About Sly Fox Brewing Company

Sly Fox Brewing Company was founded December 1995 by the Giannopoulos family in Pheonixville, Pennsylvania. Their award winning quality beers have not been the only thing that has kept them in business and growing but also their solid judgment and forward looking business decisions. Catering to their outdoor enthusiast customers, Sly Fox was an early adapter of the craft beer in a can movement. Creative brewery events like the annual Bock Festival & Goat Race which is one of the best beer events in the Philadelphia area, also allow Sly Fox to continue to stand out as a leader in craft beer.   We wanted to know more by reaching out virtually to Tim Ohst, brewing operations manager, to get the full story of how he began, his passions and Sly Fox’s status over the last months through COVID-19.

 

Passion for the craft brewing industry

We were curious at how Tim entered the brewing industry and what excites him most about Sly Fox Brewing Company. He explains where his excitement for the industry started, “I was a server and bartender at a brewpub in the late 90’s and became more and more interested in the brews being produced there. I took a job as an assistant brewer with that company and my career in brewing progressed from there.” Fast forward to today Tim notes what he is most passionate about, “the entire process of developing a new brand – from conception to roll out. Particularly the end of the process when the pallets of product start shipping out to our wholesalers and there are tangible results from the team effort it took to make so many different aspects of the product come together successfully.” With all Tim’s experience we had to know what’s his favorite beer style and why. He share, “Way too tough to pick just one. I often tend to drink whatever new or seasonal beers we have just released, or conversely, what I know is about to run out that I won’t be able to enjoy again for a while. Otherwise our Pils would be my go to choice when I can’t decide.”

 

Challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic

Like so many other breweries, Sly Fox has faced challenges, recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim tells us, “Adjusting to changing SKU demand [has been the biggest challenge]. Obviously with all on premise channels closing down, draft beer sales plummeted to almost nothing while packaged products got a nice bump. But that increase has not been uniform across all brands or packages, so it’s a constant challenge to evaluate whether a spike in sales of a particular package is a temporary anomaly or the “new normal.” Due to these changes Sly Fox has had to find new ways to reach their customers and it sounds like the community has been tremendously supportive. He writes about how Sly Fox has had to be more creative reaching customer during COVID-19, “Again we had to pivot from a business that sold slightly more than half its product on tap to one that could now, other than growler sales, only move packaged products. We had significant volumes of beer in the works that was slated for kegs, and we immediately had to pivot and rework our plans to get as much of that beer as possible in cans.” He also remarks on their famous goat racing, “This past Sunday also normally would have been our biggest event of the year, The Sly Fox Bock festival and Goat Races. We certainly missed seeing the thousands of goat racing and German beer fans we enjoy celebrating with every year, but our team has definitely come up with a creative solution, and at the conclusion of American Craft Beer Week on Sunday May 17th will be hosting a “virtual” Bock Fest on Facebook live.” We find it so incredibly admirable and inspiring to see customer’s pivoting their businesses to continue to get tasty craft beer and unique experiences to the public!

 

Moving forward with support

Even though there has not been much time to experiment through the changing business model Sly Fox was able to release Sunshine Hop Dream Hazy IPA and “squeeze in a little experimentation” which Tim explains, “we did recently brew our latest “Hop Project” offering which will be canned and released towards the end of American Craft Beer Week. In this latest version we upped the percentage of wheat in our grain bill and are trying out a new combination of hops including a New Zealand variety called Moutere we have never used before. It smelled wonderful in the whirlpool and we’re excited to taste the final product.”

Tim also wanted to comment on the community support, “The local community has been great and the support from our regular customers has been tremendous! When this all started and our pubs had to transition to to-go sales only, those first few days did not look too promising. But suddenly that first Friday we saw a big jump in sales. At the end of the brew day I went to grab a beer, but even ended up jumping in to help the tasting room staff get all the orders out. And the support from the community has continued to grow since then. We even had to bring back some kitchen employees who had been furloughed to keep up with sales.”  We love hearing about communities chipping in to help their local breweries!

 

Thank you!

We want to extend a big thank you to Tim at Sly Fox Brewing Company for participating in this initiative during American Craft Beer Week! We know many breweries across the country are going through similar situations. Our goal is to celebrate our partners and tell their story’s during this difficult time. Raise a glass to all the breweries fighting to stay alive as we reflect over this week and continue to go support those that you can! Cheers.