Case Study

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) was formed in 2008 with the merger of Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewing, two pioneering craft breweries from the Pacific Northwest. Since then, CBA has expanded its footprint and welcomed multiple award-winning lifestyle and regional craft brands, breweries, and brewpubs into the alliance. Today, CBA is the seventh largest craft brewing company in the United States and home to Kona Brewing Co., one of the fastest-growing and most recognized craft brands in the world, as well as Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Cisco Brewers, Omission Brewing Co., Redhook Brewery, Square Mile Cider Co., Widmer Brothers Brewing, and Wynwood Brewing Co. 

As CBA expanded its portfolio, they wanted to ensure their brands continued to maintain strong ties with their local communities. One of the solutions they created was a tool called Beerfinder, which allowed people to search for local restaurants, stores, or bars where their favorite brews were sold. This solution worked well for the first few years, but as more brands joined the alliance, portfolios became more complex with cans, bottles, and draught options, and more fans were searching for beer on their phones than on desktops, CBA looked into upgrading the Beerfinder tool.

When the M&I team was brought onboard, they discovered that the original tool had been built on a version of WordPress that was now too outdated to allow for patching. Working closely with CBA and led by Greg Delorey, our VP of Internet Solutions, Beerfinder was redesigned to be responsive and mobile-friendly, with increased functionality. With Google’s recent shift to mobile-first indexing, these changes couldn’t have come a better time. 

"It was really important to us that Beerfinder be easy for people to use, so the fact that it’s now responsive and mobile-friendly is huge."

- Laura Kotka, IT Project Manager

Visitors navigating any CBA-affiliated website can now filter search results by location type (store, restaurant/bar), product type (on tap, bottles, cans), and beer. With upgrades complete and the redesigned Beerfinder tool now available on all CBA brand websites, IT Project Manager Laura Kotka had this to say about their experience:

"We would absolutely recommend working with M&I. Their commitment to our success and strong communication throughout the partnership was extremely helpful. Furthermore, their responsibility and accountability for the project was incredible. As a project manager I loved working with them, and I'd refer them in a second." 

- Laura Kotka, IT Project Manager

TECH SPECS

-       Craft CMS

-       Google Maps API

-       MySQL