Tapping a new revenue stream may be as easy as putting some new brew on tap.
Management at Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois, began placing a major emphasis on serving craft beers in its year-round restaurant nearly six years ago, and ever since, the positive reviews have been, well, pouring in. Currently, Arrowhead offers 30-plus craft beers in bottles and 17 draft varieties. Miller Light, Coors Light, Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada and Stella Artois are always on tap. The remainder of the selection is comprised of constantly rotating crafts, at least six of which at any time are brewed within 20 miles of Arrowhead.
Until recently, Miller Light was the club’s longtime No. 1 seller before yielding to Coors Light. However, 2014 marked the first time a craft—one of the Two Brothers beers (brewed less than six miles away) Arrowhead offers—became its top seller. The club also sells anywhere from five to 30 daily craft beer flights (four 6-ounce pours of different craft beers).
Arrowhead’s beer sales, which account for approximately $500,000 of the facility’s $1.7 million annual restaurant revenue, are roughly 60 percent craft and 40 percent domestic. The craft beer numbers (approximately $300,000) are bolstered by annual increases in on-course craft sales.
Any way you serve them up, those are some pretty heady numbers.