CLEVELAND — All your favorite craft breweries met under one roof for the second night of Beerfest at Cleveland’s Huntington Convention Center.
One by one, people made their way through the annual event to sample from about 80 craft breweries like Boss Dog Brewing Company in Cleveland Heights.
“It’s just another great one that they put on,” said Jason Sweet of Boss Dog Brewing Company.
For the last six years, Jason Sweet told News 5 that Boss Dog Brewing Company has been participating in Cleveland’s Beerfest to have fun and attract customers to his business.
“That talking about the food, and then they realize they’re not that far away from here and they end up saying, we’re going to hit up afterwards,” said Sweet.
That’s why Beerfest Executive Director Craig Johnson said events like Beerfest are important.
“It’s really about exposure, and like I said, when you find a new brewery, you’re going to go visit that brewery. A lot of our local breweries tell us that they see a bump after Beerfest,” Johnson said.
Coming out of the pandemic, Sweet said it’s been a challenge for local craft breweries due to businesses trying to come back to life after being shut down and then the impact of inflation.
“Every price for any kind of material that we’ve ever had has gone up in some way, shape or form within the last several years and it hurts,” said Sweet.
Other brewing companies, like Butcher and The Brewer in Downtown Cleveland, said they experienced staffing challenges.
“A lot of people weren’t coming back to work and didn’t want to work, so that was a big challenge. We got through it with some creative things like using QR codes, which helped us not have to have as many servers,” said Christopher Lieb of Butcher and the Brewer.
Those kinds of adjustments could be a reason why the latest economic impact from the Ohio Craft Brewers Association shows that in 2022, the industry was back to its expected growth after a nearly 9% decrease in 2020.
“We had to adjust and adapt and now we’re here. We’re still here,” said Lieb.
