2026 VBC Session Details

Market Consolidation: Buying, Selling, Mergers, & More

Jeffrey O’Brien (Husch Blackwell LLP) and John Szymankiewicz (Beer Law Center)

Business owners tend to look at their business as an “all or nothing” option. Whether you’re looking to enter or exit a craft beverage business, there are other options to consider. This presentation will hit the highlights and do’s-and-don’ts of a traditional sale, but we’ll also cover other options for structuring a business deal. What about a Joint Venture? What, exactly, is a “merger?” Can I sell the brand or license the rights? Can I do a partial sale? Or sell to my employees? We’ll go through the details of what these other options look like as well as the pros and cons of each.

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Jeffrey O’Brien is a partner with Husch Blackwell, and serves as general counsel to a wide variety of small and closely-held businesses as well as real estate investors and developers. He has significant experience working with craft breweries, distilleries and wineries on an array of issues including entity formation, financing and tax, real estate matters, intellectual property protection, operational issues, and distribution contracts. Mr. O’Brien’s clients also include real estate agents, developers and investors, community banks, title companies, restaurant operators, manufacturing companies, franchised businesses, retired professional athletes, financial advisors, insurance agents, and consulting businesses. He is certified as a real property law specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association. A frequent lecturer and writer, Mr. O’Brien has presented and written articles on a variety of business and real estate topics. He is a regular guest on several radio shows and podcasts. Mr. O’Brien earned his B.S. degree, cum laude, from the University of St. Thomas and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from William Mitchell College of Law.

Since founding Beer Law Center, John’s practice has centered on the craft beverage industry. John works with clients to help them achieve their personal and business goals. With a background in chemical engineering and homebrewing, John loves the industry and has dedicated his career to making a difference for artisanal beverage businesses everywhere. John is a BJCP Judge, holds a certification in WSET Level II – in Wine and in Beer, and is the US’s only Certified Cicerone Alcohol Attorney. John’s book “Beer Law: What Brewers Need to Know” is a great reference for anyone in the industry.

The Unique Challenges of Running a Farm Brewery

Panel Conversation

Farm breweries deal with a different set of problems than your average taproom. Zoning rules that weren’t written with beer in mind. Agricultural requirements that dictate what you can grow and how much. A location that’s often a destination rather than a stop on someone’s way home.

This conversation will bring together those running farm breweries to share what it actually takes to navigate the regulations, build a guest experience worth the drive, and run a business that’s part farm and part hospitality at the same time.

Panelists:

Anna Shore (Solstice Farm Brewery)

Chris Suarez (Lost Barrel Brewing)

Shannon Delaney (Chilly Hollow Brewing)

Moderator: Kevin Anderson (Loudoun Country Brewers Association)

Efficiencies in the Brewhouse

Panel Conversation

Small process changes in the brewhouse add up. Shorter cycle times, less waste, more consistent batches with the same equipment you already own.

Brewers on this panel will talk through the specific changes they made on the floor, why they made them, and what it actually did to their bottom line.

Panelists:

Jasper Akerboom (Jasper Yeast)

Stefan McFayden (Vasen Brewing)

Choose Your Brews: Strategies to Manage Your Product Offerings

Aaron Gore (Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient)

Life, and business, are all about choices. How does an owner decide what products in their portfolio to keep, what to eliminate, and what to introduce? It takes solid process and objective data to eliminate the guesswork and make your company better by not wasting time, energy, and dollars on things that don’t earn their place. In this session, attendees will be given a primer on the philosophy of portfolio management, the process of rationalization and innovation, and how to apply it to their own businesses, regardless of scale.

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With more than a decade of sales, retail management, and business analytic experience in the craft beverage industry, Aaron MJ Gore loves the opportunities that he has every day to make a difference for small business owners across the country. He is the Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Beer30, one of the drinks industry’s leading software providers, is a co-founder of the Court Shoes Only charitable collaboration beer, and serves as the Vice-President of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame. He is an Advanced Cicerone, Certified Pommelier, Certified Cheese Scholar, WSET Level 2 Spirits Certified, and is (AF)(NA) Beer Certified. Additionally, he is an active industry advocate, public speaker, beer and cider educator, and the father of two daughters who are the true passion of his life.

No Secrets: The Fundamentals Behind Great Lager

Nassim Sultan (BarrelVision)

Craft lagers are more prevalent than ever, yet truly exceptional examples remain rare. Great lager isn’t the result of secret techniques, decoctions, or obscure ingredients—it’s the result of getting the fundamentals right.

This session lays out the practical building blocks behind exceptional lager: ingredient selection, mash and fermentation control, water chemistry, oxygen management, and packaging and draft discipline.

None of these concepts are flashy or advanced; they’re simply the essential elements behind great lager. The same fundamentals matter in ales too, but lagers leave less room for error—small process flaws become far more apparent in restrained, delicate beers. Small deviations (slightly unhealthy yeast, inconsistent wort oxygen levels, excessive sulfur expression, rushed lagering, or overlooked dissolved oxygen during packaging) can limit a lager’s quality potential.

We’ll examine each major stage of lager production (from raw material selection through packaging) to identify where breweries most often lose ground, emphasizing precision, restraint, and repeatability—showing how tightening those steps can elevate a lager using practical techniques rather than expensive upgrades. Topics include pitch rates, fermentation pacing, reading water reports and dialing in salt additions, and reassessing tank and packaging purge strategies to minimize dissolved oxygen pickup. Throughout, we’ll show how tightening these areas shapes consistency, reputation, and the long-term performance of your lager program.

The central argument is simple: great lager is the cumulative result of many small, well-executed decisions. No single adjustment will transform a beer—but tighten every step and the total becomes greater than the sum of its parts, elevating a good lager into a great one.

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Nassim Sultan is the founder of BarrelVision, a brewery consulting business focused on helping breweries make better beer, save time, and reduce costs. He is especially interested in how process, product quality, and front-of-house beer knowledge work together—and in their cumulative impact on the guest experience. A former head brewer, Nassim has worked across the full breadth of small brewery operations. His hands-on roles have included cellar work, brewing, lab operations, logistics, maintenance, recipe development, and staff training. This background gives him a practical understanding of the challenges breweries face every day.

Building a Successful Events Program

Panel Conversation

Events can be one of the most reliable ways to bring new and repeat guests through your doors, but only if they’re run with intention. Too many breweries plan them last minute, staff them on the fly, and never track whether they actually paid off.

This panel brings together operators who’ve built events into something repeatable, both public programming that brings new faces in the door and private bookings that pay the bills. We’ll get into what’s actually worked, what’s flopped, and how to know if an event is worth doing again.

Panelists:

Daniel Chiles (Fine Creek Brewing)

Paige Kinder (Hardywood Park Craft Brewery)

Victoria Howell (MoMac Brewing/Nansemond Brewing Station)

Moderator: Skyler Lewis (Evently)

From Taproom to Account: Training Brewery Staff to Sell Like Reps

Dakota Rust (Virginia Beer Distribution Company)

In a self-distribution-style model, brewery staff are often the front line of sales, account management, and brand building. This session will explore how to train taproom and brewery teams to sell with confidence, communicate value to accounts, and support growth without relying on a traditional distributor sales force. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for building sales habits, strengthening account relationships, and creating a more consistent approach to representing the brewery in the market.

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Dakota Rust is the Operations Manager for Virginia Beer Distribution Company. He started with VDACS in February 2024 and has worked tirelessly with his team on getting VBDC setup for success. Dakota came to VDACS with a little more than three years of experience at Virginia ABC where he worked in the Bureau of Law Enforcement. His unit was responsible for many things including helping businesses apply for ABC licenses and staying licensed.

The Virginia Beer Distribution Company is a non-stock, non-profit corporation housed within the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). VBDC is modeled off the Virginia Winery Distribution Company which has been in operation since 2007. This company provides a path for Virginia breweries to self-distribute up to 500 barrels of their product each calendar year. The VBDC is comprised of a 5-member Board of Directors, an operations manager, and a financial analyst.

Turning Casual Guests in Brewery Superfans

Panel Conversation

What if you never had another new customer? How would you make your current audience even more valuable?

In this session, you’ll learn actionable strategies from some of Virginia’s finest breweries on how to increase guest spending, build loyalty, and keep people coming back more often. From creative promotions to enhancing the guest experience, you’ll walk away with tools to drive more visits and higher revenue per visitor. Discover the power of focusing on your current audience and turning them into passionate super fans. It’s about making every guest count.

Understand how to use guest experience data to measure performance, reward staff, and grow your bottom line.

Learn practical ways to increase guest check averages and drive repeat visits using subtle, effective strategies.

Explore creative ideas to strengthen loyalty and turn casual visitors into passionate super fans.

Panelists:

Jake Abell (Scuffle Hill Brewing)

Josh Evans (Afterglow Brewing)

Madeline Dulaney (Chilly Hollow Brewing)

Moderator: Ross Stensrud (TapWyse)

Brewing For Your Market, Not Just Your Palate

Panel Conversation

Every brewer has a beer they’re proud of that just doesn’t sell. Maybe it’s the dry-hopped saison nobody orders twice, or the barrel-aged stout that wins awards but sits on the shelf. It’s a hard thing to admit, but the beer you love and the beer your market wants aren’t always the same thing.

This panel is about that gap. We’ll hear from brewers who’ve had to make peace with brewing for their actual customers, not just their own taste, and what that shift looked like in practice. Where do you draw the line between staying creative and staying in business? When do you kill a beer you love because the numbers say to? And how do you keep your team motivated to brew “the boring stuff” that pays the bills.

Panelists:

Brett Robison (Silver Branch Brewing) Erik Filep (Patch Brewing)

Savannah Roberts (Triple Crossing)

Moderator: Russ Sabbag (Settle Down Easy Brewing)

Protecting Your Brand on Tap: Trademark Essentials for Breweries

Nicole Harrell (Kaufman & Canoles, P.C.)

In today’s crowded craft beverage market, your brand is one of your most valuable assets—but also one of the most vulnerable. This session provides a practical, business-focused overview of trademark law tailored specifically for breweries. Attendees will gain insight into how to select strong, protectable names for beers, spirits, and businesses; conduct clearance searches to avoid costly disputes; and navigate the federal trademark registration process.

The program will also address common industry pitfalls, including label and packaging risks, collaborations and co-branding, geographic indicators, and responding to cease-and-desist letters. Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into new markets, or rebranding, this session will equip you with the knowledge to build, protect, and enforce your brand—so you can focus on what you do best: creating great beer.

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Nicole Harrell is an intellectual property and franchising attorney focused on developing and managing IP portfolios and guiding clients through the intricaies of regulatory issues. She advises clients in trademark law, IP licensing, franchising and alcoholic beverage regulatory matters.

As Chair of the Alcoholic Beverage team, Nicole regularly represents wineries, breweries, distillers, importers, and retailers on licensing and compliance matters.
Known for her collaborative approach, Nicole works with clients ranging from family-owned businesses to large corporations, providing strategic guidance grounded in a deep understanding of their operations and goals. Nicole can be reached at nicole.harrell@kaufcan.com or 757-624-3306.

The Cone of Truth: Smarter Yeast Harvesting for Better Beer

Nate Ferguson (Escarpment Laboratories)

Yeast harvesting is one of the most impactful — and misunderstood — processes in modern brewing, with small differences in harvesting technique, storage conditions, cell health, and fermentation stress significantly affecting beer quality, consistency, and contamination risk. This session explores practical, science-backed strategies for smarter yeast management, including yeast vitality vs. viability, harvesting timing, settled yeast volume (SYV), storage methods, and the tradeoffs between plastic and stainless systems. Attendees will also learn the causes of common harvesting issues such as inconsistent crops and cone “tunneling,” while gaining practical tools to improve fermentation consistency, reduce risk, and produce better beer through more effective yeast harvesting practices.

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Nate Ferguson is co-founder of Escarpment Laboratories and a professor in the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program at Niagara College Canada. His work focuses on applied brewing science, fermentation management, and yeast handling for breweries of all sizes, shaped by years working directly with commercial breweries to improve fermentation consistency, yeast vitality, harvesting practices, and beer quality. He also produces technical brewing education through articles, presentations, podcasts, and online resources aimed at making brewing science practical and accessible, with particular interest in yeast physiology, fermentation performance, flocculation, yeast nutrition, and process optimization.

Building Successful Distributor Relationships

Panel Conversation

The brewery-distributor relationship can make or break your growth outside the taproom, but many operators often don’t truly understand what the other side wants.

This panel brings perspectives from both ends of the table, a large distributor, a small distributor, and a brewery that’s navigated both. We’ll get into what distributors look for when evaluating a new brand, what a strong day to day partnership actually looks like, and where these relationships tend to break down. Ideally, this session will help you maximize your distributor relationship, or perhaps convince you that a scaled back approach is best for you.

Panelists:

Aaron Childers (Pretty Ugly Distribution)

Griffin Johnson (Three Notch’d Brewing Company)

Logan Vath (Hoffman Beverage Co.)

Moderator: Julie Rhodes (Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions)

Welcoming Non-Beer Drinkers Without Losing Your Beer Identity

Panel Conversation

More people are walking into taprooms who don’t drink beer, whether that’s a designated driver, someone cutting back, or a guest who just prefers something else. The question is how far you go to serve them without turning your taproom into something it’s not.

Our panelists will share what they see working: cocktails, seltzers, NA options, food programs, events, and the menu and staffing decisions behind them, all without losing what makes your brewery a brewery in the first place.

Panelists:

Kyle Farrelly (Atlas Brew Works)

Michele Hanson (Tradition Brewing)

Nicole Couch (Sojourn Fermentory)

Moderator: Michael Varda (Crafted Insights)

Profitable Taproom Tactics

Julia Grubbs (Small Batch Standard)

Despite their best efforts, most Owners, GMs, and Taproom Managers leave money on the table because their taprooms operate below their true potential. In this session, we break down 12 proven tactics the most profitable taprooms use to generate 2x-5x more profit than their peers.

We’ll walk through the 4 pillars of successful taprooms, outlining specific tactics and performance benchmarks, drawn from our work with 285+ U.S. craft breweries over the past 15 years. These tactics span pricing, product, margin, labor, events, merchandise, marketing, management, training, and customer service. So whether you just opened a new location, or want to fine-tune a long-standing operation, you’ll walk away with actionable steps you can use to make your taproom a consistent profit generator for your brewery.

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Julia Grubbs, CPA, is a Brewery Consultant with Small Batch Standard, who has also previously held positions in accounting, tax, and compliance over her 4 years with the agency. Originally from Kentucky, she’s about as far from a one-dimensional bean counter as you can get, as a professional dancer and CPA living in New York City. Her love for small businesses and the relationships they enable combined with her uncanny knowledge of numbers led her to advising the brewing industry, acting as a trusted, specialized advisor for SBS’ wide range of clients across the country. She has had the pleasure of presenting at a variety of craft brewery conferences around the nation in Georgia, New York, Iowa, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.

Ask The Brewer: Pro Tips and Tricks

Panel Conversation

Join a panel of seasoned brewers for an engaging session packed with essential tips and tricks learned over 20 years in the industry. We’ll get into the lessons learned the hard way, the tricks that make daily brewing easier, and the small fixes that save time and headaches on the floor. Bring your questions for the panel.

Panelists:

Galen Smith (Malteurop)

Michele Lowney (Makers Craft Brewery)

Kids in Breweries

Panel Conversation

Everyone has an opinion on kids in the taproom. This panel gets into how breweries are actually handling it: the policies, the layout decisions, the staff training, the question of kids as a customer in their own right, and the tradeoffs between building a family-friendly space and keeping it a place adults still want to hang out.

Panelists:

Amanda Evans (Afterglow Brewing)

Sheridan Grime (Southern Revere Brewing)

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Cleaning, Sanitization, & Passivation Tips & Tricks

Malcom Frazer (Clean Edge)

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Nerds-Eye-View: Cleaning, Sanitization, & Passivation – Tips & Tricks

A discussion of what years as a brewer, manager, brewery owner, and chemical rep have taught about keeping a brewhouse clean.

Tips and tricks on how to address common challenges, plus the issues that keep coming up across breweries of every size.

Cleaning principles and fundamentals. When to use what chemicals, how much, how long, and at what flow rate, plus passivation theory.

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Malcolm Frazer’s path into brewing started in the Navy’s nuclear operations program before moving into the beer industry, where he worked in innovation and education at MillerCoors and quality and brewery management at Fat Heads. He’s since taken on various smaller projects as a tech consultant and water and recipe consultant, while also serving as owner and brewer at Late Addition Brewing and Blending. He currently works with CleanEdge as a tech advisor handling chemical sales and service.

What’s Brewing Beneath: Facing Mental Health in the Beer Industry

Panel Conversation

The craft beverage industry is built on passion, community, and hard work, but beneath the surface of taproom camaraderie lies a demanding reality. From the grueling physical labor of production to the emotional toll of customer service, industry professionals are facing high levels of stress, burnout, and substance use challenges. This panel brings together a diverse group of industry veterans and mental health advocates to uncork an honest, necessary conversation about the psychological pressures facing today’s beer workforce.

Led by host Dan Jablow (Director of Brewing Education at the University of Richmond & Founder of Small Batch Brewing), the discussion features firsthand perspectives from the brewhouse floor, including Curtis Shupe (Owner/Master Brewer/Lead Janitor at 36 Fifty Brewing) and Matt Spencer (Director of Brewing Operations at Tradition Brewing). They are joined by Amber Smith ofMise En Place Mental Health, to bridge the gap between real-world industry struggles and professional psychological support.

Whether you are a brewery owner balancing the books, a cellarmen managing daily burnout, or a bartender acting as an accidental counselor for patrons, this session is for you. Together, the panelists will explore the unique cultural hurdles of the beer world, share practical coping strategies, and discuss how we can collectively brew a healthier, more supportive environment for everyone in the industry.

Panelists:

Amber Smith (Mise En Place Mental Health)

Curtis Shupe (36 Fifty Brewing)

Matthew Spencer (Tradition Brewing)

Moderator: Dan Jablow (University of Richmond – Brewing Education)

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