Garage Beer Heading to New Heights

I don’t normally get my beer news from ESPN’s Adam Shefter, but 2024 continues to be full of fun surprises and nearly 2 million others found out via this one tweet. For many, it was probably their first time being exposed to Garage Beer. Less than 18 months ago, Braxton Brewery spun-off the light lager brand, removing the brewery name from the packaging and partnering with CPG veteran Andy Sauer to take it far and wide. One way to go about that efficiently is to align with big distribution networks, but how do you get their attention and energy these days? Partnering with two of the most popular athletes in the country and very successful hosts of the New Heights podcast could do the trick.

Why I like the Partnership

I enjoy all the characters behind this deal starting with Braxton Brewery’s founder Jake Rouse. In addition to owning the brewery, he also founded a modern sports card shop with his dad called HitSeekers. They have a big online presence having started in 2020 and are up to two locations. The newest is at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark and expands upon their partnership with the Cincinnati Reds. I casually follow the wild subculture and “alternative asset class” of cards and collectibles, so combine that with owning a brewery and announcing a partnership with two of the most famous and entertaining athletes?

Interesting to point out that fans of rival teams wouldn’t historically be excited about an adversary’s business moves and product endorsements, however the phenomenons of fantasy sports, gambling, card collecting, and content/podcasts has broken down some of those barriers. Most NFL fans have had a rooting interest in Travis Kelce at some point in their past and given his track record, there’s a solid chance he delivered for them.

What I Love About The Partnership

Beer has been trending down for awhile now in favor of seltzers, FMBs, and. RTDs. All of these feel like they’ll be semi short-lived, as far as growth and momentum goes, and I believe there’s eventually going to be a pushback, just like we’re seeing with Hard Seltzer. The boundaries will get pushed a little too far as competitors try to outdo each other, with line extension after line extension. The consumer will get overwhelmed and eventually pullback. The pendulum will swing back toward the simplicity and pastime of beer and we’re already seeing bets being placed, with rumors of much more.

I love this chart that my virtual buddy Andrew from New Belgium shares out on Twitter periodically. It demonstrates how clearly the dollars are shifting from Hard Seltzer directly into High Noon & Cutwater, the two largest spirit-based RTD cocktail brands, owned by Gallo and AB. Consumers move on quickly…

Speaking of Gallo, if they’re considering using Barstool Sports to market their recent acquisition of Montucky Cold Snacks in the way that they do High Noon, look out. Like’em or hate’em that’s a cultural match made is heaven. Secondly, Garage Beer as a close competitor to Montucky would be answering the challenge with the spotlight of NFL commentary, the Kelce brothers’ podcast, and the potential for a Taylor Swift chug video after a late game Touchdown.

Are we seeing early tremors of the next national beer brands being born? That’s what has me so intrigued and while this doesn’t directly benefit craft beer necessarily, it’s certainly more positive news than a new FMB craze.

What Some Hate About it

My schedule allowed me to react quickly and get an Instagram + TikTok reaction video up the same day. I create these much less so to share the news and more so to gauge people’s reaction to it, by sharing my perspective. I gain a lot personally by understanding the extent to which people agree or disagree, and most importantly why, which can shape how I view and communicate things in the future.

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Clearly a romantic craft beer zealot who dislikes the NFL is going to have zero interest in this news. I completely understand. Some compared it to a celebrity tequila brand, but unlike most of those, this beer has been around for years. I see two fun, entertaining brothers making their very first business partnership together and choosing an upstart beer brand to help grow. Of all the offers they must get given their popularity, they choose my favorite business, so I won’t apologize for being excited.

What Small Craft Brewers Could Take Away

Garage Beer was created by Braxton Brewery, a good-sized operation depending on your definition, in the vicinity of 20,000 barrels annually and heavily local to their Ohio & Kentucky markets. The initial response from fans gave them confidence that Garage Beer could do something that the rest of the Braxton portfolio couldn’t: travel. They knew the brand had wider potential, but were self-aware enough to know that the Braxton brands would lose relevance the farther they journied from home.

I always remember these quotes from founder Jake Rouse in the Feburary 2023 Brewbound piece announcing that Braxton had spun-off Garage Beer and added Andy Sauer to take the helm:

“Our skill set is that we know better than most how to resonate a brand in call it Dayton through the state of Kentucky. We understand that customer, our brand is recognized with that customer, and we can really grow it.

However…

“When we want to go bigger — and we tried this with our Vive Hard Seltzer brand — it takes a different skill set. You’re not thinking as much about feet on the street as you are about a broader national marketing campaign.”

There’s a refreshing combination of self-awareness, discipline and aggression on display here. It’s easy to get convinced to open new markets because there’s going to be some volume there at first. But if you aren’t selling enough beer to afford sales support, it’s nearly impossible to maintain those levels with a good distributor alone, and there’s often nowhere to go but down. That’s what Braxton saw happening when considering wider geographic expansion of their craft brands. Garage Beer on the other hand has the potential to play by a different set of rules and the partnership with the Kelce brothers is an opportunity to write their own.