Hopping on the Homebrew wagon with Vilson Mello Junior, Hopfully

What is your own background briefly?

I have a Marketing Analyst degree with Pos Degree in Business and Hospitality. I describe myself as a passionately curious person, a marketing and sales-driven professional. I left Brazil after working with some multinational companies in the fashion and agro sector, serving customers in South and Central America. On January 2012 I decided to leave everything behind to travel around Europe and chose the Irish Island as a place to live and study. I literally did a bit of everything once landed in the Irish soil, like re-filling shelf stock in Ikea, washing dishes or selling products in Lotts and Co Grocery while studying English and improving my Spanish during free hours.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

It does, completely. All the years of experience in marketing analysis, building business plans or developing market research, leading events, campaigns, and also my experience in sales and hospitality are definitely important for the company’s development.

How was the last 12 months? What were your big wins?

As most of the small and young companies, we had ups and downs but 2019 was a good year for the company overall. We brewed 10 news beers, went to the Amazon jungle for a cultural exchange with the Baniwa tribe which we collaborate with, brewed some exciting collaborations and improved some of our brews.

In terms of sales, we grew 60% compared with the previous year and managed to double up the number of stockists using our own channels of sale and distribution. As a gypsy brewery, operating with 3 people only, and with a small upfront investment, we consider the last 12 months an important year for Hopfully.

What would you have done differently?

I would say, loads of things. When Alberto and Cris, the other two co-founders invited me to open a brewery, we were 3 foreigners living in Dublin without any understanding about the beer industry, not a lot to invest in the company, and we didn’t know a lot of people involved in the industry. Starting a business with only a bunch of ideas and not much cash isn’t really very smart, and we’ve learned that the hard way.

We bought 50-year-old equipment for a decent price in a rush to get the brewery up and running, and it also turned out to be a huge problem for our production as the equipment would constantly need attention, thus increasing the costs.

We shifted our production to contract brewing in December 2018 as we felt the need to scale up production, and it gave us more time to improve our recipes and focus on the strategic side of the business. Contract brewing should have been our approach to production from the very beginning.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now? / Tell us about the projects you mentioned to us?

At the moment we are working on our plan to increase our export market and to branch out of Ireland. With the COVID-19 we are now focussed on keeping the sales to the off-trade going, hoping things will settle quickly and hoping that people keep supporting their local business as much as they can. We are also involved in a series of exciting projects.

We just released our first edition of Brewcook, a collab project with Eatyard and Botequim that connects local brewers, chefs with the local community in order to bring people to understand a bit more about the world of beer and food pairing, brewing and cooking process, etc. The first edition was a  success, sold out in 10 days, and we were going to launch the second edition this month, but unfortunately is on hold now.

There are other two projects going on, our monthly Artfully Market in Luckys Bar, where we provide the space for the emerging artists to sell and exhibit their work, totally free of charge, where we also run workshops and music sessions there, and there’s also The Social Hops, a project created by Andrew Douglas of Urban Farming which we are really proud of being part of.

Social Hops is a community hop growing project for growers around the country to contribute home-grown hops to a wet-hop ale, where they gather with the brewers to participate in the brewing process, ask questions and taste the delicious final product. Project by Urban Farming in collaboration with Hopfully Brewing Co, Rascals Brewing Co, and Brewtonic. You can learn more about this project on http://www.urbanfarm.ie/social-hops.html

Why did you get involved with brewing beer?

I got involved in the scene especially because my business partner Cris brought me into this world. He’s was a real beer lover and introduced me to the craft beer scene. All those exciting breweries, with those hoppy bangs and some crazy coffee, chocolate, fruit infusions, some delicious barrel-aged stuff, and especially the creativity and freedom on their branding just drove me crazy. I got excited about the sense of community the small local breweries have, and immediately became a big fan.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

They can connect to us through our social media platforms, I personally run all platforms and like chatting to clients and arranging some pints after work. People can access our webpage hopfullybrewng.com to see our products and a bit more about who we are as a brewery.  We love running art and beer events like our Artfully Market, people are more than welcome to join us for a chat and some good pints.  Just follow our pages to keep yourself updated on the next events:

Instagram: @hopfully_brewing

Twitter/Facebook: @hopfullybrewing

Artfully: @artfullydublin

Who and where do you get inspiration from?

I personally get inspiration from startups, small companies, and independent creators, like artists, especially illustrators. I love the sense of community and the love and care craft companies have for their products. Our branding has a lot to do with creativity and the work we have with emerging artists is the daily inspiration to keep us up and running.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Tell me a bit about Hopfully Brewing?

Founded in 2017 by 3 friends with a shared love for beer, food, and art, Hopfully Brewing aims to bring it all together to the public in innovative ways. The company combines excellent beer brewing with innovative art. Passionate about working with vibrant fresh talents in Dublin, the brewery works directly with up-and-coming artists, our labels are designed by different illustrators to complement the uniqueness we aim to bring to every brew.

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