Henson’s Woes

Since I work 9-5 in Burbank, I have been quite happy to see the city grow with breweries and while Trustworthy and Simmzy’s have taken a firm lead on my beer leaderboard, the two others have lagged. Lincoln Beer Co. has a lovely and well appointed space and though the beers have bit hit and miss, I feel that the operation could slowly find their beer footing given time.

Henson Brewing, on the other hand seemed a far distant fourth from the start. From taproom ambiance to beer, everything seemed “in process”. And recent social media posts have told a story of undercapitalization, equipment issues and lack of revenue. Any new business needs luck, capital and a product that sells. You can swing it on any two of those components but if you bust on all three, well, that leads to trouble.

I have been binging The Great British Bake-Off and what I have taken from that show is that you can slide by on decoration or flavor but a some point you need both if you want to make it to the final. Henson has had neither in my admittedly small sample size of two visits. But if they are in enough dire financial straits to be needing rent help and are entertaining offers from other breweries, then I am not the only one who has shown up just once or twice.

Here is the takeaway though, failure is fine. It is not a harbinger of doom (most of the time) It means that the bar has been raised. No longer can you just open up an industrial space and expect full attendance and 4-pack can sales. You need to build a community. You need to market well. You can’t do whatever everyone else is doing especially if your beer is not on point. And if you can’t compete in your city, well.

Since the hard shoveling of getting the space approved to brew in and getting equipment in is complete. The taproom can be used by a brewery looking to expand north (from the South Bay) or south from your Lancaster/Santa Clarita area, then the 5 freeway adjacent space can be a spoke in a wheel for a brewery to exploit a new market.

Now maybe Henson can gain the financial room to operate and grow (it is a good sign that the landlord seems amenable) and if they do, they will need to up their brewing game. Hopefully they are given the full chance to prove their staying power.