“No amount of Instagram likes and beer reviews online can replace seeing a customer enjoying a good beer at our brewery with their friends.” — Sayre Piotrkowski, sales and marketing manager
When three men, Collin McDonnell, Scott Goyne and Shane Goepel, crossed paths from varying backgrounds, the idea of a brewery was born almost immediately. Goyne channeled his mechanical experience to build a three-barrel brewery and the home HenHouse currently resides in. Goepel, originally practicing brewing from his own garage a decade earlier, began to perfect his recipes. All while McDonnell started to build a customer base, running the sales aspect of the upstart company. It was a match made in heaven, which has grown from 88 barrels into 15,000 over the course of seven years in eight counties.
This growth culminated into becoming one of the most popular breweries in the county, and was voted Best Local Brewery by NorthBay biz readers.
“I believe the thing that sets up apart from some of the other outstanding breweries in this area is our focus on what we call ‘second-half’ beer quality,” says Sayre Piotrkowski, sales and marketing manager. “Second-half quality is our way of referring to all of the steps we take to ensure that no matter where it is your encounter our beer, that beer will be in brewery-fresh condition and taste just as delicious as it would be if you were to order a pint in our tasting room.”
One of the pursuits HenHouse embraced last year was online sales. “Due to the pandemic, we began selling online for the first time but we had our reservations,” says Piotrkowski. “We didn’t want the beer to die on someone’s porch or in their house. But it was important to have because not everyone has consistent access to the brewery.”
The pandemic threw a number of curve balls at HenHouse, but the local brewery responded like other hospitality businesses. “This year was the first time we sold Big Chicken online. In addition to being a celebration of freshness, that beer has always been a celebration of our local beer community,” says Piotrkowski. “So this year we hosted, Big Chicken In Place, a virtual hang on YouTube Live. The recipe changes every year to reflect the techniques and ingredients that have gotten our production team most excited about hoppy beer over the preceding 12 months.” Big Chicken is a limited- and controlled-released beer that is available for three days in February. It is brewed, kegged and tapped in a single day due to its unusually high hop content. As Scott Goyne, president of the brewery likes to say, “Big Chicken is the extreme of our focus on freshness because beer is a far more perishable product than most folks realize.”
Big Chicken is the epitome of their dedication to freshness in a beer. “It’s all in that second half quality. People need to shop for beer like its dairy, not like its wine,” says Piotrkowski. “Time, temperature and travel really beats up a beer.”
While HenHouse was able to thrive during the pandemic by being flexible and finding alternate solutions, nothing replaces the feeling of a good brew in the right environment. “Beer is a social event, and it was a trying thing to be separated and estranged from people’s enjoyment in it,” says Piotrkowski. “No amount of Instagram likes and beer reviews online can replace seeing a customer enjoying what we do out in the world with their friends.”
In terms of HenHouse continuing to grow in the competitive landscape that is the North Bay beer market, Piotrkowski laid out his sales and marketing strategy in a simple Outkast lyric: “If you want to reach the nation, start with your corner.” With locals and tourists alike flocking to HenHouse Brewery, it seems as though their strategy is working perfectly so far.
Photo courtesy of HenHouse Brewing Co.
