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There's no question that beer and food complement one another. Offer food to your taproom customers and you could enjoy longer stays, increased sales, a wider customer base, and a better social atmosphere in your brewery. But anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry knows that there are a plethora of challenges that come with offering a full menu.

A brewpub setup might not be on the cards for your brewery business model. Many craft breweries keep it simple by offering pre-packaged snacks like chips and pretzels, but what if you want to go beyond that?

In this article we'll dive into three questions:

• Is serving food at your brewery a good idea?
• What are some easy to implement types of service you could offer?
• What foods should you consider?

The food selection available at your brewery could have a big impact on your business. You could attract more non-beer drinkers, and beer drinkers could stick around longer making the average customer order size higher. But there are challenges involved.

First and foremost, many taprooms simply don't have the space to prepare food in house. The beer you offer is at the centre of your business, and extra space is often used for material storage or even brewing equipment. A lack of kitchen space could restrict the types of food you can offer or even make it impossible to prepare any food in house. If this is the case for your brewery, don't lose hope! You might be able to work with other local businesses to offer something for your customers to snack on. More on this later.

You'll also need to consider staffing. Who is going to prepare food and run it out to your customers? If you have the space to offer a limited menu in house, consider whether you will hire dedicated kitchen staff or train existing staff to handle this. Keep in mind that depending on your region some foods may require staff to have different levels of food safety training. You'll also want to consider scheduling changes involved in offering your customers something to eat. Keeping your staff happy and turnover rates low is important in the craft brewing business. You want to ensure that the workload stays manageable for your staff, without reducing hours and the tips that your existing employees earn.

Finally, you'll need to find out what permits are required for different food options in your local region. Regulations in your area might limit you to simply offering chips and other pre-packaged snacks. Its always a important to loop in your local health and safety regulators to find out what options are actually available to you in your area.

There are a variety of different food service options you could provide which can make offering food much more feasible for many breweries. These options all have the benefits of:

• Getting food to your customers
• Creating an opportunity for local businesses to support one another
• Eliminating the need for a full-service kitchen in-house

A popular choice is to partner up with a local food trailer or truck. This option can be mutually beneficial for both businesses - you each get to grow your customer base and sales, and together you can increase brand awareness for each business. Some breweries will work with a rotating selection of trucks to offer a variety of different foods to their customers. Some food trailers will require minimum sales guarantee the first few times that they come out to sell at your location. Help achieve this by buying your staff lunch, promote the truck on social media etc., with time word will get out that customers can get your beer and their favourite food in the same spot with a great atmosphere.

If you don't have the space for a food trailer to park outside your brewery, or there simply aren't enough in your area, you could also consider working with another local business. Strike up a deal to have a local restaurant that makes food that pairs well with craft bee and have them deliver food to your brewery. Allow customers to order through your staff, and from their perspective it won't be much different to ordering food in house. The restaurant gets to enjoy the increased sales volume, and you get to offer your customers something to eat, its a win-win!

Another option is to offer a bistro style menu with a limited selection of local food options. Customers could order and collect food at the counter simplifying the staffing issue. Think finger food that can simply be heated and served. You want to ensure customers ordering beer aren't experiencing long wait times as people ahead of them order food. Having a separate physical point-of-sale where customers can order food can be a relatively simple fix to this issue.

Once you've decided on the type of service model you're going to work within, you can start figuring out the fun part - what food you'd like to offer your customers.

If you're hoping to go the food truck route you might have a broader range of options available to you. Working with a rotating selection of trucks could be a great way to offer a diverse selection of specialty burgers, tacos, BBQ, etc. By offering some different week to week, you keep customers coming back to try the next new thing. This is a great way to expand your audience and attract new customers. You could even try to offer food and beer pairing suggestions for whatever truck is at the brewery that week.

Working with a local business who offers delivery to your brewery and taproom is a great option logistically. It doesn't require additional space or permits, and it can be beneficial for both businesses. But you want to think about what food works well for delivery. A crowd pleaser like pizza could keep your customers happy, with minimal logistical challenges.

If you're going the bistro style route, you might want to look at what options local bakeries or catering companies offer. To keep it simple, look for things that you can just heat up and serve. Soft pretzels, premade snacks like empanadas and taquitos, or sandwiches filled with seasonal ingredients are all great options for this service style.

Even if you don't have the space for a full fledged kitchen there are plenty of options to consider beyond chips and nuts. Make sure to find out what food safety regulations there are in your region as a starting point, and go from there. Offering food without a full kitchen on site can be a great opportunity for small businesses to support one another while both reaping the benefits.

Brewery management software can help you to optimize every aspect of your business - from tracking the impact of offering different food options, to juggling your production schedule. Schedule a chat with a member of our team to learn about how Brew Ninja could help your business.