How Breweries Can Grow Beyond Beer: Contracting with Wim Bens of Lakewood Brewing

Craft breweries are navigating changing consumer tastes, rising operating costs, and pressure to make the most of their production capacity. So what does it take to build a resilient brewery business? Executive Editor Jon Sicotte sits down with Wim Bens, founder of Lakewood Brewing, to discuss nearly 15 years of adapting to a changing craft beer industry. Wim shares practical insights on: How Lakewood’s taproom and food program became important parts of its business Using contract brewing and beverage manufacturing to put capacity to work The scheduling, tank-time, and quality-control challenges of making different beverages Why breweries need to keep learning about new consumers—and rethink what growth means Lakewood’s approach to gateway beers, classic styles, and ongoing innovation This Brewer Mag Podcast is brought to you by Keg Logistics. With the most keg program options and flexible payment terms, even the smallest operation can get the highest quality German-made kegs with their rent-to-own, short-term leasing, pay-per-fill, sale and leaseback, and export keg programs. More at ⁠⁠⁠KegLogistics.com/brewermag.