Taproom enhancement: Offer artisan snacks onsite like these Hops and Nuts

Tasting rooms and the on-site experience are key to the current craft beer business model these days. Obviously, the longer a customer stays, the more money they will spend. So, how do you increase that time on site and improve the overall on-site experience? Food is one option, but food service is expensive and might lead you in unprofitable directions. Which is why we recommend offering snacks.

This is the goal of Hops and Nuts, an artisan craft beer snack company based in Greensboro, N.C., that launched in September 2014 to create all-natural snacks that pair with craft beer, wine and cocktails.

“We utilize straight from the farm, super fresh North Carolina peanuts and all locally sourced ingredients when possible,” noted Melissa Wallace with Hops and Nuts. “We believe our snacks can grow a brewery’s bottom line. Great taproom or tasting room snacks create value helping to keep folks on the stools, adding to a taproom’s quest to go from red to black. Our snacks specifically complement any beer on their beer list and enable any size brewery to create great consumer experiences.”

Elevated snack pairing

What we like about Hops and Nuts, beside its small business story, is how they enhanced the common bar snack, elevating it into a food pairing. These aren’t just any fancy, artisan nuts. The team identified all the major genres in craft beer and wine and created snacks that match those flavor profiles. Beer Salt Roasted, Shuga Hops Double IPA, Chocolate Porter, Toasted Amber and spicy Peppa Nut to name a few. The company has also expanded into the pretzel game with its new BREWZELS offering that comes in Bourbon, Chocolate Porter and spicy Peppa flavors.

And if those don’t quite fit your flavor profile, the company has developed a program called The Brewer Label to assist in creating specialized flavors just for you.

“For us, it is about taking what the brewer intended and giving those flavors more traction and validation while giving the brewery itself a safety net of being able to offer food items in the event their food truck falls through,” Wallace said.

Its satisfied brewery customers to this point criss-cross the country and include New Belgium, Lakewood Brewing in Texas, Madison Square Garden Beer Garden, Star Hill in Virginia, Jekyll Brewing in Georgia, Coastal Empire One World Brewing and Cabarrus Brewing in North Carolina, 1940’s Brewing in New York and Iron Triangle in California to name a few.

Purchasing and retail info

Hops and Nuts nuts come in 2.5- and 5-oz pouches and the BREWZELS are just in 5-oz pouches. The 2.5 wholesales for $1.50 and retails for $3.00. BREWZELS wholesale for $3.00 and retail for $5. Breweries can complete a wholesale application which then gives them access to its online portal.

“We wanted to provide an easy, literally anytime ordering process where a taproom manager can do their inventory at closing time at 1 a.m. and order at 2 a.m., and we ship the next day,” Wallace said.

You can also learn more in the latest episode of Entrpreneur’s Elevator Pitch web series.