Kerr: The new beers get generated through a collaborative process of brewers.

The sales department really in our in our distributors have have some things to say about we follow market trends.

We also like to follow anything that's a new ingredient.

It's available.

There's new hops coming out all the time.

There are different yeast that might come along that might have a profile we might want to have.

Or the market has got something that's that's kind of a hot trend.

And, you know, we'll chase after that.

Kristi: Do you take risks when it comes to new product development, or do you kind of say, no, we know this trend.

Let's stay the course.

You can kind of go a little bit out there.

Craig Kerr: Well, one of the neat things about having a restaurant like this in a in a big brewpub facility i if we want to try something new, we make it here in a small batch.

500 gallons is what we call a small, small batch.

And we can try it in here in the restaurant.

And we have access to hundreds and hundreds of people here who can come over to the course for a few weeks, and they try that product.

And, you know, we get feedbac from them on if it's not quite what we want, we'll make another batch, try it again.

We can we can kind of swerve our wa into the right flavor profile.

Kristi: The built in test market.

Craig Kerr: That's pretty good.

Yes, it's it's grueling work but somebody is going to do it.

Kristi: What has shifted for you the most in terms of kind of challenge and growth as you look through your career here?

Craig Kerr Clearly it's been a competition.

There's just more breweries making product.

And it's nice because I don't know why.

But two breweries can be given the exact same recipe.

And if they make that same beer it's not gonna taste the same.

So it's the process of the machinery, the process of the brewer, the way we all do things differently.

So it's kind of neat because we can get like an endless style of products out there.

So as that happens, of cours the market gets more saturated and that's that's a challenge for us to always come up with new products because customers want something that's new.

That's that's the name of the game.

Kristi: Now, as you experiment with new products, is there a taste testing involved in that?

Craig Kerr: Yeah, there is a taste testing involved with that.

Can I sign up for it?

Craig Kerr: It's amazing how many people want to sign up to be taste tester.

It's a very long line.

And it is i is important because as I said, we all have different flavor palates.

And you know what you like I might not like, but we have to have enough people that can they can buy a drink somethin that the market's kind of like.

Kristi: Well, let's go take a look at the brewery behind the scene.

Craig Kerr: Yeah, let's do it.

Kristi: Oka I'm here with Shannon Moore now.

And she is the sales manager for the brewery, which involves a lot more than selling beer.

Am I right about that, Shannon?

Shannon Moore: Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

There's a there' a couple of steps along the way.

Kristi: You do wholesale distribution, new packaging, new products, marketing and all of those thing have changed through the years.

I know you've been here over 20 years, have you not?

Ish.

Shannon Moore: Close ish.

Yeah, yeah.

Whereas there was a small gap in there, but, Kristi: Yeah.

Well, let's talk a little bi about some of the biggest trends that you are seeing in terms of those new products that have come to market in the last few years.

Shannon Moore: Well.

And on the beer side, you're seeing a.

Lot more, sour beers.

We make a couple of shower here.

You're seeing breweries.

Our size starts to develop.

Those a little bit more and getting those out into the market.

So just that's another trend that, you know, become popular in the.

Last six, seven years.

Kristi There's a new trend called rtds.

Tell our viewers and our listeners what that stands for, because I feel like it's really important for them to understand.

Shannon Moore: So it's a ready to drink cocktail.

So, you know, you don't have to get out your your highball glasses and, and, peel your own lemons for your drink because we've already put in a canned for you.

Kristi: So nice.

Yeah.

Shannon Moore We we do that for our customers.

So we.

We have one called the momm Mule, which is a, Moscow mule.

We have one that is a rum based.

Tiki.

Drink called Tiki Twist.

And we have our newest one with a, partnership with the University of Toledo and it's called Rocket Booster.

And that's a vodka based blueberry lemonade.

The ready to drink cocktail, segment.

Really came from people.

These are.

You know, when we talk about craft beers, we talk about, the ingredients that are made in those.

And, and we know going into i that if you're drinking an IPA, it's going to be higher caloric content with the ready to drink cocktails.

Those vodka.

Based ones, those are a little bit lower in calorie and can be a little bit more, exciting for.

Kristi: So yeah, less calories, as you said, maybe presumably they're thinking a little healthier.

Shannon Moore: As much as alcohol can be.

Kristi: So nice.

So you work with organizations to brand products for them.

Shannon Moore: We do.

It's important.

To, you know, we've.

Been around for 30.

Years and it's important that we we keep the our community roots strong.

And we have great community partners such as the University of Toledo that we love working with.

Kristi: How do you come up with your ow label and design and name here.

Shannon Moore: We come up with the name and kind of a generalized concept of the design.

And then we have a designer that we work with locally.

Kristi: Well, Shannon, thank you so much for your expertise as an industry we didn't know a lot about until today.

You and Crai have really helped us so much.

So thank yo so much for welcoming us here.

Shannon Moore: Thanks for having us.