Article by Ryan Gallagher, 20 Lemons LLC
There is no season to beer. Just new reasons to drink different sorts of suds. For New Jersey and America at large, beer consumption has begun to move away from the products of larger brewing organizations and more toward those of localized microbreweries. As a result, it’s never been more important for restaurants, bars, and breweries to concoct a plan for marketing new brew as it is released.
Last year, the craft brewers took over. Smaller and independent breweries yielded 25.9 million barrels of beer in an effort that increased the craft beer scene’s piece of the industry pie to a 13.2% market share. Beer production in 2018 retailed at $27.6 billion, created more than 150,000 jobs, and occurred during a 1% downturn for the overall beer industry, according to a recent report by the Brewers Association.
Even more interesting, NJ is tied for first place when it comes to growth in the American craft beer market. Since 2015, NJ’s craft beer scene has grown by 43%–tying Kentucky for most growth out of any other U.S. state, according to a study by C+R Research.
The evolution of legislation regarding the Garden State’s breweries had much to do with craft beer’s success in the state, according to Jeff Plate, Founder and Owner of Asbury Park Brewery (APB).
“Up until about 2013, you weren’t allowed to have a tasting room where you could also sell the beer. That rule change is the primary driver of why so many breweries are opening up now,” said Plate. “Also, you weren’t allowed to self-distribute back then. Now, the taproom-centric breweries are opening on Main Streets all throughout the state. So, it allows a smaller brewery to open up, brew their own beer, and sell it on premises rather than distribute it out to a lot of bars.”
With so much growth, the importance for beer brewers to differentiate themselves has been quite obvious. This fact describes the goals of GM, Todd O’Connor, owner Preston Casertano, and the team at White Chapel Projects (WCP) in Long Branch, NJ.
“We brew our own beer and want to be known for our saisons, our ales, our stouts, and our porters,” said O’Connor about the restaurant, bar, and brewery that took nearly 9 years to open up. Since launching in December 2018, WCP has established themselves as the only brewery in Long Branch in their newly-renovated space born from a 119-year-old, warehouse building.
Specializing in certain styles of beer and perfecting them is the easiest way for a small brewery to carve out a piece of the rapidly-growing NJ beer market. APB launched in August of 2016. The company has since taken advantage of the change in Jersey brew laws and now works with a distributor in order to make their brand a household name–the main difference between a microbrewery and an operation of a larger size.
“Our core three brands are are the Blonde Lager, Roasted Stout, and Sea Dragon IPA. We do those year-round with our distributor and then we have a fourth spot open for our seasonal beer,” said Plate. “We brew traditional beers and styles that you’d be familiar with, we just use premium ingredients, handcraft it, and put a lot of energy into making it the best we can.”
WCP varies from APB because the business is not focused solely on brewing beer. As a restaurant and bar, WCP places heavy value on the beer they decide to bring in as well. The new brewery and bar by the beach has been, “going after smaller breweries to kinda support one another. We’ve had Last Wave in here, Red Tank is coming up, Jughandle is coming up, and Brotherton. Everyone enjoys it and they like that we’re not going after the normal AB & Bev beers.”
O’Connor explained that there were two main ways that WCP marketed themselves for opening and how they continue to communicate their most recent initiatives to the public.
“I think 90% of the world is involved with Instagram or Facebook, and that’s where our outreach has been,” explained O’Connor. “We’ve also been taking steps toward Instagram and Facebook ads as well. But, word of mouth has definitely been a power tool for us because this project has taken so long. And once you do come into the space, it’s hard not to tell your friends.”
APB confirms that their most useful marketing tool is also social media when promoting a core brew or releasing a new product. “We’ll do a photoshoot with the beer, set it up with branded pint glasses and cans so we can try to create cool, eye-catching content for social media,” explained Plate.
Organizing tasting events to bring members of the local community together has also shown promise amongst the laundry list of possible marketing techniques. Whether it is craft beer or new farm-to-table restaurants, people are making market choices that reflect the desire to have something local over something that’s mass-produced, explained the founder of Asbury Park’s local brew project.
“We get a better response when we do tastings and promote a one-off, limited-run beer,” said Plate. “Everyone, from bar managers and purchasers down to the everyday customer, wants to feel involved in some way. So, anytime you can reach out and say we’re making a special beer, brewing it right around the corner, and that we’d like to invite you to try it–that really resonates with people more than just a simple social media post.”
APB will continue to distribute their core products throughout NJ and beyond, however self-distribution is still very important when marketing to their hyper-local audience.
“There are some beers that we will self-distribute whether it is because we don’t plan on doing a large quantity, or because we want to keep it tasting room only, or it’s something that’s not as complementary to our core products,” said Plate. “If we were to do a one-off IPA, it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to release it to our distributor because it would cannibalize the Sea Dragon IPA sales.”
With a couple more years under their belt, APB is focusing on a larger audience, while still working the local outlets. On the other hand, WCP has a very specific and hyper-local audience. In order to nurture their current consumer base, WCP has intentionally employed a staff who are younger artists and musicians–people who they feel make up most of their target market. By knowing their audience, the beer hall has successfully targeted likely customers, communicated on platforms these customers are familiar with, and as a result have been able to get their small market space talking about the new, Long Branch-based operation.
In any event, the teams at APB and WCP both have definitive plans for the coming season of warmth. With the start of May and as summer nears, “you’re going to start to notice some more tropical notes in our IPAs, your gonna see a little bit more honey and melon in our saisons, and we kinda back away from stouts and porters,” said Todd O’Connor. He explained that their brewer-in-charge, Mike Dolan, is currently perfecting a French Saison–a fruity, mildly-spicy beer with a lot of carbonation, a lower level of alcohol, and which originates from a Belgian yeast.
On the other hand, APB has an early summer seasonal product known as the Kettle Sour, which is “light, refreshing, and brewed with fresh ginger.” While pushing the distribution on the new sour beer, APB has also partnered with The Stone Pony on their 45th Anniversary year to offer a localized, concert beer for shows at the legendary Stony Pony Summer Stage: Pony 45. Plate describes the beer collaboration as “a light-bodied lager that’s low in ABV. But, we dry hop it with some Australian summer and sapphire hops. So, it’s light, crisp, but it also has a floral, citrusy nose like would an IPA, just without the bitterness.”
Individuals from the Garden State to the Golden State are just now figuring out that the options for beer are seemingly endless. As interest has risen and people’s palates are expanding, the players inside the beer market have to understand the needs of an industry that is segmenting, localizing, and becoming much more specific. However a new brand of brew decides to get word out about their product, WCP’s O’Connor mentioned one rule of thumb that can’t be overlooked: “As the weather gets better, the beer gets a little bit lighter, ya know what I mean?”
Comments are closed.