Social Media Standouts: Juicy Bits MVP of the Game, Daisy Cutter's 15th, and "The Pumper"
It’s a fun time to be a beer fan. Local breweries are fighting harder than ever for our limited attention. On social media, each are walking a tight rope to balance their authenticity with the world of entertaining videos that appease the algorithm. While its easy to be critical, I find myself smashing that “save” button more than ever as I see more creativity and outside-the-box thinking. Today’s standouts came from flexing powerful friendships, celebrating milestones in style, and combining function & branding with nostalgia.
The Weldwerks Juicy Bits MVP of the Game
Not too long ago, I came across this photo of a co-branded beer between Breckenridge Brewery and the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets. Breck is one of those funny examples of a craft brewery, turned AB-InBev acquisition, turned “craft brewery” again when it was resold. Despite being a massive publicly traded CPG company, Tilray Brands isn’t in the beverage alcohol space, allowing their acquirees to claim or reclaim their independent designation. The Nuggets beer feels right out of the AB playbook, but looks extra classy, probably due to the gorgeous throwback Nuggets logo. I love it.
In the beer industry though, personal relationships can often get you places that these expensive partnerships cannot. The Nuggets coach Michael Malone for example is a big fan of WeldWerks Brewing and stops into the brewery frequently to enjoy one of his favorite beers “Juicy Bits”. He thinks so much of them that he made up his own designation to shout them out on live television during press conferencs, which has happened multiple times now:
If I were paying to be the Nuggets exclusive craft beer sponsor, I wouldn’t be thrilled with this, but what can you do? As a fan of WeldWerks though, I am in fact, quite thrilled. You have to go back to September 2023 to find a better performing reel on their feed, which was for a Cream Cheese Rangoon Gose 😟 😆
Daisy Cutter Turns 15 and Crushed FWIBF
Half Acre’s Daisy Cutter is a true gem in the Chicago beer scene having laid the blueprint for practically every local brewery here carrying a year-round, local Pale Ale. They started up around the same era as we did at Revolution, pulling inspiration from many of the same California stalwarts like Firestone Walker and Sierra Nevada. So what a flex by our neighbors to unveil three new beers within a month to celebrate Daisy’s 15th Anniversary, including two collaborations with both of these West Coast juggernauts:
Daisy Cutter Select Double IPA, brewed in collaboration with Sierra Nevada 😮 Both teams hand-selected special lots of freshly harvested Centennial from CLS Farms, in the Yakima Valley. All agreed on a selection that presented punchy notes of sweet, bright citrus, with a touch of background earth. Half Acre used it to build a recipe that echoes the ages – Classic IPA. When tasting it, they want you inundated with your earliest & most concrete memories animated by high quality, hoppy beer.
Daisy Cutter FIFTEEN is a compliment to OG Daisy & DC Select. A hazy pale ale with a leaner & cleaner, stripped down malt base, allowing the mix of NZ + Pacific NW hops to create an alternate Daisy Cutter reality. Riwaka & Nectaron pitch ripe, tropical strawberry & peach while the Strata counters with dank grass. This is hazy, luminously opaque, yet light bodied & well balanced with mild bitterness & a slight diesel splash 🤤
Trailing West is this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival signature, collaborative release. A limited-edition pilsner made with Half Acre, the recipe pairs a decoction mash of an Austrian barley variety over 100 years old with old-world Hersbrucker and Hallertaur Mittelfruh hops. It’s crisp, complex, and worth cracking into again, again, and again.
What a trifecta…I need oxygen. Two random things about Half Acre, beyond my undying fandom for their people, culture, and beer:
I love that Daisy Cutter’s milestone anniversaries come about 1 year before Revolution’s because they serve as a reminder for me to get my shit together on our own plans 😬
I’ve always wondering what history would look like if Daisy Cutter and it’s 6.0% ABV was just a nominal 0.5% higher and called an IPA instead of a Pale Ale? 🤔
The Pumper!
Selling kegs to consumers may not be BIG business, but it’s certainly not small either if its made a focus area. The frustrating part is that you potentially impact a big party full of people, but with no branding to impress upon those enjoying the beer. About 40-50 years ago, Pittsburgh’s Iron City created a beloved branding opportunity for their kegs called The Pumper. Watch this hilarious commercial from the early 1980s:
Imagine driving to the beer distributor (that’s what most retailers were traditionally called in Pittsburgh) to pick up a keg for your party. The choices are:
The Pumper, which is local, has a fun name, is branded to look like beer, and could avoid the need to rent a big bucket for ice.
A plain keg
Which are you going with?
Recently, Pittsburgh Brewing Company teased it’s comeback on IC Light’s Instagram channel paying homage to the classic commercial and generating 5X their normal engagement. My wheels started turning about the viability of such a simple but impactful piece to pair with a B2C keg sale. It’s not necessarily about how many Pumpers you can sell, it’s about the additional Iron City and IC Light you sell from the Pumper being a fixture at parties and especially tailgates. What a great, o̶u̶t̶s̶i̶d̶e̶-inside-the-box idea.
Beyond the obvious engagement that these posts generated, there’s inspiration to take from fostering organic relationships with VIPs, getting ahead and aiming high when celebrating a big milestone, and owning an infrequently marketed occasion in your local area. Did anything jump out at you on your beer socials recently? If so, hit me up.
US citizen who lives in China here: the Pumper reminds me of the party kegs that breweries sell here in China.
Man, that IC Light Pumper totally reminded me of the Coors Light Party Ball late 80's.