Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT

Presenting our 2023 Missouri Craft Brewers Guild Annual Report.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Steve Holle, Managing Partner at Kansas City Bier Company and President of the MCBG Board of Directors.

As the Missouri Craft Brewers Guild closes out 2023, and I step down as President, I want to thank the MCBG Board and its members for their support. Since 2018, the Guild has grown in membership, financial stability, and service to its more than 70 members. I feel strongly that our organization has a bright future. Examples of accomplishments in the past year include:

Another successful annual conference that grew in attendance and offered a broader range of educational themes.
Continued success of the collaboration brewing series, Missouri Loves Company®, in which our members create a special recipe that is then brewed by a host brewery and sold statewide by members. Missouri Loves Company creates networking opportunities, the sharing of brewing knowledge, public awareness of the Guild, and a substantial source of income.
Quarterly Guild Gathering happy hours held around the state that allowed vendors and brewers to network and draw new members to the guild.

Now that MCBG has established a vibrant and collaborative culture among its brewers and trade industry members, I strongly encourage the Guild to pursue more avenues to serve its members, particularly by lobbying for small brewers’ rights and using the combined strength of its member pool to secure group benefits.

Lobbying:

Franchise laws - Archaic state statutes, which were written when the industry consisted of 3 or 4 national brewery suppliers and whose beer was distributed by many local wholesalers are no longer adequate in MO with over 160 craft breweries. Franchise laws overwhelmingly favor the distributor in their relationship to craft brewers, which makes it difficult, or almost impossible, for a small brewery to move distribution rights from an underperforming wholesaler to another distributor. Such laws are unfair, detrimental to our members, and need to be amended.
Pay-to-Play Abuses - Loopholes in the statutes need to be closed that allow wealthy suppliers and wholesalers to give away exorbitant amounts of equipment and installation services for new draught systems, which create tied houses that block access for craft brewers to these retailers.

Group Benefits:
The guild should continue investigating relationships with insurance companies and financial firms to provide group benefits covering such areas as:

Property, liability, and medical insurance
401 K plans, and
Payroll/human resources services.

Finally, in a challenging economic environment of rising costs, stagnant beer sales, and growing competition from non-beer producers of alcohol, I encourage all Missouri craft brewers to continue as members of the Guild. The Guild fights for better conditions for Missouri’s small breweries that will help its members survive in 2024 and into the future.

Prost!
Steve Holle
Kansas City Bier Company

A YEAR IN REVIEW

QUARTERLY GUILD GATHERINGS

We hosted four Guild Gatherings roated around the Show-Me State. These free happy hour style networking events are casual and fun. Our generous sponsors cover a couple of beers and everyone enjoys meeting each other or catching up. We allow our sponsors a few minutes to talk about their business, the Guild gives a brief update on activities, and then we resume the networking. These simple events are a critically important part of nurturing the Missouri craft beer community, and an easy way for members to stay engaged. A very special thank you to our brewery hosts and sponsors this year:

4 By 4 Brewing Company, Fremont Hills - sponsored by COUNTRY Financial
Side Project Brewing, Maplewood - sponsored by OzarcGas
Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City - sponsoredy by Paul Muller Company
Bur Oak Brewing Company, Columbia - sponsored by Full Pour Media.

Our average attendance at the Guild Gatherings was around 30 and included a good mix of Brewery Members and Allied Trade Members. The Gatherings are also open to non-members to help introduce them to our organization.

Additionally, we held a special "Missouri Meetup" at Blackstone Brewing Company in Nashville during the Brewers Association's Craft Brewers Conference. Sponsored by Wipfli, we had more than 80 people show up. Attendees were treated to delicious beer, wonderful hospitality and tours of the facility.

MISSOURI LOVES COMPANY®

The Missouri Loves Company® collaboration beer series continues to be our primary Guild fundraising activity. This year, all four collaboration beers were variants of India Pale Ale. This IPA Series raised more than $25,500 for the Guild and created fun and educational opportunities for our members to get together in person - not to mention brewing some delicious beers!

Without the support and engagement from our host breweries and sponsors, this annual collaboration wouldn't exist. We are humbled by the collaborative spirit and enthusiastic participation from our membership.

HOST BREWERIES

Diametric Brewing Company, Lee’s Summit;
Springfield Brewing Company, Downtown Springfield;
Friendship Brewing Company, Flint Hill, and
Logboat Brewing Company, Columbia.

SPONSORS
Our sponsors are really the superstars of this collaboration series as they donate either ingredients, supplies or cash to help keep the cost of brewing the collaboration beers very low. We are grateful for their generous support and appreciate their commitment to our Missouri brewing industry.

Ingredients & Supplies

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General Sponsors

Thank you also to Allied Trade Member, Lagom Design for creating beautiful can and social media promotion artwork this year.

ADVOCACY

MISSOURI CRAFT BEER DAY AT THE CAPITOL
In February we organized a small group of Brewery Members to visit our Missouri legislators at the State Capitol in Jefferson City to share information about the craft beer industry in our fine state. We spent the day meeting with both House and Senate legislators in each of the districts represented by those attending. We dissused general economic impact of the craft beer industry, fair and equitable access to market, and a homebrewing bill that would allow homebrew clubs to host their meetings and sample their brews at a Missouri craft brewery.

Pictured at top from left to right: Dan Brown, Bur Oak Brewing Company; Bob Griesedieck, Griesedieck Brothers Brewery; Scott Wuest, Turkey Creek Brewery; Steve Holle, Kansas City Bier Company; Sherry Wohlgemuth, Missouri Craft Brewers Guild; Tyson Hunt, Logboat Brewing Company, and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe.

In July, our executive director joined representatives from the Brewers Association and craft brewers guilds from nearly all 50 states on Capitol Hill to advocate for the craft beer industry on the national level. The group met with their individual federal lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to discuss the craft beer industry as a whole and ask for their continued support in fully funding the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB), and sponsoring the USPS Shipping Equity Act.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Promote Committee developed new branding and a full schedule of consumer and member activities for Show-Me Craft Beer Month in June. Events included Missouri Pint Day, releasing a Missouri Loves Company® collaboration beer, and a Guild Gathering.
Speaking of Missouri Pint Day, it brought in $1,320 with 18 breweries participating. Thanks to Hill Design Co. for creating the artwork for the glasses.
Additionally, a membership drive was held in June to coincide with Show-Me Craft Beer Month which brought in 13 new Brewery Members.

Missouri Pint Day Artwork designed by Hill Design Co.

The Annual Conference Committee organized the 4th Annual Meeting & Conference November 9 and 10 at Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield. Presented by COUNTRY Financial, we had more than 150 attend. We partnered with Master Brewers Association of the Americas Districts Great Plains and Saint Louis to bring in speakers for technical brewing topics, while the Guild focused on brewing business topics. Thank you to all our generous sponsors!

Presenting Sponsors - COUNTRY Financial
Dinner Sponsors - Foxx Equipment
Entertainment Sponsors - Wipfli
Beer Sponsors - Malteurop Malting Company
Hair of the Dog Sponsors - US Tape & Label
Coffee Sponsors - Briess Malting & Ingredients and Custom Metalcraft, Inc.
Snack Sponsors - Higginbotham and Nothwestern Extract Company
Breaking the Seal Sponsors - Full Pour Media
Conference Bag Sponsors - Hopsteiner
Conference Lanyard Sponsors - Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation

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Display Table Sponsors

Arryved POS
AssuredPartners
Boelter
Briess Malting & Ingredients
BSG
Crawford Brewing & Distilling Equipment
Full Pour Media
Higginbotham
Keg Logsitics
Malteurop Malting Company
Missouri Association of Manufacturers
Missouri State University
Northwestern Extract Company
Omega Yeast
Pratt Industries
TBI Pro Brew Supply
US Tape & Label
UBC Group USA
Yakima Chief Hops

Coordinated discounted group freight for breweries participating in the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival competitions.
Represented the Missouri Craft Brewers Guild, along with 9 other state craft brewers guilds, at the United in Beer Pavilion at the Brewers Association Great American Beer Festival in Denver. We poured 8 different Missouri beers over three days and four sessions of the GABF! Special thank you to the breweries who donated beer for the GABF:
- 4 By 4 Brewing Company (Springfield)
- Friendship Brewing Company (Wentzville)
- Kansas City Bier Company (Kansas City)
- Logboat Brewing Company (Columbia)
- Piney River Brewing Company (Bucyrus)
- Third Wheel Brewing (St. Peters)
- Tie & Timber Beer Co. (Springfield)
- Wire Road Brewing Company (Battlefield)

Missouri Craft Beer well represented at GABF along with 9 other state craft brewers guilds.

Implented new Brewery Membership tiers to simplify and streamline dues collection.
Sucessfully launched MembershipWorks, an online membership management tool that allows for easier dues management. Members can now manage their renewal online, and can update their own Business Profile with as many employees and/or locations they see fit. It also enabled us to create a "Member Resources" section of the website that features access to exclusive Guild Membership content and benefits.

FINANCIAL REPORT

REVENUES
The Guild is in a fairly good financial position in 2023 with revenue nearly split between Membership Dues and Non-Dues Income. We had a very successful Annual Conference and Collaboration this year. Additionally, the Guild continues grow funding resources through the Missouri Pint Day event and online merch sales through Spreadshop.

EXPENSES
As the Guild grows, so do general expenses. Payroll continues to be the largest expenditure for the Guild. This year we saw increases in general operating costs and incurred a fairly large increase in expenses related to the Annual Conference.

NET REVENUE DROP IN 2023
In 2023 we saw a significant increase in expenses in several areas. New or increased expenses included:

Adding directors & officers and liability insurance.
Increased number merchant fees due to more credit card transactions.
Increased travel around the state for events and collaborations.
Significant increase in expenses related to the Annual Conference.
An overall increase in software prices.

Additionally, membership renewals were down in 2023. We are estimating that could be in part due to the economy, but there is also a learning curve to using our new membership management system. We had a successful membership drive in June, bringing in 13 new members, but new member dues were discounted during that drive which caused an additional slight decrease in income.

MEMBERSHIP
We finished 2023 with a drop in Brewery Membership renewals, but gained 14 new Brewery Members and 1 new Brewery-In-Planning member. Allied Trade Membership also experienced a slight drop in renewals, but we gained 9 new members in that category. Retail also gained 2 new members. We lost a few enthusiast members, but wrapped up the year with 29 members. View the membership directory.

DIGITAL STATS

SOCIAL MEDIA

We use Facebook and Instagram to share information about Guild-related events and activities, as well as to share industry news impacting our members and craft beer community.

WEBSITE

We continue to work to drive traffic to the Guild website by creating a Members Only content section, allowing brewery members to post their events on our community calendar, offering a brewery search tool, and information about the Missouri Loves Company® collaboration series.
Additionally, by incorporating MembershipWorks as our membership management software, members can now maintain/update their Membership Profile, renew their dues, and access content exclusively available to our Guild members.

BOARD MEMBERS & COMMITTEES

Thank you to our Board of Directors members for their service in 2023. The Missouri Craft Brewers Guild leadership is made up of nine craft brewing professionals with decades of combined experience who help guide the organization. Members of the Board of Directors are elected annually by the general membership and can serve up to two consecutive three-year terms.

BOARD OFFICERS