Mother's Brewing founder predicts second-year growth

Fresh off a banner first year at Mother's Brewing Co., its founder is predicting more than 100 percent growth in 2012.

The company - which according to the Brewers Association was the best-selling startup microbrewery nationwide in 2011 with 2,331 barrels of beer sold - is on pace to sell 6,000 to 7,000 barrels in 2012, its first full year, said Jeff Schrag, founder and managing member.

The downtown brewery, which began selling beer on tap in May 2011 and launched its bottled beer in retail stores such as Walmart and Brown Derby in August 2011, has expanded beyond Springfield into other parts of southwest Missouri and the southeast part of the state. In the last month, Mother's began selling craft brews in Kansas City, the home of a top craft competitor, Boulevard Brewing Co., said Schrag, the featured guest this morning for Springfield Business Journal's monthly 12 People You Need to Know series at Hilton Garden Inn.

"It really did seem like the community was just sitting around waiting for a brewery to root for. If it was not for the immediate acceptance of the community, nothing would have happened," said Schrag of his his brewery, which got its startup capital via a $1.5 million U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loan from Liberty Bank.

Schrag said he is embracing a national trend toward craft and local brews. According to the Brewers Association, the craft brewery count in June totaled 2,126, a 125-year high.

"Flavor always wins," Schrag said. "It is the national trend that people are eating things more locally sourced, drinking things more locally sourced, eating and drinking things with more flavor, looking into combining things, beer being on the table. That wave, we caught right."

Still, Schrag acknowledges a beer market dominated by Anheuser-Busch, and he said the national craft beer penetration rate is roughly 6 percent. In Missouri, that figure falls to 3 percent, Schrag said, and he estimates that craft beer sales represent as little as 2.5 percent of the southwest Missouri market.

"I either wisely or stupidly thought if we could just get this area to the national average, there'd be more beer than I could produce. That was kind of my motivation," he said. "There is a lot to grow in terms of flavorful beers or locally produced beers."

In addition to its year-round staples - Towhead, Lil' Helper and Three Blind Mice - Mother's brews seasonal varieties and one-batch series, such as a double India pale ale called Trouble Maker, which is nearly out of stock. Schrag said the brewery soon will transition to its high-alcohol imperial pilsner dubbed Uber Pils. The company also is working on a peach beer with Murphy Orchard of Marionville, as well as an experimental taste-testing series, The Thing 1 Thing 2 Thing, at five locations. The series allow customers to sample beers with different types of fermentation.

"If we hit something by experimentation, then we can bring it into our regular routine," Schrag said. "Our seasonals are a starter class for our year-round brews."

Schrag said Mother's current capacity is 12,000 barrels, but the company has room to expand at its five-acre site at Walnut Street and Grant Avenue.[[In-content Ad]]