Sufferfest, inspired by Marin Headlands’ trails, sidelined
In the final days of 2020, the beer industry said goodbye — at least for a while — to a promising brand launched in 2016. Sufferfest Beer Co. hit the ground running, quickly gaining a fan following with a unique fitness- oriented marketing approach, and when Sierra Nevada Brewing acquired the smaller brand in 2019, it seemed that Sufferfest, which was born in San Francisco and inspired by the trails and fire roads in the Marin Headlands, was destined for greatness. Instead, Sufferfest has been benched.
It isn’t clear why. Founder Caitlin Landesberg, an athlete who took up homebrewing before starting the company, has reportedly declined interviews, as has Sierra Nevada, which has brewed Sufferfest’s beer for about 18 months. But on Instagram, Sufferfest stated cryptically that “we have reached a point where we must catch our breath.”
2020 delivered a huge economic blow to many small breweries that struggled to sell their beer amid restaurant and bar closures caused by the pandemic. However, Sufferfest’s hiatus might not be a consequence of COVID-caused economic turmoil. Sierra Nevada’s acquisition of the brand gave it a big boost, pushing its beers — with names like Head Start Stout, Gut Check IPA, Shred Kolsch and Flyby Pilsner — into stores around the country. When the pandemic struck, Sufferfest fared relatively well, in fact. According to Good Beer Hunting’s Kate Bernot, Sufferfest’s sales were projected to grow by 60% through 2020 to more than $500,000.
But on Dec. 22, Sufferfest released the news. On its website, it announced: “As we enter 2021, we are pausing production to explore what’s next for Sufferfest Beer Co. As such, we do not plan to release any beers this year. As athletes know, the path to success is rarely a straight line, and