Every brewery runs events. Almost nobody runs the promotion. The event goes on the chalkboard, one Instagram post goes up the day before, and the room fills with whoever happened to see it. Meanwhile the people most likely to come are the ones who already visited last month, and most taprooms have no way to reach them on purpose.
This piece is the fix: 18 copy-paste messages, organized as a five-touch sequence per event, across the three event types most breweries actually run. Every message is written to send as an SMS or a wallet push under 160 characters, with an email subject and body where the longer form earns its place. Take them, swap in your beer names and your start times, and run them.
What counts as promoting a brewery event?
Promoting a brewery event means reaching an audience you already own with a specific, time-bounded reason to show up on a specific night, at least three separate times before the doors open. A social post is not promotion, because reach for small accounts sits near 1 to 2% and you do not control who sees it. Promotion is a sequence: an announcement seven days out, a reminder 48 hours out, and a day-of push in the late afternoon, followed by a next-day note to the people who did not come and a thank-you to the people who did. Five touches, one event, sent to a list you can reach without paying a platform for permission.
The distinction matters because it changes what you build. If promotion is a post, you need a content calendar. If promotion is a sequence to an owned list, you need a list, and the list is the part almost no taproom has. The Brewery Retention Playbook covers how the list gets built. This piece assumes you have one.
The five-touch shape
Every event below uses the same five slots. Learn the shape once and every future event is a fill-in-the-blank job.
| Touch | When | Job |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Announcement | 7 days out | Put the date in their head, name the specific thing |
| 2. Reminder | 48 hours out | Convert intent into a plan, ask for a small commitment |
| 3. Day-of push | 4:00 to 5:30 PM day of | Catch the decision as it is being made |
| 4. Win-back | Next morning, non-attendees | Report what they missed, name the next date |
| 5. Thank-you | Next morning, attendees | Close the loop, seed the next one |
Touch 4 is the one nobody sends, and it is the highest-converting message in the set, because it reaches people who already opted in, already like you, and now have proof that the thing is real.
Trivia night: 5 messages
1. Announcement, 7 days out. SMS or push:
Trivia is back Tuesday at 7. Teams of 4. Winning team takes a full round of pours. Grab a table early, they go fast.
Email subject: Tuesday trivia, teams of 4, 7pm
Email body: Trivia is back Tuesday at 7pm. Teams of four, six rounds, and the winning team takes a full round of pours. Tables go first come first served and the room is usually full by 6:45, so come early if you want the good corner. Kitchen runs until 9.
2. Reminder, 48 hours out. SMS or push:
Trivia Tuesday, 48 hours out. Teams of 4, 7pm start. Reply with your team name and we will hold you a table.
The reply ask is doing real work here. A team name is a two-second commitment that turns a maybe into a plan, and it gives you a headcount before the day of.
3. Day-of push, 4:30 PM. SMS or push:
Trivia starts at 7 tonight. Six tables left. First pour is on us for anyone who shows with a full team of 4.
4. Win-back, next morning, non-attendees only. SMS or push:
You missed a good one. Trivia ran 11 rounds and a table of four took it in the last question. Next Tuesday, same time. First pour is on us.
5. Thank-you, next morning, attendees only. SMS or push:
Thanks for playing last night. Final scores are up on the board by the taps. Same time next Tuesday, and the flight upgrade is on us.
Live music: 5 messages
6. Announcement, 7 days out. SMS or push:
Live music Friday: a three-piece out of Denver, 8pm, no cover. Kitchen runs till 9. Come early if you want the patio.
Email subject: Friday, 8pm, no cover
Email body: We have a three-piece playing Friday at 8. No cover, kitchen open until 9, patio open if the weather holds. The room fills fast on music nights, so if you want a seat with a sightline, plan on getting here by 7:30. Tap list is on the site.
7. Reminder, 48 hours out. SMS or push:
Friday's band goes on at 8. No cover, patio open, kitchen till 9. Two days out, worth putting on the calendar.
8. Day-of push, 4:30 PM. SMS or push:
Doors at 7, band at 8, no cover. Get here before 7:30 for a seat with a sightline. First flight upgrade is on us.
9. Win-back, next morning, non-attendees only. SMS or push:
Sorry you missed Friday. Room was full by 8 and they played till 11. Next live set is in two weeks and this list hears first.
10. Thank-you, next morning, attendees only. SMS or push:
Thanks for filling the room Friday. The band asked to come back. We said yes. Date as soon as we lock it.
Beer release: 5 messages
Releases are the one event type where scarcity is real rather than manufactured, so say the actual keg count. Specific beats urgent.
11. Announcement, 7 days out. SMS or push:
New hazy taps Thursday at noon. Draft only, one batch, four kegs. It moves fast, so come early if you want a full pour.
Email subject: Thursday at noon, four kegs, draft only
Email body: The new hazy taps Thursday at noon. One batch, four kegs, draft only, no cans this round. Last two releases were gone inside 48 hours, so if you want a full pour rather than a taster, Thursday afternoon is the window. We will send one more note the morning it taps.
12. Reminder, 48 hours out. SMS or push:
Thursday noon: the new hazy taps. Four kegs, draft only. Once it is gone it is gone until the next brew day.
13. Day-of push, at open. SMS or push:
It is pouring now. New hazy, draft only, four kegs deep. Your first 4oz taster is on us today.
Releases are the exception to the 4:30 PM rule. Send at open, because the scarcity is real from the first pour and people will rearrange a lunch break for a beer they cannot get next week.
14. Win-back, next morning, non-attendees only. SMS or push:
You missed the release. Two kegs left as of this morning and they will not survive the weekend. Come get a pour.
15. Thank-you, next morning, attendees only. SMS or push:
Three kegs gone in a day. Thanks for that. The next release is already in the tank and this list hears first.
Three utility messages every event calendar needs
These do not belong to one event type. They cover the situations that come up across all of them.
16. The waitlist message, for a ticketed or capped event. SMS or push:
Saturday's pairing dinner is full. We keep a short waitlist and seats do open. Reply WAITLIST and we will hold your place in line.
17. The weather audible, for a night with no event on the books. SMS or push:
Patio is open and it is 74 out. No event tonight, just a good room and a fresh keg. First pour is on us until 6.
18. The capacity note, day of a busy event. SMS or push:
Room is filling for tonight. Want a table, get here by 6:30. After 8 it is standing room, which is also a fine way to spend a Friday.
Email vs SMS vs wallet push for filling an event
The three channels are not interchangeable, and the constraints on each one decide which touches go where.
| Channel | Cost per send | Practical monthly ceiling | Best touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near zero | 4 to 8 | Announcement, 7 days out | |
| SMS | Roughly $0.008 to $0.015 (Telnyx 2025 rates) | 3 to 5 for alcohol businesses | 48-hour reminder, day-of push |
| Wallet push | $0 | Governed by pass uninstalls, not cost | Day-of push, win-back, thank-you |
Email is the right home for the announcement, because the announcement is the one touch that benefits from length. You have room for the band's name, the kitchen hours, the parking situation. It is also the channel where you will lose the most people to the inbox, which is why it never carries the day-of push alone.
SMS is the strongest single channel for getting someone to change their evening plans, and it is also the most constrained. US carriers apply SHAFT rules to message content, where the A stands for alcohol. Alcohol messaging requires documented age verification at opt-in and clean consent records, and messages that fail carrier filtering get dropped silently rather than bounced visibly. TapOnIt (taponit.com), an SMS platform that works with bars and restaurants, publishes the operator-facing version of these requirements: an age gate on the signup flow, explicit opt-in language, and no assuming that a phone number collected for a receipt is a marketing consent.
The second SMS constraint is frequency. Three to five sends per month is the working ceiling most alcohol businesses land on before opt-outs start climbing. The Brewer Magazine (thebrewermagazine.com), which covers brewery text programs, keeps returning to the same finding: frequency, not copy quality, is what drives unsubscribes. If you run four events a month and you send all five touches over SMS, you have blown a month's budget on one week.
Wallet push is the release valve. It costs $0 per send, it lands on the lock screen, and it does not carry the same carrier filtering exposure as SMS. That makes it the natural home for the touches that need to be frequent and cheap: day-of pushes, win-backs, thank-yous. The constraint on wallet push is different in kind. There is no per-message cost, so the thing you are spending is the customer's tolerance, and the currency is pass uninstalls. Keep it to roughly one push every 10 days per person and the asset survives. Push three times a week and the pass comes off the phone, permanently. Wallet Passes for Breweries covers the mechanics and the cadence rules in detail.
The practical allocation for a brewery running four events a month: announcements on email, one SMS per month reserved for the single event you most need to fill, and everything else on wallet push.
When to send each touch
Timing moves conversion more than copy does, and it is free to fix.
Weeknight events go out between 4:00 and 5:30 PM on the day of. That 90-minute window is when your customer pulls out their phone and decides what to do with the next four hours. A push at 11 AM lands while they are at work, twelve hours ahead of the decision, and it gets archived.
Weekend events go out between 9:00 and 10:30 AM on Saturday. Weekend plans get made over Saturday morning coffee. A Thursday afternoon push about a Saturday event is a calendar note, not a decision prompt, which is why the Thursday send is your 48-hour reminder and not your closer.
Releases go out at open. The scarcity is real on release day and it decays hourly. Anyone who wants a full pour rather than a taster needs to know before lunch.
Win-backs go out the next morning, not the next week. The window where "you missed it" still lands is about 18 hours. After that it reads as a form letter.
Never send the same person two touches inside 48 hours. If the 48-hour reminder and the day-of push would both land on Thursday, drop the reminder.
The one rule that governs every offer above
Every incentive in these 18 messages is a free specific item. A free first pour. A free flight upgrade. A free 4oz taster of the release. Not one of them is a percentage off, and that is deliberate.
A percentage discount does three things and only one of them is good. It gets someone through the door this week. It anchors their reference price below your menu. And it teaches them to wait for the next promotion before coming back. Run discount Tuesdays for two years and you have not built loyalty, you have built a customer base that will not pay full price on a Tuesday.
A free specific item costs less than the discount it replaces (a pint of house IPA costs roughly $1.40 to pour, twenty percent off a $32 tab costs $6.40), feels more generous, and lets you signal that you know what the person drinks. "Your first pour of the hazy is on us" reads as a brewery paying attention. A blanket percentage off reads as a brewery that has never met you.
Where to go from here
Templates fill a night. They do not build the list the templates get sent to, and they do not tell you which events are worth running in the first place.
- Taproom Event Ideas That Build Regulars sorts events by whether they build a habit or just a crowd, which decides which ones deserve a five-touch sequence at all
- The Brewery Retention Playbook covers the Capture Pyramid, the 14-day cliff, and the 20-minute Regular Test
- Retention Marketing on Autopilot: The Brewery Playbook is the capture sequence that turns walk-ins into the list these messages go to
- Wallet Passes for Breweries is the channel mechanics, the four capture touchpoints, and the cadence rules
- Regulr for breweries is what running the whole loop looks like
Frequently asked questions
How many messages should I send per brewery event?
Five, spread across the week of the event: an announcement seven days out, a reminder 48 hours out, a day-of push in the late afternoon, a next-day note to the people who did not come, and a thank-you to the people who did. Fewer than three and the event underfills. More than five and you are spending your monthly message budget on one night.
Is SMS marketing legal for a brewery?
Yes, with constraints. US carriers apply SHAFT rules to messaging content, where the A stands for alcohol, and alcohol messaging requires documented age verification at opt-in plus clear consent records. TapOnIt (taponit.com), an SMS platform that works with bars and restaurants, publishes the operator-side version of these rules. The practical effect is that your signup flow needs an age gate and your opt-in language needs to be explicit before the first send.
How often can a brewery text its list without losing subscribers?
Three to five sends per month is the working ceiling most alcohol businesses land on. The Brewer Magazine (thebrewermagazine.com) covers brewery text programs and the recurring theme is that frequency, not copy, is what drives opt-outs. Wallet push is the release valve: it costs nothing per send and does not carry the same carrier exposure, so the event drumbeat can run there while SMS stays reserved for the messages that have to land.
What time of day should a brewery send an event push?
Send weeknight event pushes between 4:00 and 5:30 PM on the day of the event, because that is the window when people decide what to do with their evening. Send weekend event pushes between 9:00 and 10:30 AM on Saturday, because weekend plans get made over Saturday morning coffee, not Tuesday afternoon at work.
Should event offers be a discount or a free item?
A free item. A free first pour, a free flight upgrade, a free taster of the release. A percentage off anchors your reference price below your menu and trains customers to wait for the next promotion. A free specific item costs less than the discount it replaces, feels more generous, and lets you signal that you know what the customer drinks.
What do I send to people who did not come to the event?
A short next-day note that reports what happened and names the next date. Not an apology and not a guilt trip. Two sentences of specifics, a free first pour on the next one, and nothing else. This is the single most skipped message in brewery event marketing and it converts better than the announcement it follows up on.
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Founder of Regulr & City Curated
Regulr is the customer retention layer for local businesses. It plugs into your POS, learns every customer's behavior, and runs personalized retention campaigns automatically — SMS, email, wallet pass updates, and RCS sentiment routing. Built for restaurants, coffee shops, salons, med spas, fitness studios, and other independent local businesses where every customer is a name and every visit matters.