Not all of the big movers on the Brewers Association list are climbing the ranks through fast-growing package sales. Like Georgetown, Modern Times Beer leapt into the top 50 in 2018, moving up 11 spots to #45. It did so not by pushing its product widely into the market, but by doubling down on the increasingly important roles that hospitality and own-premise sales play for a brewery.

From 2017 to 2018, production for the business shot up 37%, and the brewery turned out an estimated 68,000 BBLs last year. The growth has been fueled by Modern Times’ brewpub model, which has so far spread to five locations across San Diego, Los Angeles, and Encinitas in California, plus Portland, Oregon. Additional locations are reportedly planned for California in Santa Barbara and Anaheim. It's a far cry from where Modern Times started barely six years ago, back when it produced just 2,300 BBLs in 2013 at its original San Diego location.

In an interview with CompanyWeek.com, Modern Times COO Chris Sarette noted how sales through a traditional route via distributors and own-premise, direct-to-consumer transactions "are very complementary.”

“[Beer drinkers are] more likely to buy a brewery's beer after visiting a physical tasting room," he told the outlet. "Being able to go to a flagship where you can taste 30 or 40 beers and find out which one you gravitate to, that's going to drive decision-making."

To thrive in places like California and Oregon—two of the states with the highest total number of craft breweries in the country—the impact of maintaining physical retail spaces can’t be overstated. Brewery taprooms have already eaten into sales that used to go to neighborhood bars (a recent topic covered in a two-part GBH podcast series) but also play a big role in building interest in locally produced beer. Modern Times may have already been on the radar of many West-Coast beer lovers, but an almost 20,000-BBL jump in production from 2017–2018 doesn’t just happen without deliberate and careful consideration of how you can actually pull that off.

Founder and CEO Jacob McKean tells GBH seeing that kind of success starts at his company's business model. As a brewery that functions with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, McKean says that every employee, from dishwasher to beer server and brewer, becomes a part of the business' hospitality efforts.

"When fans interact with people who are literally and figuratively invested in the business, it brings a commitment, attention to detail, and a passion for the work that wouldn't be there otherwise," he says. "That often turns first-time visitors or casual customers into dedicated fans."

That dedication is also setting up Modern Times for the future.

"We are at a point where we need additional real estate,” Sarette told CompanyWeek. Across its locations, the brewery aims to create enough capacity for 120,000 BBLs. While it would be a rare deviation from the norm for that volume to flow exclusively through own-premise sales, Modern Times’ clear commitment to growth through direct customer interaction can be seen as a big reason for its success. It’s a move that could also push the brewery even further up the list of top, Brewers Association-defined “craft beer” producers.