FAYETTEVILLE -- Fossil Cove Brewery had no idea in July 2019 when it put its popular T-Rex on Peaches in barrels to age that the summertime suds would go on sale in the middle of a pandemic.
T-Rex on Peaches is a Belgian Triple produced with Arkansas fruit. It's sealed in bourbon and red wine barrels in July to be opened the following May. The most recent run of T-Rex on Peaches, the brewery's fourth, produced 60 barrels of beer. A barrel of beer holds 31 gallons.
Ben Mills, owner and head brewer at Fossil Cove, said demand has been solid.
Typically the beer would be sold in kegs to restaurants and bars and on tap at the Fossil Cove taproom on Birch Avenue. This year, in the face of the covid-19 outbreak, bar and restaurant demand is low but T-Rex on Peaches in cans have been in demand, and it's available on tap at the brewery, as well as for pickup in four-packs of 12-ounce cans at liquor stores in the Northwest Arkansas area.
Cans of T-Rex on Peaches, a Belgian style Triple brewed with local peaches and aged in wine barrels, sit on the bar Wednesday at Fossil Cove Brewing in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
Fossil Cove, like all of the state's breweries, has been doing its best to adapt to the challenges covid-19 and the accompanying regulations regarding social distancing, masks and seating capacity. Mills said sales to bars and restaurants, which made up about 50% of the brewery's revenue prior to covid-19, ceased for months and is just now coming back as those locations reopen with limited seating capacity and therefore less demand for beer.
Mills said in the current environment specialty beers become even more important to small breweries. In normal times, the beers act as a change of pace to keep beer lovers engaged and to boost brand recognition. These days, with covid-19 limits in place, it's even more vital to keep beer lovers interested and coming back for more.
Fossil Cove also took advantage of the forced downtime brought on by the covid-19 pandemic to renovate its bar area at its taproom. The new set up is more spacious and airy and is well suited for social distancing and limiting contact with patrons.
"It opened everything up," Mills said of the remodel.
Bart Watson, chief economist with the Brewer's Association, a trade group supporting craft breweries nationwide, said in an email that in the covid-19 environment breweries must move beyond being simply hospitality business, so selling beer for consumption outside the brewery is more important now than at the start of the year.
"Based on their brands, location, and strategy, we're seeing breweries accomplish this in different ways, including crowlers to go, delivery, as well as ramping up packaging and distribution," Watson wrote. "With taprooms and keg distribution down, breweries are finding other ways to recoup that lost volume. Specialty beers can play a role in this, but can't be the only solution, since they typically won't make up for the lost volume of brands that previously were sold via keg distribution."
He said on capital investments some breweries are taking the long view and investing in their operations if they have the funding but that's not feasible for many breweries who are in wait-and-see or even simply survival mode and looking to cut costs until revenue returns.
According to the association's mid-year report for 2020, there were 8,217 active craft breweries in the Unite States, up 737 from 7,480 for the same period a year ago. The growth is slower than last year, where the number was up more than 1,000 for the same period. The association links the decrease to fewer brewery openings rather than a sharp increase in closings, with 112 closings shown in the first part of the year.
According to the Arkansas Brewers Guild there are 33 active breweries in the state, with three more expected to open sometime this year.
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Sylvia Blain, executive director of the Arkansas Brewers Guild, said specialty beers like Fossil Cove's T-Rex on Peaches are often released with great fanfare and are integral in a brewery's brand building. She noted some specialty beers she called iconic include Rogers-based Ozark Beer Co.'s yearly release of its BDCS; Little Rock-based Lost 40 Brewing's Nighty Night; and North Little Rock-based Flyway Brewing Co.'s Lord God.
She said beer lovers keep track of specialty releases and they generate a lot of customer interest.
"They also give beer lovers something to look forward to, Blain said. "We all need something to look forward to right now!"
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