The family friendly brewery

I have been mulling this over for years. What makes a family friendly brewery, taproom, or brewpub a family friendly space? How can you quantify family-friendliness? But the first question really (as always) is why?

As historian Maureen Ogle points out in the great Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, 19th century beer gardens and pubs were family friendly spaces. Food and drink were served alongside music, dancing, and kids activities.

Salacious behavior in men-only spaces of seedy saloons created the climate for the temperance movement which in part led to Prohibition. The closure of legitimate family friendly drinking establishments led to illegal speakeasies, wine bricks, and increasingly organized crime.

The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933, and it’s no coincidence that the first beer cans were introduced the same year. Folks grew accustomed to drinking in the privacy of their homes, and advances in packaging, refrigeration, and grocery stores fueled the demand. The family-friendly public drinking spaces were a thing of the past.

Nowadays, with over 7,000 craft brewers: 2,500+ brewpubs, 4,500+ microbreweries, and 230 regional craft breweries across the United States, many beer drinkers want to enjoy beer at the source. Fresh is better, except for the barrel-aged big and/or sour beers of course. Many breweries are using a self-distribution model or taproom-only releases that draw consumers directly to the source. Support your local brewery. Independence matters. All of these things true in a marketplace that, while not necessarily saturated on a brewery per person basis, is very competitive at every level.

So what is a beer drinker to do when they have kids in tow? What is a brewer to do? Making a family friendly brewpub, brewery, or taproom makes sense. Creating a space where someone can enjoy a drink, some food, maybe some music in the company of family and friends works for many breweries.

Some drinkers have been very vocally opposed to kids in breweries on social media.  And I get it. Unruly children and adults alike should not be around industrial equipment, breakable objects, or moving vehicles. Parents need to be parents to their kids regardless of the space they are in. And, short of creating a Chuck E Cheese atmosphere with a play land attached, breweries can help facilitate responsible parenting while drinking responsibly.

I want to create a rubric for quantifying family friendliness in brewpubs, breweries, and taprooms. Here are some of the things I have seen at numerous businesses that make a family-friendly atmosphere without interfering with others’ drinking. These are in no particular order.

• Tables and chairs layout that is wheelchair and stroller accessible. If you only have a bar, high tops, standing room, or picnic tables, it’s not going to work out well for families or folks with mobility issues.
• Stairs and elevated entry ways are also tough with strollers and wheelchairs. Kairoa Brewing Company has a great two story space and includes an elevator so everyone can enjoy the rooftop patio.
• Outdoor spaces are also always nice, along with plants. Some sunshine is good for everyone.
• Changing tables in restrooms. No one (parents, other patrons, or employees) want to see a diaper changing in a place where food and drink are consumed. Ex Novo Brewing Company in Portland, Oregon provides wipes, diapers, and scented candles alongside comfy changing tables in their unisex bathrooms, which is a nice touch but not necessary.
• Unisex, single-stall bathrooms help eliminate the issue of younger kids seeing too much and are often easier to keep clean. Plus those changing tables don’t interrupt other patrons.
• Food and non-alcoholic drinks can have a high markup yet I will happily pay it to keep my toddler calm, plus they help keep drinkers from overconsuming. Whether it’s a chips and jerky, a food truck, a panini press and pickles, or a full-blown kitchen, food makes the difference of me having a drink versus having a few flights of beer. A variety of non-alcoholic drinks is also a good call as many parents are limited kids intake of soda and juice.
• Half pours are better than flights for patrons, owners, and staff. I get a better experience of your beer, and your staff are filling and washing fewer glasses, meaning a better return on their time. I can polish off a half pour or leave it if I have to run off because of a toddler tantrum, but I would feel like I was missing out if I left half of a full pint or half of a flight. Half pours are always better.
• Games are fun for everyone, especially games that are not too involved. While I appreciate a a good game of Monopoly, I cannot see myself play a multi-hour game in a brewery without feeling like I am taking up space. A variety of games that take less time and have fewer pieces, a range of ages and number of players is what you’re looking for. From Pass the Pigs to Jenga to Exploding Kittens to Monopoly Deal. If the space allows, darts, cornhole, ping pong, pool, shuffleboard, pinball, arcade games, and more are also always welcome.
• Books and magazines are also always enjoyable, whether it’s the local beer newspaper, free weekly paper, a copy of Tasting Beer, or a full library, it’s good for kids and parents to explore books and magazines that they other might not. Taplands and Cleophus Quealy have beer-related books behind the bar that their servers use to study for the Certified Cicerone exam, and to settle beer debates. Brendan Moylan has decades of back issues of American Brewer, Beer: The Magazine, Celebrator, Craft Beer & Brewing, Draft, The New Brewer, and others at Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant. You can include kids books, comic books, and used books too. A lending library would make me be a repeat customer.
• Events are wonderful such as Border X Brewing’s Chicano-Con featuring comics and music.
• Decent acoustics is a difficult one to assess. If a space is too quiet or echoes too much my kids will be (not may be) disrupting other patrons. However, if music is blaring or people are have loud drunken conversations I’ll have to leave because I cannot hear myself think let alone my kids hear me talk. Finding the acoustic balance of the physical space, the music and/or tv, the consumers, and brewing beer is tough.
• Artwork and murals are also attractive and appreciative for young and old alike. This is where decoration and choice of theme really becomes noticeable when entering the physical space. Some breweries choose marketing strategies that are not family friendly, and I appreciate when it is evident upon entering the space. I would rather know not to bring the kids at first glance then settle into a flight and gradually notice the muttering and the stares and the passive aggressive lack of service.
• Safely demarcated brewery space is important with kids. I have seen kids (not mine) go under barriers to pull on hoses in brewhouses. I have seen kids stick their hands in blowoff buckets. I have also seen many breweries with impenetrable partitions between production and taprooms. If you are going to have a taproom open while brewers are working and you don’t have a wall and glass between the two spaces, I hope you are issuing PPE to all your guests.
• Inviting, family-friendly attitudes are always a sure sign of a family friendly establishment. A local brewery has a joke sign on the door that kids and pets are welcome if well behaved and on a leash. Between that sign and no wheelchair/stroller ramp we decided not to stay there despite their award-winning beer. I’ll go again sometime on my own, but I am not chomping at the bit. Compare that to Kairoa Brewing Company where multiple employees came up to talk to our daughter, and there’s a reason why we will be returning there soon.

There’s many other factors that play into family friendliness. I want to create a rubric or a matrix to score brewpubs, breweries, and taprooms on how family friendly they are. Maybe something along the lines of a radar graph or spider chart ala 33 Books.

What else am I missing for a family friendly brewery? Location near other things like parks, decent parking, allowing pets? Also, are some things from this list more or less important? Finally, should family-friendly breweries be the de facto expectation (assuming responsible parents), or should breweries be assumed as adults-only spaces with some exeptions?