The Synergies of Brewstilleries

When Bill and Johanna Welter decided to add a small brewery to their Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks, Michigan, it was 2016—five years after they had opened. Craft beer was booming at the time, and the Welters saw a chance to entice beer lovers to their destination facility.

However, they ran into a series of obstacles along the way, and by the time they released their first beer—in July 2024—the Welters had an appropriate name for the fledgling brewery: Sea of Monsters.

For most brewery-distillery hybrids, the expansion goes in the other direction: A craft brewery decides to add a still and produce spirits. In either case, the idea is to attract new customers and, ideally, keep their spending in-house on higher-margin products, rather than buying wholesale from other producers.

As today’s drinkers increasingly demonstrate beverage promiscuity, focusing on flavor rather than segment loyalty, producers stand to benefit from being more things to more people. If customers want product lines you don’t or can’t currently produce, why not figure out how to make them yourself and keep the margin?

Breweries and distilleries can benefit by reaching across segments, hyphenating their business descriptions, and getting more out of their facilities and equipment. In the process, they’re unlocking new and creative ideas, blurring the lines between segments, and helping drinkers—and makers—reimagine what’s possible.