President of the Downtown Merchants’ Association, Miller is an active member of the city’s business community. In June, he began selling Trinity India Pale Ale (IPA) in six-packs under the corporate entity of Trinity Brewing Company, a subsidiary of Trinity Brewhouse. Bottled at Cottrell Brewing Company in Pawcatuck, Conn., the IPA is distributed to restaurants and liquor stores throughout Rhode Island. Miller’s plans for the future, though still at the conceptual stage, include opening another restaurant and a brewery in Providence.
PBN: Much has been said recently about the revitalization of downtown. Has this revitalization led to better sales at Trinity Brewhouse?
MILLER: I think it’s a little premature to decide whether business is improving because of what is happening downtown, but there definitely has been an increase in business downtown. I think the attention it is getting brings people downtown. I think a lot of the stuff you hear about is in the early stages of construction, so it hasn’t brought the business.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
PBN: In September, more than 500 RISD students moved into the newly renovated Rhode Island Hospital Trust building. How has that changed the demographics of your customer base?
MILLER: We’ve always had a great combination of theatergoers, which tend to be an older demographic, hockey players, which tend to be a different demographic, students, and people that already live and work in the area. So we’ve always had a great mix of people. Having 500 more RISD students living in the area might change that balance a little as they go out and explore their new neighborhood.
PBN: The developers of high-rise condos in Providence say they are marketing to baby boomers. Is that a demographic you think will benefit your business?
MILLER: I think the combination of what goes on downtown is what is going to benefit us. We like to attract diversity. I think the addition of residences puts some consistency in that. If Trinity Brewhouse becomes more of a neighborhood destination rather than an event destination, it gets you through from one day, when there is an event, to another day when there is no event. The more people that live and work in an area, the more consistency you have in your business rather than depending on events.
PBN: Tell us about your new retail product, Trinity IPA. Has that been a long time coming to the market?
MILLER: When we first opened in 1994, we opened on the heels of legislation that made it legal to have brew-pubs in the state. We found very quickly that there was a retail market for a local product, but the legislation that allowed brew-pubs was flawed. We actually had to go to the State House not once but twice in the last several years in order to get legislation changed to allow us to distribute our product on a wholesale level throughout the state. The idea of launching a retail product might have occurred as long as seven years ago, but we didn’t get the product on the shelves until this summer.
PBN: How responsive has the market been to the Trinity six-pack product?
MILLER: It’s been overwhelming; it’s really been a positive response. We’re on a schedule now where we can sell almost as much beer as we can schedule to brew. We sell a few thousand cases a month, but we feel we could sell more because we have actually run out of stock at least a couple of times. At the Cottrell brewery, we brew in 400-case batches and there are two other brands being brewed there right now (Cottrell Old Yankee Ale and Chester’s). So it’s a matter of scheduling and tank space.
PBN: Has running out of stock made you think about expanding your brewing capacity?
MILLER: We are in the thinking stages of building a brewery that has the capacity to have a bottling line to sustain the capacity that we feel success has brought us.
PBN: Where have you thought about building a brewery?
MILLER: Well I’m born and bred in Providence. The (Trinity Brewhouse) has an identity in Providence. So I would love to find a location right here in the city. But that’s really in the conceptual stage at this point. The idea of building a brewery is based on the idea of collaboration, where there would be at least a couple of brands involved in building a brewery. The downfall of a lot of small breweries has been that you build a brewery for one brand, and that brand may have a seasonal nature or a regional nature. So my idea is to put two or three brands in there, so the downtime of one brand could be the busy time of another brand, and it keeps a brewery busy at all times.
