Brewbound Pitch Slam 13 Finals - Brewjeria

Speaker 1 [00:11] All right, good stuff. Up next, Augustine Ruella from Brujea. Come on up to the stage. A freshly sanitized microphone. Fantastic. Well done. Hello. That's for everyone. One more time.

Agustin Relas [00:35] Yes, uh, hello everyone, I'm Agustin Relas from Brujia Company. I'm one of the co-founders and co-owners. We actually opened in November 2019 in Pico Rivera, about 23 miles southeast of here. So brujeeria is actually a Spanglish word, the English word of brew obviously, and then brujeeria in Spanish is actually witchcraft. So we kinda wanted to combine those words, make it easy for the consumer to see that it is a Latino owned brand, and we are Latino owned, uh, business. We started, we were started with family and friends. Uh, we start, we target a very specific niche so we do go towards Latinos, uh, nonprofit professionals, socially conscious consumers, uh, and just craft beer enthusiasts in general. So our logo is also one of those things where people ask like, well, what is that right? So for us literally it's looking, uh, the top view of a boiling batch of beer so but we did make it, you know, intentionally kind of, you know, weird and, and kind of, you know, people ask questions about it we always leave it up for interpretation. The the most popular one is actually, uh, Joy Division's album, uh, Unknown Pleasures. I don't know if people are familiar, uh, but you know that's, that's part of what Brujeia is. It's a swirling chemistry of ideas, language, culture, science, and spirituality intertwined in wonder and community. And why did we choose Pico Rivera? We wanted to be in a majority Latino, uh, community. If we had not bootstrapped this, uh, venture, we would have been probably closer to downtown because that's where we did all of our nonprofit events, uh, as we were coming up. But you know it is 90% Latino and LA County as a whole is 48% Latino so we do feel like putting out the brand out this the brand out this way as a Latino brand like we can certainly capture uh a good uh market. Uh Sorry. So we have put out several beers over the last year. We did put out a series we called it the Los Travajadores series or the Workers series. Uh, we focused on worker justice and so we actually brewed about over 40 barrels of beer over the last year. We are a very small brewery, only 5 barrel system, so we can only do so little at the time and we were mobile canning too, so we, it was, you know, very cost prohibitive for us. But still over the last year we did sell over 40 barrels of this beer and actually donated over $10,000 to local nonprofits that work with these workers. Uh, the all the labels have information about where that money was going and for the most part it was for pandemic relief because a lot of people were out of work last year. So that was, you know, that was part of our, our, our way of helping out the community. Uh, we are very hyper local so we know that, you know, really the, the city of Pico Rivera is where, where we're focusing, but also the surrounding communities because they're also majority Latino and there is a burgeoning craft scene in that area. It's just in the last two weeks we've had two soft openings of more Latino owned breweries within 10 miles of us. Uh, we again, we are very community oriented. We've, uh, donated to over 40 nonprofits, uh, between 2015 and 2019. Uh, it was all, um, I'm sorry. It was all nonprofit based and home brew. I'm sorry, it was home brew excuse me, um, and then also we've started doing some local distribution so in order for us to do the mobile canning we have to, you know, produce so much or count so much so that we can actually make it work so we have actually gotten into very small, uh, local craft beer stores, uh, over 30 in the, in the LA area and actually in Orange County as well and we, and actually as I speak right now we are breaking in our very own canning line. So our our goal is to now start moving out branching out a little bit further. I mean we are very LA specific for now but hopefully with, you know. A new counting line and, and more you know, bringing in sales people or probably myself doing it we can maybe get a little bit further but for us brujeeria is brewing quality quality ales with culture and community as key ingredients. Thank you. Well done.

Speaker 1 [04:28] Great job. Let's move over here. Yeah. Uh, Ryan, we heard a lot more, saw a lot more today. Um, hyperlocal is a word that, uh, I don't think we saw, uh, on the, uh, slide yesterday. Scaling hyperlocal, um, you know, what do you think of the strategy outlined by, uh, Brajia?

Speaker 3 [04:45] Yeah, I love the strategy. I think hyperlocal makes so much sense. I think especially for beer being a perishable product, um, and I think the, the connections you are making and can make in the community, um, I think staying super local makes a lot of sense. I would encourage you not to go. Too far outside LA too quickly because this market is just so big and there's so much opportunity here. If you can tap just a fraction of that, um, the sky is the limit.

Speaker 1 [05:06] Thank you. Uh, Veronica, aligning package with mission with focus, um, do you see it? Do you see it on, uh, for what's happening with Brewer yeah? Yeah,

Speaker 4 [05:15] that's a question I have on when you go from people coming to your house and they know where you live and so they're not questioning the brand, but if you're moving from there to retail, are there things you're thinking about in getting the brand brujia more front and center and also getting your cause marketing more communicative on the, on the package?

Agustin Relas [05:36] Thank you, yeah, I mean we are working on that right again we because of the pandemic is why we started packaging we did not that was not part of our plans for the first couple of years, so we were kind of pushed into it and I mean luckily we do have a very good graphic designer and actually the labels for the Travajadores was Lalo Alcaraz who is a very famous, uh, Latino cartoonist but yeah we definitely, you know, are still working on, on the labeling and and really the brand itself. I mean we're still very young.

Speaker 1 [06:04] Laura, it's outlined right here, brewing quality ales with culture and community as key ingredients. Uh, it's a great statement. Um, is that what your customers are looking for?

Speaker 5 [06:16] Um, I absolutely loved your packaging, loved, um, the messaging around it. Curious, um, are you going to focus on single serves? Are you going to potentially do a 12 pack where that messaging can really convey community and, and key ingredients? I mean, what is your, your plans for that?

Agustin Relas [06:38] Uh, I don't know. Uh, you know what I mean, yeah, we just literally are starting up the canning line today, uh, but it is a 16 ounce, so it's gonna be 4 packs, um, I, I think just, you know, building relationships again like nearby, I mean, yeah, only 30 stores in, you know, in the, like a 15 mile radius, uh, so yeah, it, it's definitely, I mean, building more relationships, getting the brand out there more, and, and really getting more people to come to our place so they can see it for themselves because it is very difficult to explain like what you see when you come to the brewery. Uh, especially even the people behind the bar, right, like that's, it's not a typical, uh, look when you, when you visit a brewery in LA, right, or really most places,

Speaker 5 [07:19] yeah, and a quick question, um, like I said, I love the front of the packaging, but you chose to put your brewery name on the back, and I had a little difficult time trying to locate that. Where did it go? Why isn't it front and center? Is there some rationale behind that?

Agustin Relas [07:35] Uh, no, I wish, I wish our graphic designer was here. Honestly, I, I give him a lot of leeway. Uh, he's a great artist. He came to us before we ever opened our doors, um, but really it's just about learning, right? So we really don't know how to do this yet and we're trying to figure it out. So yeah, I, I do think that we need to be more front and center about, you know, who we are.

Speaker 5 [07:56] Yeah, and the, and the high ABV. I think one of them I tasted was an 8.2. So thank you for a good night's sleep. I appreciate that.

Agustin Relas [08:04] Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 [08:06] Uh, Monica, uh, you know, between the two presentations we heard, uh, anything come up in this one that you had questions about, comments, concerns?

Speaker 6 [08:14] Uh, no new questions, but I think what it reinforced for me is how rooted and important community and the consumers you're talking to are. And as you think about expansion even in this area, your consumers can be your advocates. They're your best marketing tool to really drive that conversation, to drive trial, to introduce the brand, uh, within their friends and neighbors, and I encourage you to, to really lean on that because that can be a really powerful force for you.

Speaker 1 [08:42] All right, fantastic feedback. Thank you so much.