Turning non-drinkers into craft customers and gettin' fizzy with it.

Just Tapped 

Happy St. Patrick's Eve! Yeah, that's not really a thing, but it would be if it were up to Budweiser. Although it is great to celebrate Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is the most Budweiser of all Budweiser holidays. It ranks right up there with Cinco de Mayo, another American drinking holiday that is not really celebrated in the homeland that it is intended to celebrate. It's kind of confusing, so let's just get straight to it. 

Gettin' fizzy with it 

One of AB-InBev’s acquired-craft breweries, Elysian Brewing, just announced that it has entered the growing market for hop-flavored carbonated water. That got us thinking. It isn’t new, and some breweries already do it, but maybe more craft breweries should consider producing fizzy hop water. Maybe more bars and taprooms should serve it.

Elysian explained to Craft Business Daily that its decision to hop into hop water was driven by sales data. No surprise, right? A company spokesperson said that the category has seen a significant rise in popularity, citing NielsenIQ off-premise data that shows a 43.9% increase in sales. Currently, Elysian’s Odd Water is only available in the Pacific Northwest but if it's successful it could join the likes of Lagunitas Brewing's Hoppy Refresher, the Heineken-owned brewery’s widely distributed carbonated hop water. What Lagunitas is doing on a large scale, craft breweries can do on a smaller scale. 

It's hard to take hop water too seriously. It’s just hops and carbonated water, after all. “Hoppy Spritz hop water was born of our love for carbonated water and our love of hops. It wasn’t long before the two collided,” says Matt Lincecum, the founder of Fremont Brewing in Seattle. “I was working on non-alcoholic beers and realized the process of making a really good NA beer is going to take years and, being fundamentally impatient, I started working on Hoppy Spritz thinking it would be a breeze. Well, one year and countless iterations later, we released Hoppy Spritz to great appeal and success.”

Providing non-alcoholic, beer-adjacent options is a matter of inclusivity. Taprooms and bars should embrace the fact that some beer-buying patrons are accompanied by non-drinkers. You need not think of non-drinkers as non-customers. Offer everyone an opportunity to enjoy the craft experience. Make your carbonated water the best damn carbonated water out there! Make your fizzy hop water the non-alcoholic, beer-adjacent beverage of choice for sober-curious consumers. Wow, that's a lot of hyphens.

Do that voodoo, that you do, so well

What New Belgium Brewing does with its significant market presence and accompanying budget may seem unrelatable to what you're doing, but we shouldn't ignore what the Voodoo Rangers are up to. A couple of months ago we introduced readers to Fruit Force, the latest addition to the Voodoo Ranger family of imperial IPAs. Well, Fruit Force is already taking the world by storm and is now ranked among the top 30 craft beer brands in IRI multi-outlet + convenience channels (IRI MULC).

This success has not come at the expense of the rest of the family. All of the Voodoos are still growing. Collectively, the big three (Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, Juice Force, and Fruit Force) grew 68% in IRI MULC to over $40 million. 

Even if selling 19.2-ounce cans of Imperial IPA at convenience stores simply does not jive with what you do, it's still worth noting that something about the whole Voodoo Ranger thing is striking a chord with consumers. 

Around the Web 

• Nevada's craft brewers are battling to pass a law that would give them the right to distribute beer to themselves. That is, they want to transport beer to their own taprooms without getting distributors involved. (Story by the Nevada Independent.)

• A new awards program will celebrate sustainability at breweries and bars. Introducing the Keg Champion Awards.

Today is the day  

Everyone knows that tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, but today is also a day. March 16th is National Lip Appreciation Day. It is also National No Selfie Day. It's a good day to appreciate lips, but please refrain from posting purse-lipped, duck-face selfies. 

Geek Speak 

Raw Ale - Also referred to as no-boil beer, raw ale refers to a technique that sees the brewer not bring the wort to a boil during the brewing process. It's an ancient technique, but it's not forgotten and some modern breweries are experimenting with it. For example, we recently encountered a raw ale at Darach Brewing. Learn more about raw ale here. 

This week's Taster Tray was composed by Kendall Jones. 

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