Filmed live at the Middleby booth at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), Philadelphia 2026, just before the tradeshow floor opened on Day 2, this video provides a unique early-access perspective on the brewing and distilling industry.
Captured ahead of daily show activity, it reflects real-time discussions with industry experts before broader conversations began across the floor. The discussion highlights the Paper Dinosaur brewing system, including its two-vessel 10-barrel configuration and advanced automation capabilities, alongside key innovations across the Middleby portfolio. This includes solutions from Ss Brewtech, Cervizi dispensing systems, and Wild Goose Filling, featuring its new infeed and outfeed technology designed to improve efficiency and line performance. Key industry trends are also explored, including portfolio expansion into distilling and RTDs, increased demand for automation, and continued investment in scalable solutions.
The conversation addresses how breweries and distilleries are evolving their operations—integrating food programs, diversifying beverage offerings, and adopting flexible systems to support growth. The video also outlines the role of the Middleby Brewing & Distilling Solutions Group in supporting customers from ingredient to glass, combining equipment, engineering, and operational expertise across the full production and service environment. Published following the event, this video provides a concise overview of the technologies, trends, and customer priorities shaping the industry at the Craft Brewers Conference 2026.
At CVC Philly 2026. So Fred, tell us about the Paper Dinosaur system behind us.
Yes, thank you, Marlowe. So we’re featuring the two-vessel 10 barrel system here with Paper Dinosaur, a new brewery coming soon to Philadelphia. Pretty unique features with General Automation, but the highlight is the makgeolli vessel. Sun will be doing some pretty unique beers—craft beer, but also a big focus on Korean heritage with makgeolli.
That’s awesome. Brad, what are some of the biggest trends you’re seeing this year?
I think people are kind of expanding their portfolio. I think we’re seeing people going from maybe a brewery getting into liquor sales and how do we broaden their scope. So, getting into distilling a little bit. We’ve got distilling solutions. We’ve got people that are getting into some RTDs where we’ve got some dissolved oxygen. So, there’s a lot of unique things that we can offer to kind of expand or round out the portfolio.
What are customers asking for, maybe even this quarter?
I think people are expanding a lot. We’re seeing a lot more people saying, “Hey, we need some more tanks. We’re growing.” And so we’re offering those add-on solutions. We’ve got a lot in stock so we can turn those around really fast and get it to them. We also offer that custom solution if they need to really dive a little bit deeper into it.
So what separates the more successful breweries and distilleries today in this market?
Yeah, I think the established folks from five years ago—we’re still seeing them expand, or even ten years ago. Pretty cool to be with about a dozen current customers that have had multiple expansions in the last ten years. But I think food and beverage concepts—it’s not just craft beer. It’s not just a food truck. Some people have shifted the way they approach things with actually having a kitchen or having a restaurant partner, getting into lower ABV beers, getting into, like Brad said, RTDs. So not so much seltzers of several years ago, but more of a grain-neutral spirit-based seltzers. A nice complement to already existing tanks and vessels, and then adding a Wild Goose line—things that that machine is flexible for all of those different beverages.
So as we all know, we’re part of the Middleby Brewing and Distilling Solutions Group. How are you explaining that to your customers, and do they know?
Yeah, I think really as people have started to understand more and more, as we have discussed Middleby at the Craft Brewers Conference, people come into the booth now and they’re like, “Oh, aha, got it.” And so when we tie in the kitchen, when we tie in that you are dealing with our engineers, our sales team, our executive team, marketing—that all of this is really what you get. A lot of the folks have been down to Dallas to see the Innovation Kitchen. So I think overall people love the stability that it brings—that we offer a full complement of services and resources and equipment. But yeah, I think year over year people start to understand the benefits of a big company that can offer food, dispensing, craft, canning lines, full systems—everything. So it’s been great, and I think the customer benefits at the end of the day. They know that as long as they’re in business, we’re going to be here to support them. And I think that’s a very valuable asset right now in this industry.
And Brad, since you live in Dallas, can you tell us a little bit about the MIC for our customers?
The MIC is like Disneyland for chefs. It’s beautiful. It is. We get people down there and they don’t understand the scope of what we offer, and I think once they see that, it’s amazing—a hall with robots and cool technology. And you’ll see a lot here at the show, too. We even brought some TurboChef. So we are a full line, basically from food to beverage, under the Middleby name. It’s pretty powerful where we’re at. It’s exciting.
So how is the Middleby Brewing and Distilling Solutions Group going from ingredient to glass or ingredient to tap? How are we helping our customers execute their strategies?
I think it’s really through education and presentation here. It’s very hands-on. So if people have a system with us or they have a different complement of things, introducing them to Cervizi or NexDraft and them seeing how Cervizi has expanded the last couple of years—it’s not just the single-head unit. People are looking at the multiple-bay unit, and as they talk about how they are adding to their entertainment, the value of bringing people to their location—these mobile draft towers are great. It’s helping them address labor, efficiency, profit. So I think it’s really just face-to-face education.
What are we seeing some customers investing in versus pulling back on right now? I know automation is huge, right?
Yeah. So how do we reduce workload? How do we get automation into a system where maybe one brewer can work four turns on a system? Auto knockout, auto transfer—how do we provide a solution where we can limit workload and still have the same efficiency? We’ve got solutions for that. That goes from us to Wild Goose to SS—we’ve got some amazing automation.
Yeah, I think really when people are looking at where they can save—what is a good investment now to help them save and keep staff happy, add to their bottom line. Clean-in-place, saving chemicals. Better grain handling solutions, saving on that. We’ve definitely been hearing a lot about hop utilization, different things to make it safer as well, and we’ve brought a lot of that to the market in the last few years.
Even piggybacking on that, we’ve got Sveba Dahlen Solutions behind us, a TurboChef, where it’s a greaseless, ventless oven. If you’re not familiar with how to cook, we can get you to turn a pizza out in three minutes. So there’s some really neat things to improve that ROI.
So to tie in what we were talking about and what the Middleby Brewing and Distilling Solutions Group truly offers, we’re actually sitting in our bar and restaurant section of our booth. We’ve got the Cervizi and NexDraft right here, SS right behind me, Wild Goose with our new infeed and outfeed, Deutsche Brew House over here, our deaeration skid, and our Stale. All in a booth. So come by and say hi to us today.
That’s awesome. Anything else we want to share or talk about today?
No, just excited for the first full day. Yesterday was absolutely awesome. Three hours of the preview was incredible to see existing customers, potential customers. Talked about anything from sake to beer to can-on-canning. A lot of excitement about the new infeed and outfeed for Wild Goose. Emails exploded. So that was very good to see. Now I’m just excited. Selfishly, it’s in my territory, so I’m really happy to be here in Philly.
Yeah, seeing existing customers, like you said, come in here and just say we’ve had a great experience with you and kind of feeding that energy is exciting here in the booth. For us to reconnect with a lot of folks we haven’t seen in a while coming in—it’s been a fun show, and I’m excited for the next couple days.
Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you guys. I appreciate the time.
Thank you. Cheers.
