Springfield’s tastemakers find niche in craft beverage market

Craft beer. Distilled alcohol. Artisan coffee. Each is a segment of the nationwide craft beverage boom, and none is in short supply across the Ozarks.

“Springfield is making a name for itself in all three of those areas,” said Tom Billionis, owner of The Coffee Ethic and co-owner of Cherry Picker Package and Fare, the latest in the neighborhood eatery trend.

The industry making the biggest noise, locally and nationally, is beer. Data from the Brewers Association shows the number of U.S. breweries is on an eight-year upswing, starting with 1,460 in 2006 and numbering 3,464 by 2014. The largest growth was to microbreweries, expanding fivefold to 1,871 in the same period.

“The genie is not going back in the bottle,” Springfield Brewing Co. Managing Partner Bryan Bevel said of the craft-brewing explosion.

But how are Springfield’s tastemakers defining their niche and staying profitable? For SBC, it’s a move toward more product.

“We’re out of beer,” Bevel said. “The reason you don’t see big displays in stores is because we don’t have it.”

The city’s patriarchal brewery is investing over $1 million to triple its production capacity to 360 barrels. With SBC income evenly split between distribution in 62 Missouri counties and in-house sales at the company’s bar and restaurant, 305 S. Market Ave., next year Bevel expects distribution to make up the majority of cash flow.

At White River Brewing Co., owner John “Buz” Hosfield and crew are reinventing with a trifecta: a few new beers, lower alcohol content and a packaging shift to cans.

“When Boulevard [Brewing Co.] started doing canning, they couldn’t keep it on the shelf,” Hosfield said, adding the switch would make White River beer compliant with Missouri law as a float-trip provision.

The Commercial Street brewery also is gaining exposure through Butcher Block Pils, a beer commissioned by City Butcher owners Cody Smith and Jeremy Smith that Hosfield said is “mostly” exclusive to the south Springfield barbecue eatery.

“City Butcher has become vastly popular – sold out, huge lines – so when they came to us I said, ‘yes’,” Hosfield said. “If there’s someone you want to do a collaboration with, it’s a company that’s hot.”

Create, compete and collaborate
The creation of Butcher Block Pils is indicative of other cross-promotional ties around Springfield. There’s SBC’s Mudhouse Stout and Mother’s Brewing Co.’s Winter Grind, with flavors from Mudhouse Inc.’s roasted coffee beans.

“I think the collaboration craze was created by social media – what’s so-and-so doing with whom?” Bevel said. “The question is, are you doing for the sake of it, for the merits of it or for buzz.”

Missouri Spirits co-owner Scott Shotts said the distillery is no stranger to collaboration. Its barrels have aged some of Brick & Mortar’s Peruvian coffee for a special limited roast as well as SBC’s anniversary beer. This summer, Missouri Spirits is set to embark on a project with St. Louis-based Urban Chestnut Brewing Co.

But Shotts said the company’s focus remains on private-label distilling products like MBW Brands LLC’s Backwoods Craft Spirits in addition to broadening Missouri Spirits’ own shelf with rum, gin and flavored bourbons.

“Everyone is looking for a point of difference, and we’re trying to figure out where we fit in,” Shotts said. “Maybe with the amount of competition that’s coming, people realize they have to collaborate more because it’s better for everyone.”

Missouri Spirits’ local competitor is Copper Run. Owner Jim Blansit said customer demand for more choices hasn’t gone unnoticed by mass liquor producers that have started sacrificing shelf space for more varieties and flavors of their flagship offerings. Craft collaboration becomes a way for small-batch businesses to stay viable.

“It’s a natural step to see how we can support each other,” Blansit said. “It’s a new way of doing business – or maybe an old way of doing business that hasn’t been used much in our modern culture.”

Those mixing it up say the craft beverage movement is analogous to the sensibilities driving consumers toward local produce. The same support for community farmers markets is what helps their industries and businesses thrive.

“People have become more educated, and when you learn more you expect more,” said Brick & Mortar Coffee co-owner Jonathan Putnam. “We benefit from a lot of those cultural trends here. I think we’re still the top-selling coffee at MaMa Jean’s because of the recognition that we fall into that same artisan, ethically sourced vibe that Springfield gets.”

“Competere”
Putnam said the latest trend in specialty coffee is a move away from the standard coffee shop to a tasting room that sources and roasts its own beans. Brick & Mortar also wholesales its coffee to local businesses The Aviary Cafe and Creperie, Early Bird Breakfast Pub, Brown Derby International Wine Center and others.

“There are a lot of great craftsmen out there, so we have a reputation for being an incredible coffee community,” Putnam said of Springfield. “Everyone in Kansas City and St. Louis who love the quality of coffee here comment on what a weird outlier it is.”

For instance, Brick & Mortar took the top spot as Mid-Missouri’s best small coffee roaster in Feast magazine’s 2015 Feast 50 awards, and Coffee Ethic was runner-up in the best coffee shop category.

Regardless of niche, the tastemakers agree there’s room for the three beverage segments to grow. Competition also breeds creativity, and those already doing business nearby don’t view each other – or newcomers – as antagonists.

“The root of competition is ‘competere,’ and it means ‘to strive together,’” Coffee Ethic’s Billionis said. “You’ve got others around trying to do things well and that pushes everyone else. That goes with business.”

His downtown coffeehouse and the Cherry Picker bar in the Rountree neighborhood give credence to the competition and collaboration point. Billionis co-owns Cherry Picker with Joshua Widner, who’s a partner in like-minded ventures Scotch and Soda and The Golden Girl Rum Club.

Billionis models his businesses like a European cafe, transitioning from coffee in the morning to wine, beer and spirits in the afternoon and evening, along with the foods that complement each.

As to the driving force behind the craft beverage industries’ ingenuity and popularity, he credits the Ozarks’ maker spirit.

“We have a real DIY ethic, and part of that is the heritage of living here,” Billionis said. “We’re close to other places but not really close, so if you wanted something sometimes you had to make it yourself.”

That independent essence mixed with some tangible economic considerations is a recipe for growth, said Missouri Spirits’ Shotts. “Springfield is a pretty easy place to start a business because we have low cost of entry, and there are people willing to take risks,” he said. “That’s a good formula to try something.”