Brewbound Pitch Slam 14: Semi-Finals - Camino Brewing Co.

Speaker 1 [00:24] Let's move on. We have Alan Cornstein, who is the co-founder and CEO of Camino Brewing Company up next. Come on up. Your microphone and your

Speaker 2 [00:37] Hi everybody thank you on behalf of Camino Brewing Company we're excited to be here today so I'm gonna ask you a question. Have you ever just stopped in the middle of your daily life and done something so profound that it literally rearranged the pattern of your existence and things were never quite the same again? Well, in 2006 I did just that along with my close friend Nathan Polis, who is Camino's co-founder and brewmaster, and we went on a pilgrimage called the Camino de Santiago across the north of Spain, and then we did it again in 2009. On the Camino through rain or shine, winter, spring, summer, or fall, people have been walking or cycling this pilgrimage for hundreds of years, and at the end of each day. People are getting together, they're sharing a meal, they're connecting with each other, and they're throwing back a lot of beer and the one thing, the one thing that really stood out for us was that beer brings strangers and people together. And we took that back with us and it became our mantra and it paved the way for our vision to open the communal Brewing Company in 2018 and then uh an events business in 2022. Our culture, uh, is something we really pride ourselves on. We're creating an inclusive brewing culture. We have a women-led brewery, um, and we support a lot of organizations that, uh, advance leadership for women in our industry. We've won two major awards the 2018 Sacramento Coffee Beer Festival with one of our beers that we brought here today for tasting and a 2022 gold medal for the best retro label at the Craft Beer Marketer Awards. We pride ourselves on our community. We have this amazing tap room and beer garden where we do all kinds of community events. We're available in 23 Safeways locally and um we just sold about 1000 cases to Apple for a bunch of holiday parties that they're doing. We would, uh, love for you guys if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area to stop by sometime. We're doing weddings and corporate events and I just wanna thank you so much for having us here today.

Speaker 1 [02:42] Thank you. Well done. Camino Brewing Company beer brings people together. It brought a lot of people together here as well. Um, Jamie, you know, uh, when I think about, uh, what we see in the, uh, presentation, what we saw in the presentation and then we tried on the back room, you know, it's interesting. I think Camino, uh, brings something a little different to the industry. What are your thoughts though?

Speaker 3 [03:05] Yeah, I think again going back to this conversation around um location and um locale is really important to the industry, right? Like having something that people can point to that's tangible I think is really important when you start to think about the amount of new entrants into our space, um, and so I think that's really interesting and telling that story, um, is really important I think. What I'm craving for this one is just a little bit more of the. OK, what else, right? Like, you know, beyond just the roots of where the beer is from, what are the other things that make this beer unique, um, you know, there's a lot of amazing products that come out of, uh, the Bay Area right in Northern California, um, and I think you have some of the ingredients, but how do we really enrich in that to tell the story that helps to separate this from other products that are in the market.

Speaker 1 [04:04] Jess, uh, Alan laid out, um, a retail strategy or at least, uh, a retail footprint that they've developed, uh, taproom that they're building out, you know, what do you think about that way of sort of getting out there and getting started?

Speaker 4 [04:16] I think that's smart. I mean, you, you, you gotta get people to come to your facility. They got to, they'll hear the story about the Spanish pilgrimage and that, you know, you don't know, you get that from the can necessarily, so that you, you know, they gotta hear that story. They have a place to, to go and actually build those brand ambassadors for them. So when they go back out, uh, you know, home and they can tell their friends about it. I think it's something interesting. I, I also like the Apple thing that you're doing. I mean, it's, it's hustling. You're getting your product out there and. You know, that's a good chunk of people who live in that market are going to drink that beer on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 [04:47] Ryan, I recall you were enjoying the beers last night. What are your thoughts on the liquid? Liquid

Speaker 5 [04:51] was good. The coffee one was great. The aroma was fantastic on that one.

Speaker 1 [04:55] Yeah, I mean, in terms of the sort of positioning as a con leche, I mean, don't often see that. Was that something that stood out for you? It

Speaker 5 [05:01] did. Yeah. Although the cafe for me is a little lost in the label, but the leche is very clear. So maybe a little more work on. Brighten that up a little bit.

Speaker 1 [05:08] Mhm. Rich, you get the last word on Camino. You know, what do you think of what you heard from Alan

Speaker 6 [05:12] today? I mean, it's a great backstory. Uh, it's like the tranquil pilgrimage, bringing people together. Uh, we love travel as well, um, but I don't, I don't necessarily see that on the label. So just maybe a way to tell that amazing story through the label as well, I think would be helpful in, in the Bay Area. I mean, that's kind of the culture and vibe already. So, I mean, I think they got a good product and a good story. I would just want to see it a little bit more on the label.

Speaker 1 [05:38] All right, good stuff.