Schedule

Speakers
Kary Shumway | Craft Brewery Finance

Too often, brewery financials arrive too late to take action. Budgets may be missing or ignored, department leaders don’t always know their financial targets, and owners are left carrying the financial burden alone. By the time a problem shows up in the P&L, it may have been building for months.

This workshop will introduce a Financial Operating System (FOS) designed to bring more clarity, control, and accountability to brewery finances. Attendees will walk through how to build financial literacy across the team, create an annual financial plan with clear goals, establish department-level financial metrics, and use weekly financial conversations to track performance and identify problems earlier.

Rather than reviewing numbers after the fact, the goal is to give breweries a simple, repeatable system for managing financial performance in real time and making faster, better-informed decisions.

Is This Workshop for You?

• If you’re busy running a brewery but feel like you’re flying blind financially, this workshop
  is for you.
• This session is designed for brewery owners, leaders, and managers who want greater
  clarity and control over their numbers, and a simple, repeatable system to build a more
  profitable and financially sustainable business.

This workshop is for you if:

• Sales are slowing, costs are rising, or margins are getting squeezed, and you’re
  not sure where to focus first.
• You have financial reports but aren’t consistently using them to make decisions.
• You build a budget, but it quickly gets put on the shelf.
• Your managers aren’t engaged with the numbers or don’t understand how their
  decisions affect profitability.
• You’re tracking too many numbers or aren’t sure which numbers really matter.
• You’re constantly reacting to financial problems instead of seeing them coming.
• You want your leadership team to take more ownership and accountability for
  financial results.

In this two-hour workshop, you’ll learn a simple, four-part Brewery Financial Operating
System to train your team, build your financial plan, identify the numbers that
matter, and create a weekly rhythm of financial accountability.

You’ll leave with a practical framework you can begin using immediately to connect your
financial goals to the actions and decisions your team makes every day.

Speakers
Jason Perkins | Allagash Brewing Company

Description: From the moment Allagash Brewing started in 1995, they wanted to do things differently.  This spirit of innovation and unique approaches have continued over the years. At the same time, they recognize that change is inevitable and have adapted to the changing landscape.   Jason will take a trip down memory lane to talk about some of the key moments and decisions that were made over the years to get Allagash to its 30^th anniversary and beyond. The session will wrap up with time for audience questions and conversation with Jason

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Learn more about Jason Perkins here

Speakers
Nate Ferguson | Escarpment Laboratories

Description: Yeast Strain Optimization: How you can alter nutrition, environment, temperature, etc to make a single yeast strain express differently in different beer styles

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Aaron Gore | The 5th Ingredient

Description: Every single day, your staff are tasked with communicating your products and company to customers. With that in mind, it’s critical that they are armed with the knowledge and training that they need in order to be as successful in that role as possible. In this seminar, attendees will learn about
how to build useful internal education programs, focusing on the skills and information that help your team actually do their jobs better. It will cover the what, how, when, and who of training and education, with tips for breweries of all sizes and business models.

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Susan Loynd | The Richards Group

Description: Even the best breweries experience days when nothing goes according to plan—a fermentation issue, equipment failure, ingredient shortage, staffing challenge, or unexpected surge in demand. Through the lens of a compelling true story about surviving an in-flight emergency, this interactive session explores how resilient leaders communicate with clarity, build trust, adapt under pressure, and strengthen their teams when circumstances quickly change. Using brewery-specific examples, practical leadership tools, and engaging discussions, participants will leave with strategies they can immediately apply to their breweries, taprooms, and production teams.

Three Key Objectives:
1. Communicate with Confidence During Uncertainty: Learn practical strategies for communicating clearly, calmly, and transparently when facing operational challenges, helping employees and customers remain confident even when plans change.
2. Build Stronger, More Resilient Teams: Discover leadership behaviors that strengthen trust, psychological safety, adaptability, and shared ownership before, during, and after difficult situations.
3. Turn Setbacks into Opportunities for Growth: Explore how thoughtful debriefing, continuous learning, and a resilient mindset can transform production challenges, customer issues, and unexpected disruptions into stronger teams and better business outcomes

Location: Emerald II

Speakers
Julie Rhodes | Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, Adeline Druart | Lawson's Finest Liquids, Jenn Lever | Baxter Brewing Co., LaTreace Harris | Beery Godmother Consulting, Heather McReynolds | Hopsteiner, Heather Kraemer | Kraemer & Kin, Lauren Palmieri Mark | Arrowhead Lodge

Description: There’s no one path to building a career in beer. This conversation brings together women working across different parts of the industry, from brewery leadership and production to sales, suppliers, and small business, to talk about how they got here, what they’ve learned along the way, and what they see ahead for women in beer. Moderated by Julie Rhodes of Not Your Hobby Marketing, the panel will dig into career paths, leadership, navigating a changing industry, finding and creating opportunities, and how we can better support and connect women working in beer. We’ll leave plenty of time for audience questions before wrapping up with an informal meet-up — a chance to keep the conversation going, make some new connections, and build community with other women in the industry.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Speakers
Eric Drost | Murphy and Son

Description: This presentation will focus on reducing COGS throughout the brewing process. I will touch on optimization of hot and cold side finings, utilization of technical data sheets, discuss enzymes and their roll in reducing COGS, and shelf life extension through metal chelation.

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Ross Evans | Redpoint Marketing & PR

Description: The pace of change in digital marketing has hit a watershed moment. AI, automation, and emerging platforms are evolving faster than most teams can realistically keep up with and by now, many in the hospitality industry have already experimented with them. The challenge is no longer whether to adopt new tools, but how to determine what’s actually worth your time, investment, and attention. Together, we’ll explore how to evaluate the real ROI of new tools and trends, cut through the constant stream of “next big things,” and make smarter, more confident marketing decisions. Through real-world case studies and open discussion, you’ll learn a practical decision-making framework that will help you prioritize what matters, avoid costly distractions, and focus your efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact.

Session Takeaways:

• Understand how today’s rapid pace of innovation is reshaping marketing priorities
• Learn a practical framework for evaluating new tools, trends, and platforms
• Discover real-world examples of hospitality businesses investing wisely (and what they’re ignoring)
• Build confidence in deciding what to adopt, test further, or set aside

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Ben Rich | Vermont Gas Services, Abby Wiseman | Efficiency Vermont

Description: Breweries have a number of opportunities to reduce energy use and operating costs, but knowing where to start, and what funding is available, can be challenging. This session will look at practical energy efficiency upgrades breweries can make to their facilities and processes, including cold liquor tanks, pre-cooling walk-ins, compressed air, and other opportunities for flexible load management. Vermont Gas and Efficiency Vermont will also walk through available assessments, rebates, and incentives that can help offset the cost of upgrades, with examples of how Vermont breweries are already putting these programs to work.

Location: Emerald II

Speakers
Julie Rhodes | Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions

Description: So You’re Self-Distributing. Now What? You made the call to self-distribute. Now comes the hard part: the logistics, sales, marketing, and tech to run it like a pro, not a scramble. Deciding to self-distribute is the easy part; doing it well is where small brands get buried. The moment you self-distribute, you ARE the distributor, which means sales, deliveries, merchandising, invoicing, and account management all land on your plate on top of making the product. This session is the execution playbook for brands that have made the call, or are close to it. We’ll get practical about what it takes to run it well: building delivery routes and logistics that don’t eat your whole week, selling in and managing accounts like a seasoned rep, marketing so your product pulls through the shelf instead of just sitting on it, planning your growth so you scale on purpose, and putting the right technology and AI tools to work so a small team can punch above its weight. Attendees leave knowing what to expect, what to set up first, and how to run self-distribution like a business instead of a weekly scramble.

Deliverable: a Self-Distribution Starter Kit with a route and delivery planning worksheet, an account-management tracker, a pull-through marketing checklist, and a lean tech-and-tools shortlist.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Speakers
Steve Parkes | Drop In Brewing & American Brewers Guild

Description: Much progress has been made in unravelling the way beers oxidize over time. The basics remain unchanged.

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Hailey Thrash-Nelson | Brewery Branding

Description: In today’s world, most customers discover your brewery online well before they ever step foot in your taproom. Whether they’re searching for “breweries near me” or scrolling through Instagram, your digital presence is your first impression and a big part of what gets them through the door. Learn how to show up (and stand out!) on Google and social media. We’ll explore simple content ideas you can start posting right away, easy ways to boost engagement, and how to build a loyal fanbase online. You’ll also get quick tips to improve your bios and website for better visibility. No fancy gear or big budgets required; just practical tools and small shifts that can make a big difference. You’ll leave with a clear plan, fresh ideas, and confidence to turn your online presence into more in-person pours.

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Ian Goering | Blue Ox Malthouse

Description: This presentation examines how the economics of malt and barley create interconnected pressures across farmers, maltsters, breweries, and consumers, shaping the cost, resilience, and long-term sustainability of the brewing industry.

Location: Emerald II

Speakers
LaTreace Harris | Beery Godmother Consulting

Target Audience: Brewery owners, taproom managers, hospitality and front-of-house staff, and education/training leads looking to build or strengthen a customer-facing education program.

Session Description
Beer education is a well-established, critical component of long-term success for any brewery or beer-serving space. Investments in staff training, learning opportunities for customers, and transparency around brewing processes, ingredients, and finished styles all strengthen a brewery’s footprint and brand identity. But without hospitality and a commitment to elevated experiences, breweries risk missing the touch points that spark real curiosity in their beer. This session explores the natural intersection of hospitality and education, and how combining the two can help breweries move from the what to the why through holistic taproom education. In an era where experience is everything, making this pivot gives breweries the chance to tell their own stories, romanticize every process and product, create memorable environments for customers, and recognize staff who go the extra mile to educate themselves and translate that knowledge in an approachable way. What separates a good brewery from a great one isn’t just what’s in the glass — it’s how they make people feel, and the curiosity that feeling creates.

Session Highlights

• Elements of an approachable, hospitality-driven training approach
• How to identify opportunities for customer education
• How to assess the success of educational activations
• Strategies for sustainability

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Identify the core elements of a hospitality-driven staff training approach and how it differs from traditional, product-only education.
• Recognize customer touch points throughout the taproom experience that present natural opportunities for education.
• Apply simple frameworks to evaluate whether an educational activation is resonating with customers and staff.
• Develop strategies to sustain an education-forward culture over time, including staff buy-in and ongoing training.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Speakers
Jack Ryan | Chinova Bioworks

Description: This presentation explores modern strategies for preventing microbial spoilage and maintaining beer quality throughout production and distribution. Attendees will learn about common spoilage organisms, emerging natural preservation technologies, and practical approaches to extending shelf life while preserving the flavor, aroma, and quality consumers expect, with a special focus on the unique microbial challenges facing non-alcoholic beers.

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Audra Gaiziunas | DSSOLVR/ Brewed For Her Ledger

Description: Craft breweries are drowning in manual finance work, and it’s costing them far more than they realize. With two-thirds of breweries citing cash flow visibility as their top operational challenge and the average month-end close consuming 12–16 hours of staff time, the industry is leaving serious money on the table. This session introduces a proven, eight-workflow AI system built specifically for brewery finance that runs on Claude and a handful of no-code automation tools: all for under $200 a year. Attendees will see exactly how automated invoice capture, real-time cash flow forecasting, and brew-batch cost allocation can be deployed without a developer, without enterprise software costs, and without overhauling existing systems like QuickBooks or your POS.

Walk away from this session ready to:

• Launch your first AI-powered invoice capture workflow within seven days using free and low-cost tools (Claude API, n8n, Zapier)
• Build a 30-day rolling cash flow forecast that auto-delivers to your inbox every morning
  Identify the hidden costs in your current month-end close and map which of the eight workflows eliminates them first
• Avoid the most common pitfalls: over-automation, privacy leaks, and prompt drift…with a best-practice playbook you can put to work immediately

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Terry Thompson | Prohibition Pig, Emma Henderson | InvestEAP

Description: Long shifts, tight deadlines, physical work, and a culture that prides itself on toughing it out: the brewing industry, like many others, doesn’t always make it easy to talk about mental health. But looking out for each other is what keeps a good crew running – let’s talk about how to get there.

This skills-based workshop gives brewery teams and leaders practical, no-nonsense tools to better support one another through the tough stuff. We’ll talk about how to notice when a coworker might be struggling, how to start a real conversation without making it awkward or feeling like you need to “fix” anything, and how to build the kind of trust where people actually feel comfortable asking for help.

We’ll also dig into how stress, burnout, and mental health challenges can show up on the brewery floor, and how they affect not just individuals, but the entire team. We’ll cover the resources already available, including EAP services, and how to know when it’s time to guide someone toward extra help. Small steps, taken early, can make a big difference.

Location: Emerald II

Speakers
Dan Nieves | Elevated Beverage Solutions

Description: As Vermont breweries navigate increasing competition, changing consumer habits, and new self-distribution opportunities, many are rethinking how sales and market growth are managed. This session explores modern approaches to brewery sales leadership, distributor management, self-distribution, and retail execution. Attendees will learn practical strategies for building a scalable sales engine, improving market performance, and driving sustainable growth—regardless of brewery size or business model.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Speakers
Heather Pelham | Commissioner, Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing, Ryan Chaffin | Farrell Distributing, Kenzie Brunner | Stowe Trails Partnerships Director, Becca Munkelwitz | Ski Vermont, Haley Elkins | Vermont Cheese Council

Description: Tourism is a (the) central component of the Vermont economy. Whether its cheese, sightseeing, mountain biking, skiing, beer, all things outdoors, each pillar supports the other. We hope to bring together voices from activity centers, social hubs and cultural destinations to discuss the state of Vermont tourism. How can we support one another? What trends are we all seeing? What strategic opportunities do we see for one another? How can we all work together to support the Vermont brand?

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Learn more about Heather Pelham

Learn more about Ryan Chaffin

Learn more about Kenzie Brunner 

Learn more about Becca Munkelwitz

Learn more about Haley Elkins 

Speakers
CJ Penzone | Rahr BSG

Description: This presentation reviews how beer metrics, raw materials, processes, and expectations have changed in West Coast IPA over the last 15
years backed by data from Mitch Steele’s IPA Book and a 2026 Survey to 30 breweries who have won a GABF or World Beer Cup Medal in West Coast
IPA between 2023-2026. Brewers can expect to leave the talk confident in how to design and execute a Modern West Coast IPA at their brewery

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Alena Fitzgerald | Gallagher Flynn & Company, Ian Kipperman | Gallagher Flynn & Company

Description: Scale & Profitability. Proactive planning (financial i.e. profitable growth, cash flow planning, etc. and non-financial, team, mgmt–>Building your team–>letting you get back to what you love doing, keeping the end in mind). How to use your business advisors (better)

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Phil Chadderdon | Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center, Steve Parkes | Drop In Brewing & American Brewers Guild, Morgan Capron | Switchback Brewing Company, Cindy Robillard | Vermont Department of Labor

Description: Attracting and keeping good employees is a continuing challenge. This panel will bring together perspectives from a head brewer, a brewing education provider, the Vermont Department of Labor and VMEC. Panelists will share practical approaches to attracting people, building good employee
relations, developing skills, creating opportunities for growth and developing a workplace where good people want to stay. Attendees will leave with ideas and resources they can apply within their own organizations.

Location: Emerald II

Speakers
Joe Companion | Burlington Beer Company

Description: Your wholesaler is more than the company that gets your beer to market—they are a critical partner in getting your brand sold, prioritized, and executed in the field. This session will reveal practical strategies for building stronger wholesaler relationships through visibility, consistent communication, personal connections, and genuine added value. Learn how to become the brewery your wholesaler wants to work with, advocate for, and ultimately sell. Walk away with a practical playbook you can put to work immediately to strengthen your distribution partnerships and drive better results.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall

Speakers
Luke Truman | New England Environmental Finance Center & BetterBev

Description: Although it may seem that everything is dialed in and operating as designed, every brewery has opportunities to increase efficiency without sacrificing quality.  This session will focus on simple approaches to improving auxiliary systems, such as walk-in coolers, air compressors, and chillers to process improvements that can have a big impact on the bottom line and/or time.  Specific examples and success stories will be provided, and every attendee can expect a handful of action items to share when returning to the brewery.

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Jason Powell | Ten Bends/Brewition

Description:Your website is often a customer’s first pour, so don’t serve it warm and flat. This session hands brewery owners and marketing teams an AI-powered sensory evaluation for their own site: how to spot off-flavors in your online presence, catch what’s underdeveloped, and figure out where to spend your next batch of time and budget. Walk away with a comprehensive to-do list for turning your site’s evaluation into action, no cicerone certification required.

Location: Emerald III

Speakers
Heather McReynolds | Hopsteiner

Description:As craft breweries scrutinize their raw-ingredient budgets, careful hop sourcing is more crucial than ever. Amid tariff pressures, harvest variability, and the contract vs. spot market dilemma, the decisions breweries make about how they buy hops can carry financial consequences — yet most small operators make those decisions without complete information. This session will give brewers an honest, practical framework for navigating the current hop market and takeaways for considering it in the future. We’ll start with a candid look at where the global hop supply stands right now — including a CY26 harvest update and what the signals suggest for the next growing year. With that info, we’ll dig into when spot buying makes sense and when it exposes you to risk. Attendees will leave with a clearer picture of how to balance risk and opportunity in their hop sourcing decisions now and in the year ahead—regardless of who they buy from.

Location: Emerald I

Speakers
Mike Kilelea | Briess Malt & Ingredients

Description: This will be an interactive discussion of how to look at malt from a sensory aspect, and how to use the hot steep method.  Will involve sampling of malt and prepared worts.

Location: Lake Champlain Exhibition Hall