As a general editorial principle, I try to avoid telling America’s craft brewers what to do with their businesses. I make my bones writing about beer, not making it, and I make an effort to respect the very real boundaries between the two.
That being said, brewers, I have a gentle suggestion to submit for your consideration. It’s a timely one, being as we’re about halfway through Dry January 2024, but it has year-round potential to bolster your bottom line and put your brand in front of new drinkers. Are you ready? OK, here goes.
Make hop water, already, would you?
One year ago, I took to VinePair’s digital pages to rebuke craft beer brewers and enthusiasts who spent this popular annual rite of abstinence complaining about breweries’ lost sales on social media. “Customers do not owe businesses their patronage in this nifty economic system we call capitalism; businesses compete for it,” I wrote at the time. “If your customers are good on widgets for the month, trying to guilt them into buying more widgets is not typically a winning proposition.”
At the risk of sounding immodest, I was right then, and I’m right now. Making other products that comport with drinkers’ lifestyle choices — no matter how superficial or fickle you may think they are — is the name of the game you’re in, brewers! You know that drinkers want flavorful non-alcoholic beverages during Dry January. You know when Dry January happens, thanks to the Gregorian calendar and the
