Long-term Strategies for a Shorter Life Expectancy

As brewers expand their portfolios to satisfy consumers’ thirst for the new, they’re also finding ways to create consistency and efficiency within change.

As brewers expand their portfolios to satisfy consumers’ thirst for the new, they’re also finding ways to create consistency and efficiency within change.

NEW BELGIUM BREWING COMPANY

offered five core beers when brewmaster Peter Bouckaert came on board in 1996. “Now I don’t know how many we have,” he says.

When people found a beer they liked in the early days of craft beer’s ascendancy, they tended to stick with it. If you looked in an adventurous beer drinker’s fridge at that time, you’d likely find a stash of Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Anchor Steam, or another such stalwart. Breweries were built around their flagship brands. Even today, whenever Bouckaert travels back to Belgium, beer coolers there look more or less the same as they did 20 years ago, he says. In the United States, meanwhile, the life cycle of beers has become so foreshortened that it’s measured in seasons rather than in years.

This isn’t a new trend. The craft industry has tracked the decline of flagship beers for some time, and many journalists have written their obituary. Sales of some flagships remain strong—cheers to you Lagunitas IPA, Goose Island IPA, Sculpin, and your ilk—but that growth is largely constrained to breweries that have graduated from craft status, per the Brewers Association definition, and are buoyed by the distribution and promotional muscle of big beer. For smaller craft brewers, it’s no longer tenable to build a business around a tent-pole brand.

“You can’t stay still and just keep making the same beer and expect it to sell in the same way,” Bouckaert says. “You have to adapt over time with your production because people have become so whimsical.”

It’s a fundamental principle of business and of nature: Adapt or die. But the shift toward more seasonal and one-off offerings also entails challenges and opportunities that are less straightforward.

From a branding and marketing perspective, the challenge becomes representing the brewery in a consistent, recognizable way while its offerings are continually in flux. Consider New Belgium’s messaging and imagery. For years, the brand was synonymous with Fat Tire, and now it’s expanded to encompass much more, including a reputation for sustainability and for its barrel-aged and sour-beer program.

For brewers, a more diverse portfolio requires a continual and accelerated exploration of styles and recipe development. There’s also the challenge of branding and marketing those new beers but increased opportunity to respond quickly to changing tastes and trends.

It’s a fundamental principle of business and of nature: Adapt or die. But the shift toward seasonal and one-off offerings also entails challenges and opportunities that are less straightforward.

Many brewers keep things fresh while also offering consistency and structure with rotating seasonal releases as well as with series of related beers. Think Stone Brewing’s “Enjoy By” series, Avery Brewing’s Botanical & Barrels series, and Firestone Walker’s Luponic Distortion, its “revolving hop series” that offers differing blends of experimental hops packaged under a consistent label.

Melvin Brewing in Alpine, Wyoming, is known for 2x4, its gold-medal-winning double IPA. Building on its reputation for making quality IPAS, the brewery introduced the RIIPA Series (Rotating Imperial India Pale Ale) to help satisfy consumers’ thirst for the new.

“Many people just want to try a beer once, rate it on their mobile device and move on to the next,” says Melvin Cofounder Jeremy Tofte. “We’re going to give people what they want. We’ll offer a new beer to try every three months, and then they won’t see it again for another nine.”

Firestone Walker also recently launched its Leo v. Ursus series, what the brewery calls a “chronology” of thematically related one-off beers released each quarter.

Both Luponic Distortion and Leo v. Ursus “are vehicles that allow us to experiment but also give the retailer and customer the choice they are seeking,” says Cofounder David Walker.

“There is more competition in the cold box and on tap, and that is having an impact on beers being allowed to get sustained exposure. That will shorten a beer’s life cycle,” Walker says. “That said, we are still making fresh DBA every day, which was the first beer we made 21 years ago, so there is always room for a well-made beer thoughtfully positioned and steadily talked about. All beers have a life cycle and need to be refreshed and relevant to thrive.”

New Belgium’s Ranger IPA was, for a time, the best-selling IPA in the country. Although sales were strong, they’d started to plateau, Bouckaert says, so the brewery decided to revamp and relaunch the brand as Voodoo Ranger IPA.

“We described Ranger as an oak IPA,” Bouckaert says. “It was only three or four years old, but the customers had moved on from IPAS like that.”

Voodoo Ranger includes an additional hops variety and is more full-bodied than Ranger IPA. After Slow Ride Session IPA was on the market just two years, New Belgium also evolved it into Voodoo Ranger 8 Hop Pale Ale, which adds an additional hops variety to the mix and slightly increases its ABV.

Bouckaert says,“when we’re developing a new beer, especially if it’s a hops-forward variety, we say, ‘Okay, what do we have, what do we know is on the horizon for beers, and how are sales holding? Where do we have excess hops, and what hops could we use?’ It’s like a puzzle.”

An ever-evolving portfolio also gives breweries more options when sourcing raw materials such as hops. If a new brand takes off, they can always buy more on the spot market, up their contract, or even change a recipe based on availability.

“There was a broker push a few years ago in the hops world to extend contracts,” Bouckaert says. Brokers “took advantage of a somewhat artificial shortage—it was more of a variety shortage than it was a hops shortage—to push long-term contracts.

“I refused to do that,” he says. “In the sense that, ‘hey, you and I, we don’t know what we’re going to be drinking in a bar two years from now, or even next week.’ I have to change up my portfolio. I’ll take risks … but this is a different market.”

Launching any unproven brand is a risky proposition but with strategic thinking, breweries are finding ways to realize consistent success within constant change. And, if a beer falls flat, there’s always the next one.