High-quality, local brews Foolproof plan for growth

BEER MARKET: Nick Garrison, founder of Pawtucket-based Foolproof Brewing, traded a career at Raytheon for his passion project after visiting a brew pub in Quebec. / COURTESY FOOLPROOF BREWING
BEER MARKET: Nick Garrison, founder of Pawtucket-based Foolproof Brewing, traded a career at Raytheon for his passion project after visiting a brew pub in Quebec. / COURTESY FOOLPROOF BREWING

The “light bulb” moment for Foolproof Brewing founder Nick Garrison appeared during his honeymoon at a brew pub in Quebec. When his wife said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to own a place like this someday?” the then-Raytheon employee knew his future was sealed. Less than three years later, the Pawtucket company Garrison created from the foundation of his home-brewing hobby is one of the success stories of the growing Rhode Island craft-beer industry.
Foolproof recently inked an agreement with a New Hampshire distributor to enter that state, leaving Maine as the only place in New England where the brand is not available. With local breweries continuing to proliferate here and across the country, competition among craft-beer makers is intense.

PBN: Since you started Foolproof out of home brewing, is having the brand become big something that drives you, or are you worried it might become too corporate and lose some of the appeal?
GARRISON: We definitely have large aspirations for Foolproof and want to grow into a large, regional [and] eventually national brewery, maybe even an international brewery. Keeping that creativity and being able to brew new styles, exciting styles, will always be important to us. I don’t think you have to compromise that creativity and feeling of craft as you grow.

PBN: As you grow, do you think the brand will have to give up some of its New England-specific character or is that a selling point?
GARRISON: I think it is a selling point. But one thing I’d point out about the brand is that even though we did include some New England nuance – Backyahd IPA for example – we really made a deliberate decision when we created Foolproof and the marketing concept of pairing beers with experiences: the reason we did that is anyone can relate to that. Whether they were in New England or California or Michigan, who hasn’t sat down and enjoyed a nice beer at the beach or at the pub with friends or on a rainy day? That was a deliberate decision on our part to have this brand identity with a universal appeal to it. So I think we will be able to grow and survive with our current brand and not have to sacrifice our identity.

PBN: It seems to be everywhere, but is craft beer a money maker in 2014-2015?
GARRISON: It can be. We are still in that startup phase, but all the indicators are really positive in what we are seeing. There are manufacturing realities. You need to be able to produce enough beer to have a chance at making a profit. It is a challenging industry definitely, but there is so much opportunity and growth.

PBN: Do you make all your beer in-house or do you contract?
GARRISON: We brew 100 percent of our beer in Pawtucket and it is packaged here.

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PBN: Does that mean expanding the facility as you grow to match demand output?
GARRISON: We would prefer to do that. Obviously we don’t have a crystal ball and if things really took off and we didn’t have the capacity to keep up we would consider other options. One thing about our facility is it is set up for growth. We have tall ceilings, for example, that allow us to bring in bigger tanks, larger tanks, without having to increase the real estate footprint.

PBN: Is there still room for more new craft-beer brands on the shelves of liquor stores and in the taps of bars?
GARRISON: I think there will always be room for new beers provided the quality is there. There is no doubt it is incredibly competitive out there. But we see new brands coming out that are producing great beer with great branding and distribution infrastructure and growing rapidly.

PBN: Is IPA here to stay or is there going to be something new that comes along and takes its place as the style of the moment?
GARRISON: I don’t think IPAs are going anywhere. The American craft palate has really just locked on to IPAs and hoppy, bitter beers. But at the same time every year there is some hot, vogue style coming up. We have our farmhouse ale, or saison, for example and that has become a real popular style. You see a lot of those popping up lately. I don’t think IPAs or double IPAs are going anywhere, but it is exciting to see some of the newer styles that people are getting into: sour beers, barrel-aged beers. Those fall into that category as well.

PBN: How is Rhode Island as a place to start up a brewery, from a standpoint of the laws and infrastructure?
GARRISON: There are certainly challenges to doing business in Rhode Island and opening a brewery in Rhode Island. I think the growth that the Rhode Island craft-beer market has experienced has been fantastic and good for everybody and I think there is still potential. I think there is growth to be had at the retail level. One thing that still surprises me is I still go into bars in Rhode Island and you [see] what is on tap and there is not a single local beer. You compare that to a market like Vermont or Colorado or Chicago where there are bars that carry only local beer.

PBN: How about legislatively? Is there any one thing that could really give brewers a boost?
GARRISON: One thing not really applicable to us, but for really small breweries: The ability to self-distribute your beer has benefits. … In Rhode Island I do not believe there is the option. •

INTERVIEW
Nick Garrison
POSITION: President and founder of Foolproof Brewing Co.
BACKGROUND: A Needham, Mass., native, Garrison moved to Rhode Island in 2007 to work for Raytheon Co. in corporate communications. He left aerospace for craft brewing in 2012.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in international relations, Tufts University, 2004
FIRST JOB: Sailing instructor
RESIDENCE: Providence
AGE: 32

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