Mother Earth Brewing

Launching a Brewery and Conveying Its Homegrown Southern Roots

Born in the small town of Kinston, North Carolina, Mother Earth is a brewery with a strong commitment to the environment and its deep southern roots. Founders Stephen Hill and Trent Mooring, both Kinston natives, built the business on their shared love of craft beer along with their respect for nature and the local farming community. Mother Earth is the first brewery in the country to become LEED Gold Certified by the United States Green Building Council.

When they decided to bring their brews to the web, Mother Earth approached us to build a site that would showcase the essence of their brand and allow them to grow without sacrificing their signature local feel. 

Showcasing Craft Beer

At the heart of Mother Earth is the product – artfully crafted beverages that are distinctly local. Beginning on the homepage, the site highlights the beers by utilizing a series of rotating slides. The slides are regularly updated to show off seasonal beers, new releases, and recent award winners. 

The site’s interior is similarly guided by a focus on the product. From the homepage, visitors are directed towards a detailed roster of the brewery’s craft beers. Beers can be sorted by type and style, adding an interactive element that engages visitors and encourages further exploration of the site. 

Other pages continue to carry through the brand and sense of place. Throughout the site, visitors are brought back to nature with images of raw materials like hops and wheat. The parchment-like background evokes a feeling of heritage and tradition, while at the same time, the site is kept dynamic through the inclusion of the brewery’s live-updating social media feeds. 

Cultivating Visitor Engagement

Visitor engagement is reinforced by the integration of a custom developed Brewfinder tool. This custom application was built by our development team to help Mother Earth easily showcase where customers can find their brews, whether on tap or in a store.  

To make it as easy as possible for the team to maintain, we set up the Brewfinder to be powered by an internal spreadsheet where Mother Earth can manage and upload all of its locations. This allows the brewery to maintain the data in systems that they already have in place. And then through a single upload, Mother Earth can make that information available to everyone who visits their site.

The Brewfinder allows visitors to input their zip code and choose a search radius for results, giving visitors the ability to tailor the search to their exact needs. The results are displayed in a list and on an interactive map that gives visitors a visual for where they can enjoy their favorite Mother Earth brews.

Growing with the Brand

As Mother Earth has grown and expanded, the setup has allowed the website to adapt and scale alongside the business. The flexible Content Management System makes it easy for administrators to publish new content, update images, and add informational pages as needed. 

Mother Earth began with just a few beers and a vision of a high quality, local product. Since the launch of the site, the brewery has released dozens of new beers, unveiled a craft spirits line, and opened a motor lodge hotel experience. The site was featured on CSS Beauty, a popular design gallery, and continues to gain traction and draw visitors from across the country.