Stamford Brewery Offering Contactless Curbside Beer Pickup

STAMFORD, CT — As many restaurants are forced to shut down their dining rooms to help mitigate the spread of the new coronavirus and looking to takeout or delivery to stay afloat, a Stamford-based brewery is hoping to keep sales up by offering customers takeout beer.

While their taproom remains closed until further notice, Half Full Brewery is now offering curbside pickup for online orders. Through this option, customers can select what beers they would like through the brewery's website and pay online using a credit or debit card.

Paying online is the key to this process, as customers are not allowed inside the building at this time. Customers will then receive a notification when their order is ready, at which time they can simply drive to the brewery, located on Homestead Avenue, and call 203-658-3631 to let the Half Full team know they are outside.

The transaction is completed after a Half Full team member brings a customer's order out to their car, no contact or further payment necessary. (To sign up for Stamford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

Half Full offers a wide variety of craft beers, including its popular "Bright" blonde ale and "Pursuit" west coast-style IPA. Other popular brews available to purchase include the brewery's "Beacon" and "Thrive" New England IPAs, a double IPA called "Liquid Hoptimism" and even a "Key Lime Supernova" session sour.

See also: Glass Half Full: CT Brewery Serving Positivity In A Can As It Strives To Innovate

According to the brewery's founder, Conor Horrigan, part of Half Full's business model involves two kinds of retail sales for the beer they produce at the brewery: on-premise, or sales of beer to customers that they can consume in pints or samples at the tap room, and off-premise, or sales of canned beer for consumption at home.

Horrigan said on-premise sales, the part of the business that Gov. Ned Lamont has currently put on hold, traditionally make up 75 percent of Half Full's retail sales at the brewery.

"In order to keep retail running full steam, we needed to come up with creative ways to increase our off-premise sales," Horrigan said in an email to Patch.

In addition to immediately launching a take out business, the Half Full team also worked on ways to enhance their offerings. This included moving up new beer releases, such as their Shippan IPA, the first release of Half Full's new "Homestead Series" themed around neighborhoods in Stamford.

The brewery is also selling single cans so customers can mix and match their selections, and the team is working on a wider variety of 12-pack options.

"We've stepped up our retail offerings in many ways to adapt to the situation," Horrigan said, "and it has been successful in keeping retail sales going and also giving people a reason to get out of the house and go for a drive."

According to Horrigan, the area of Half Full's business hit hardest by the the necessary virus restrictions is their draft business with restaurants.

"Since many restaurants cannot or are not set up to sell draft [beer] to go, our draft sales to restaurants dried up overnight," Horrigan said. "That is roughly half of our overall case volume."

Horrigan also noted the brewery has seen their sales to liquor stores and grocery stores pick up in the short-term to make up for most of that deterioration.

Though he wants customers to continue purchasing Half Full's wide selection of beers or gift cards through their curbside ordering service, Horrigan also hopes customers who have "extra discretionary funds" will support the Stamford restaurant community during this tough time by purchasing takeout or gift cards.

He also recommended customers subscribe to the brewery's newsletter to stay informed about Half Full's new products, and to get inspired by the content they are putting out "to combat all of the tough news" during this time.

"Together," Horrigan said, "we can get through this."