Since its founding in 2012, Kalona Brewing Company had been on an upward trajectory.  Their fifteen-barrel brewing system was humming along. Their diverse and delicious craft beers were being poured from the tap at the bar and canned and distributed across Iowa.  Their scratch-focused kitchen had loyal diners seated in the restaurant at lunch and dinner.  By the end of 2019, they were heading into one of their best years ever.  And then COVID struck. 

You’ve heard this story before.  It’s a common one.

The brewpub lost kitchen staff.  Their Crown aluminum can supplier dropped them.  People changed their dining habits.  Kalona Brewing is not unique in this way; the entire restaurant and brewing industry has faced these challenges. 

But going forward, Kalona Brewing will forge its own path.

The company’s team isn’t sitting at the bar crying in their beers.  They are focused.  Optimistic.  Excited. 

“It’s a learning experience,” says Shauna McKnight, General Manager.  “I’ve never had to navigate a pandemic before.  I think we learned a lot. I think we’ll come out on the other end a better company.”

“Yeah, we’re not crying about it,” says Warren “W” Yoder, Head Brewer.  “We’re just trying to find a way.  That is what a lot of businesses in our industry are trying to do, trying to find creative ways that will make them the most successful moving forward.  What might have worked five years ago is not necessarily going to work this year, or next year.”

The first challenge the brewpub is trying to address is the shortage of kitchen help.  Because Kalona Brewing is short-staffed, they’ve kept the kitchen closed on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons when it ordinarily would be serving lunch.  They’ve continued to serve both lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday, with dinner service on Wednesday and Thursday, and brunch and dinner on Sunday.

“This summer we decided that we were going to focus on the times that we were the most busy, so we could give the best service and make the best food and have the best experience for everybody,” McKnight explains.  “That’s what we’ve been doing so far.”

The plan is to open the kitchen again for lunch midweek.

“We’re looking to hire a couple more people so that we can get that rolling.   I think it will happen sooner rather than later,” McKnight says.

So be assured that Kalona Brewing’s mid-week lunch menu is only on a temporary hiatus; your weekday cheese curds & onion rings habit may resume soon enough.

The second challenge the brewpub faces regards the canning and distribution of beer. 

“One of the things that we’ve had to refocus on is, what is our business model and what is our distribution reach?” Yoder says.  “We’ve found [the staffing shortage] to be a struggle for distribution.”

Working with distributors has its drawbacks; they take inventory from the brewery, but they don’t necessarily get that product on store shelves, much less make sure it sells.  As a result, Kalona Brewing has predominately self-promoted and distributed their beer.  But delivering across the state eats up the man-hours, and the company doesn’t have staff to spare.

Getting cans has also been an issue.

“We have a Wild Goose canning line and we have our can seamer, [which is] set up so that we have a particular Crown aluminum blank can, and then a certain lid end that goes with that seamer, so we are very limited as to who we can get [cans] from,” Yoder explains. 

The brewery had a supplier that sold them the quantities of the specific can and lid they need for their equipment, but when COVID hit, the supplier dropped their smaller customers.  That left the brewery scurrying to find new suppliers, but now that the price and quantity of cans available to them is less certain, they have started to question how much canning they really want to do. 

So, you may have heard a rumor that the brewery would stop canning its beer.

“There was an initial thought about disbanding the canning operation and then just producing keg beer for the immediate area for self-distribution,” Yoder admits, giving the rumor some credence.  But that is not what the brewery intends to do.

“We decided to continue canning, but at a reduced rate,” Yoder says.  “Instead of canning 70-80% of the production beers that we do, we’re now going to do about 30-40%.  The focus is going to be just canned sales here at the brewpub, and then also for the immediate area: Iowa City, Fairfield, Mount Pleasant, and Davenport as well.”

“One of the things we’re trying to do is become more streamlined, a little bit more efficient in what we’re doing, how we do it, and how many people we have doing it,” he adds.

The brewery’s two core beers, Kalona Classic Light Lager and Sucha Much India Pale Ale, will continue to be available in cans, as will four or five seasonal releases throughout the year.  The next two canning runs, according to Yoder, will be of Start-up Stout Coffee Stout and, for the first time, Horse Power American-Style Hefeweizen.

Kalona Brewing’s newfound efficiency has exciting ramifications.  For the brewer, “It’s going to give me a lot more nimbleness as to what I brew, because I’m not worrying about production volumes as much,” Yoder says. 

“One thing about [just doing barrels] is that it gives a lot more freedom to do varieties and just do one-off batches that we’ll have on tap here or in kegs throughout the area that we provide service to,” he explains.

New, limited releases only available in the brewpub or a few select locations will give beer lovers rare, exclusive tasting experiences.  Or, as Yoder puts it, by him focusing on the brewpub in Kalona rather than a wide distribution of canned beers, customers are going to be able to “come in here, they’re going to have tap beer, it’s going to be special, and it’s going to be fun.”

“It’s kind of exciting,” he concludes.  “The focus is going to be on this business here.  Cans are nice.  Having your products out there is great because it’s advertising that gets people to know who you are.  But yet, I’ve always felt that this should be the focus -- the brewpub -- because we’ve always wanted to be the living room of Kalona.”

Kalona Brewing Company is located at 405 B Avenue, Kalona. Bar hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.  Current Kitchen hours are 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. on Sundays.