Pouring into Partnerships With Craft Beer

BEER, THE THIRD MOST CONSUMED BEVERAGE in the world, has long been part of the attractions industry. But in recent years, attractions have leveraged the beverage by tapping into craft beer sourced from smaller-scale, localized breweries.

While craft breweries started to emerge in the United States and Europe in the 1970s, their growth has taken off in the last two decades. Today, the two regions are home to nearly 19,000 craft breweries, nearly 90% of the global total. However, Latin America and Asia are also seeing an emergence in interest.

“For a lot of places [that] provide experiences, food and beverages gives the opportunity to stand out and add to the experience,” says Bart Watson, vice president of strategy and chief economist of the Brewers Association, which represents small and independent American brewers. “People used to go out to drink. Nowadays, people want to do something and have something to drink,” says Watson, citing places like movie theaters, zoos, and attractions that have added craft beer to their food and beverage (F&B) offerings.

In 2021, Airtopia Adventure Parks, a family entertainment center (FEC) with locations in Owasso, Oklahoma; San Antonio; and Hemet, California, formed a partnership with Illinois-based Tapville Social to install a tap wall at Airtopia Adventure Park in San Antonio. The tap wall is a self-contained draft system that allows guests to pour their own craft beverages. The tap wall concept has since expanded to Airtopia’s Owasso location.

According to Tapville CEO Joseph Tota, the tap wall provides an ideal solution for FECs as the self-service concept requires no existing plumbing and operates on a standard electrical outlet.

“It allows you to serve beverages in an efficient way with less labor,” Tota says, referencing a past visit to an FEC where the craft beer bar was closed because the bartender didn’t show up to work. Tota says Airtopia generates margins of 80% to 85%. Plus, with the RFID card that guests use to activate the taps tracking every ounce poured, the waste factor is only 2% to 3%.

Celebrating Craft Beer

Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, first started hosting their Brew at the Zoo festival in 2014. The fundraiser attracts 3,000 people annually to sample more than 200 beers from up to 100 different breweries.

Chief operating officer Ron Patalano says they started Brew at the Zoo when park leaders noticed craft beer events were popular in the region and saw it as an opportunity to open the zoo to a new demographic group. “It gives [adults] the opportunity to enjoy animals in a different setting during a different time of day.”

Patalano says the key to their success rests in early planning. He recommends attractions ensure they can overcome potential hurdles—like scheduling enough brewers to help prevent crowding and ensuring there is adequate staffing. “It’s a very staff heavy show,” he says, noting that the event is run by two internal coordinators.

While other attractions continue to launch new beer festivals, such as Indiana Beach in Monticello, Indiana, and Beekse Bergen in the Netherlands, both in 2021, others at regional theme parks only lasted a few years.

The Brewers Association’s Watson says festivals have plateaued in the United States due to the challenge, cost, and complexity in a post-COVID world. He also sees an impact from the increasing number of places people can enjoy craft beer. “Craft beer is ubiquitous now,” says Watson.

Iowa’s Adventureland has long featured craft beer from its own state, but in 2024, the park decided to launch the Iowa Craft Beer Takeover. According to Matt Basart, food and beverage manager, the inspiration 71 IAAPA.org/Funworld | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025 | Funworld came from a beer trailer they had purchased for their one-day Oktoberfest event that otherwise sat unused the rest of the season.

Basart decided to feature a different brewery at the trailer each weekend during the summer. On Saturdays, a brewery representative would be present to discuss their beers, offer samples, and hand out promotional items. “It was a way for them to get their name and product in front of thousands of people.”

Basart was pleased with the results of the event, especially since it helped to build ties with potential Oktoberfest partners. He plans to relocate the trailer to a higher traffic area in 2025 and make better use of social media to promote the visiting breweries.

Making Your Own

Some attractions have rolled up their sleeves and now brew their own beer. Pairi Daiza zoo in Brugelette, Belgium, opened in 1993 on the grounds of the ancient Cambron Abbey. In 2012, after several years of archeological research, the zoo opened a replica of the monastery’s original 1775 brewery. Pairi Daiza says that the brewery is part of a larger focus on creating a comprehensive visitor experience that includes food, drink, history, and conservation.

Argentinian adventure park Peñón del Águila also drew on history as inspiration for its own brewery. Located near La Cumbrecita, a Bavarian-inspired village founded in the 1930s by German immigrants, Peñón del Águila started brewing beer for its Gambrinus Refuge restaurant in 2007. Its success led them to develop an off-site production brewery in 2016 that now sells beer throughout the country.

Asia is still an emerging region when it comes to craft beer, but in 2024, the Sun World Ba Na Hills resort in Da Nang, Vietnam, opened the Ba Na Brew House. The seven-story brew house is topped by a restaurant and features a state-of-the-art German brewing system along with brewers and recipes imported from Germany. In addition to serving as an attraction, the Ba Na Brew House is also producing Sun KraftBeer for wide distribution.

Productive Partnerships

Teaming up with a craft brewery to develop an exclusive label beer is rapidly becoming the most common form of bringing craft beer into an attraction. While not a new concept—Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, offered Kings Island Draft in the early 1990s. In 2020, the park partnered with nearby Sonder Brewing to celebrate the opening of Orion, a B&M roller coaster with a 300-foot drop. Sonder describes their Giga Coaster as “lightly hoppy, very crisp, and has a very clean finish.” In 2024, Sonder produced Kings Island Blue Ice Cream Ale, a beer based upon the park’s famed blue soft serve.

Elsewhere, in 2010, Hog’s Head Brew debuted at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California, first partnered with Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing in 2011 to create a special beer to celebrate the centennial of their carousel. The 117-year-old park has since offered several beers to celebrate important anniversaries, including Giant Dipper Golden Ale from Discretion Brewing in 2024 to celebrate the centennial of their historic Giant Dipper roller coaster.

When Indiana’s Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari decided to add alcohol to its offerings in 2023, craft beer became an important part of their plans. “There was some apprehension in introducing alcohol for the first time,” says Matt Blumhardt, vice president and chief operating officer. “We looked at doing custom beer with an Indiana brand.” Holiday World found that partner in Bad Dad Brewing Company from Fairmount, Indiana.

“People like that there’s something unique they can’t get everywhere,” says Patrick Howard, owner and sales team manager at Bad Dad. The brewer had developed a strategy to create private labels for other businesses.

Blumhardt says it was important that the Holiday World beers tie into the park, but not be overtly branded as park beers. An internal team crafted a solution: develop a set of labels featuring the park’s color scheme and create brands that hinted at the park’s rides and lazy river—Plymouth IPA, Bahari Blonde, Nevermore Amber. While the external packaging and labels were new, the contents inside was a beer in Bad Dad’s existing stable. With the introduction of Vekoma’s Good Gravy roller coaster in 2024, Holiday World wanted to do something exclusive. The result was Gee Whillikers, a cranberry sour. “We found a partner willing to be creative and do something custom just for us,” says Blumhardt.

For several years, Pennsylvania’s Kennywood amusement park engaged with local brands to reinforce the park’s reputation as a local staple. This caught the attention of Amy Huseman of Pittsburgh’s Penn Brewery, one of the state’s oldest craft breweries. In early 2024, she approached the park about forming a partnership. With Kennywood planning to open a new craft beer-focused pub, the timing was ideal. In addition to rebranding several of their existing offerings after Kennywood staples—Lager Jammer, Jack Rabbit WHEEEEEEAT, and Kangaroo Hopped IPA—the two parties also developed an exclusive for the park with the Strawberry Funnel Cake Shandy.

 “It’s been extremely successful,” says Justin Rossetti, Kennywood’s restaurant operations manager, noting that the shandy has become the best-selling beer in the park, outselling national brands. Based on its success, they developed a potato beer named Potato Smash that includes the same potatoes used at their famous Potato Patch French fry stand.

How to Hops

For an attraction interested in forming a brewery partnership, operators and brewers emphasize the importance of finding a brewery that fits an attraction’s culture and values. The brewery should be small enough to consider an attraction a valued customer, but not so small that they cannot keep up with demand. In addition, attractions should also offer styles that will be popular with guests, and ideally, brews should be low in alcohol so they’re drinkable on hot summer days.