Small Bytes: Brand Nots, PR Spin, Elated, Rivalry Beers, Viral Strategies, and Mustard 🌭
Happy Thanksgiving Week! Here’s some small bytes to tide you over before your big bites on Thursday. These are mostly gathered from social media posts that resulted in me smashing the “save” button.
We’re Living in a World of NOTs
According to Mark Gallo’s latest TikTok, we’re now living in a world of NOTs as he featured three emerging beverage brands beginning with the word: Not Pizza, Not Beer, and Not a Celebrity Tequila. These concepts strike me as a great short term way to grab attention, so I’ll be curious to see if and how they can stay top of mind beyond the introduction phase of their roll-out.
💡 Free idea: Someone make a West Coast IPA called NOT HAZY
PR Spin 🗞️ 🌪️
Anheuser-Busch recently announced that a significant amount of production of Golden Road & Elysian, two of their more successful craft brewery acquisitions from ten years ago, will shift to nearby AB facilities. The result will include a number of lost jobs as Elysian’s Georgetown Brewery, who unionized amid tense negotiations beginning in 2023, will be shut down at the end of the year.
Golden Road will move away from its Atwater Village Brewery & Pub to their Anaheim Brewery & Pub “and other craft facilities in the Anheuser-Busch network,” according to their announcement. Both announcements were timed with mentions of $1.6M and $1.7M investments into their respective retail operations, where small batch beers and piloting are expected to remain a priority, I would assume to put a positive spin on all the job losses.
Elated
I realize that I need to cool off from all the Sierra Nevada Celebration content, but it just kept writing itself. That’s why I am excited, no, ELATED to share that Hi-Wire Brewing is back at it after the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene. They’re coming at the cold season with a Winter IPA, but they’re not just slapping the season on a hoppy beer. I love the thought and connection behind the recipe, specifically the call-out of 'Michigan Chinook’, a legendary version of the classic hop among brewers that has distinct differences from the Chinook grown in the PNW. Citrus and pineapple jump out along with the classic base of pine needles that goes so well with the holiday fruitcake season. Paired with Idaho 7 for additional fruity notes on top of the caramel & toasted bread malt character, and you’ve got a Winter IPA worthy of 𝙲̶𝚎̶𝚕̶𝚎̶𝚋̶𝚛̶𝚊̶𝚝̶𝚒̶𝚘̶𝚗̶ Elation.
HOT FROSTY!
There’s this super talented guy named Russell Hainline who I became friends with during COVID, as one of the few making funny beer content on TikTok at the time. Turns out he writes movies in Los Angeles and one of his specialties is Christmas movies. His latest called Hot Frosty just came out and was already spoofed by Ryan Reynolds to promote his Aviation Gin. Saddle up with that special someone, a tasty holiday-themed beer, and give it a watch on Netflix.
Here’s us making collab TikTok a few years ago:
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Rivalry Beers
I hesitate to bring up the embarrassing loss suffered by my Steelers to the Browns on Thursday night, but check out two ways that the breweries I follow got involved. Iron City shared this commemorative throwback can from 1995 on their social media, and Fat Head’s released a limited edition IPA with competing colors for each fanbase since they’re uniquely positioned in both cities.
Garage Beer Sponsors Chugging
Move over, Kelce brothers — Garage Beer might have found a much cheaper way to go even more viral — sponsoring the greatest chugger that the world has ever seen, Ronny Doitche. I’m convinced that he’s half man, half pelican, watching beers go down the hatch in about 1.5s.
Here’s his regular segment where fans wager $20 to win $100 if they can chug a beer faster. This game is rigged worse than any carnival game but he is quite the attraction and this one episode alone got 5.2M views on Instagram alone.
Here he is doing a chug with ESPN’s Pat McAfee, with Garage Beer featured as well, earning another 4M+ views just on IG.
Dovetail Messed Around And 𝙶̶𝚘̶𝚝̶ ̶𝙰̶ ̶𝚃̶𝚛̶𝚒̶𝚙̶𝚕̶𝚎̶ ̶𝙳̶𝚘̶𝚞̶𝚋̶𝚕̶𝚎̶ Went Viral
If you’re not familiar, Dovetail Brewery is essentially Disneyland for lager fans in the city of Chicago. They’re far from tiny, with strong distributors in the city and suburbs, and a great presence at bars looking for one of their many year-round and seasonal lager offerings. Personally, I’ve always appreciated the thoughtful events they put on at their Taproom, often connecting a specific beer to food in partnership with another vendor. Recently, they made a masterful Instagram Reel, showcasing Oyster Purveyors “Motorshucker” alongside their Kölsch service, which secured 375K views compared to their following of 20.9K. They were as surprised as anyone by the results, but to me it was the perfect example of “fuck around and find out”.
This is Approved Sierra Nevada, But Stay Away From My Heinz Ketchup
And it sure as hell beats this:
Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for continuing to support Beer Crunchers by sharing with your network and signing up for the premium tier. I really appreciate it and looking forward to a strong finish to the year. Cheers y’all 🍻