Social Media Standouts: Tree House, IC Light, and Anchor Christmas
It’s pretty common for me to surf my beer social media feeds and have a post catch my eye, inspire me, or make me scratch my head. Whether it’s the good, the bad, or the ugly (mostly good), I’m going to make this a recurring theme to call out a few of these posts that you may have missed.
Treehouses is Full of Hot Air
When I think about a brewery’s satellite taprooms, I usually imagine a pretty simple, pared-down setup where the biggest feature is Jenga and maybe pups being allowed. Tree House Brewing Co. on the other hand, continues to think bigger and beyond what anyone could imagine, extending miles past the templates that so many craft breweries follow. On the Sunday before the 4th of July, Massachusetts’ darling advertised on their @treehousereleases instagram page that tethered Hot Air Balloon Rides would be offered at their South Deerfield, MA location. You’d need to force an unthinkable number of King J-J-J-J-J-ulius' down my throat to get me that high up in the air these days, but this is at least a type of inflation that I can get behind.
It wasn’t long ago that Tree House caught my attention when they released their own collectible trading card set released in randomized packs containing standard base versions and more rare, numbered variants. Sound familiar? The cards encompassed not only their beers and brand, but their employees as well. Shortly thereafter, the brewery turned heads after announcing the purchase of their 5th location, a golf course and clubhouse. Tree House continues to play chess as they associate their beer with memorable experiences like a hot air balloon ride, the nostalgia triggered by opening trading cards, and being on the golf course with friends.
The Gift of Iron City
Last week, David Bednar of the Pittsburgh Pirates received exciting news that he’d been selected to the All-Star game, while on their roadtrip in Los Angeles. A spot opened up when Clayton Kershaw, a ten-time All-Star for the Dodgers, would no longer be available to pitch in the game. Upon finding out among teammates in the locker room, Bednar, a native of Pittsburgh, was handed a 12-pack of Pittsburgh-made Iron City Light and promptly hoisted it over his head. He got them chilled up and delivered them to Kershaw.
First off, I think it’s great that the team brings I.C. Light on their roadtrip. Second, I’m not sure if this was purely spontaneous by Bednar, or an idea planted by their marketing team. Iron City is one of many beer sponsors of the team and the 12-pack was even co-branded with the Pirates. Regardless, the value of the partnership was on full display as the two related Instagram posts alone generated over 50,000 Likes, meaning probably well over 1M Views, all surrounded by the fun role that beer can play in a celebration.
Iron City’s brand has a lot in common with Pabst-owned legacy brands like Old Style, Lone Star, Rainier, etc. which are low cost and beloved by their local region. Unlike Pabst brands, which are owned by a private equity firm, ownership of Pittsburgh Brewing Company is local and production of Iron City just returned to the Pittsburgh-area. With Iron City’s audience being almost exclusively the Yinzer faithful, betting big on the local sports teams through sponsorship makes all the sense in the world and while there’s tangible benefits to every partnership, Bednar and the team demonstrated the unknown benefits that can surprise you along the way.
Anchor Brewing Stirs the Pot
A lot of conversation came out of recent reporting that San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing, the original US craft brewery which was purchased by Sapporo in 2017, would be retrenching from wide distribution nationally to California-only. The logic of this pull-back in today’s environment made a lot of sense, putting all attention behind in-state distribution which represents an estimated 70-80% of their volume.
Along with the news of getting smaller, word reached the mainstream that Anchor would cease brewing their famous Christmas Ale. While I imagine sales have been decimated over the last ten years due to more local and on-trend competition around the holidays, many still made it a tradition to pick up Anchor’s “Special Ale” in part because the recipe and label would both be modified from year to year and were even candidates for cellaring. Given the news and disappointment from fans, I was curious to see them so quick to repost Stephen Loh’s (Host of Malt Couture 🎧 ) instagram post, using it as an opportunity to sell in-person verticals which includes…a 2023 version?
It appears that fresh off of the public learning that they’d be discontinuing their Christmas Special Ale, Anchor has gone ahead and brewed a brand new vintage (???) in these early Summer months and is selling it on-site only via tours as a vertical with past vintages 🤔 🧐 🤨 While this could certainly just be a chance to capitalize on the recent publicity and move some vintage bottles in the process, something still feels off here…Thoughts?
See something interesting that a brewery is sharing on Instagram or TikTok? DM or tag me @beeraficionado. I’d love to check it out.