A couple of years ago, high-school sweethearts John and Kathryn Holler decided for a major career change, turning their homebrewing hobby into a full-time business.
Fast forward to present day: the duo proudly owns Holler Brewing, which officially opened in November—less than three months before Super Bowl LI and the immense amount of people that come with it.
“You know, just opening two months ago, the training wheels have come off. We have really had to pick everything up, but we are excited about the increased exposure. [It’s] good for us, and like Kathryn said, it’s good for Houston.”
To prepare for the spike in potential customers the Hollers have been busy brewing.
“We ourselves have been doing a lot. We have been brewing a lot. We have gotten a lot of exposure with people coming into the area.”
Because Holler Brewing opened just a few months ago, John and Kathryn are in a unique spot. Since they only have a small sample size to compare, they aren’t quite sure what portion of their customers are locals and what portion are Super Bowl visitors.
“For us as a brand, it’s kind of hard for us to see what’s coming from the Super Bowl, what’s normal, and to measure what the impact is.”
The Super Bowl helps attract one-time visitors to check out Holler Brewing as well as locals, who may not have previously had a reason to be in the area and could potentially help business in the future.
“You know Houston is a very sprawling, spread out city, so there is a lot of people that live 20-30 miles out, and they’re now coming into the city this past weekend [and] for this weekend’s events, so them making the trip out invariably to see what’s around town and discover us. If we do our jobs, they are likely to come back.”
