Brewbound Pitch Slam 14: Semi-Finals - Otherwise Brewing

Speaker 1 [00:24] All right, let's get to our next semi-finalist for the Brewbound pitch slam. That's Aaron Gervais, who is the CEO of Otherwise Brewing. Come on up. How are you? You can grab either microphone.

Speaker 2 [00:43] All right. Hello, everyone. So if I were to ask you, do you know anyone avoiding gluten? I bet I can guess the answer because it's nearly 1 in 3 Americans at this point. That's a problem for beer because beer contains gluten, and it's very difficult to make a gluten-free beer that tastes good. That's part of the reason the on beer category is growing so much. There are a lot of people out there who would like to have a beer, but they're avoiding it because of the gluten content. Here at Otherwise, we've come up with a solution. We did our own research. We have a proprietary process and we can make gluten-free beer that tastes, smells, looks and feels just like regular beer with no limitations on style. What's really important for us is that this is a flavor first product. This has to be a beer that you just put in front of your friends, say, have this great beer, and then it has the added bonus on top of that of being gluten-free. And towards that end, only about half of our customers are gluten-free. The rest are just beer fans who like what we're doing. So we launched, uh, almost 2 years ago in our home market of the Bay Area to test this out, um, and we've seen some great traction so far. We've got, uh, double digit sales growth every quarter since we launched. Uh, we've got over 230 accounts including, uh, Bevmo and Total Wine, and we've even won some awards. Last week we got 5 medals in the, uh, Tasting Alliance World Beer Competition, including a double gold for a chocolate stout. Um, so people like what we're doing, uh, and as they get to know the brand, they're coming back for more. We launched very lean, just me and my co-founder bootstrapped it, test out the market, see if we get some traction here, and we're sort of strapped now in terms of what we can do as a small two-person team. So we're trying to raise funds at the moment. We want to really expand our sales and marketing effort, really become the top of mind brand for gluten-free beer because we think the timing is really ripe for gluten-free to make it, uh, out into the mainstream in a big way to become a major category in the beer space, and we want to be the brand to do that. So thank you very much.

Speaker 1 [02:39] Nicely done. Alright, Jamie, let's, uh, start with you. Uh, Aaron talked about, um, people wondering about or the stigma about gluten-free beer tasting like the quote unquote real thing. Um, what do you think of the flavors that you tried today?

Speaker 3 [02:55] I thought they were good. Um, I think, you know, uh, it's hard to do in this space, right, to deliver on both, um, the benefit as well as the flavor. Um, I think punching up that flavor a little bit more, um, I think it's an opportunity. Um, just as you know we see this trend in flavored beer, like I think people do want that sort of bolder, um, more visceral flavor, so that would just be a recommendation that I have, but end of one.

Speaker 1 [03:26] Jess, uh, it seems like a lot of people are adopting a gluten-free lifestyle. Um, do you think that there is potential in aligning the gluten-free lifestyle trend to beer?

Speaker 4 [03:35] Uh, yeah, definitely, and I would agree there's a little stigma with, with, uh, gluten-free beers in the past. I mean, you were just, they're like sorghum bombs or, or they were just trying to figure out something else to brew with, and, and, you know, the, the beer I tasted tasted really good. So kudos to you.

Speaker 1 [03:51] Ryan, Aaron uh mentioned that the timing is right for a product for a brand like this. Um, you know, timing is really important. It's everything in so many ways. What do you think about launching, uh, Otherwise Brewing at this time?

Speaker 5 [04:03] Yeah, I mean, timing is critical. Um, I think there's a lot of options for gluten-free consumers out there. Um, I love the product, especially the lemon one was fantastic. Um, timing is critical, especially when you're trying to raise money or launch a new product. Um, so, and it's sometimes it's, it's strategy and sometimes it's luck or a combination of the two. but I love what you're doing. I do think the, the challenge, the opportunity is the same, unfortunately for you is that there is this stigma about the flavor and yours tasted great, but you have to get through the consumer's hesitation around it.

Speaker 1 [04:31] Yeah, staying with that rich, you know, again, um, label marketing, it's all really important to get people to know what your product is about and what you're doing, um, you know, what are your thoughts on otherwise in terms of label package design and marketing?

Speaker 6 [04:44] I mean, it's, it's good package design, it pops, it kind of grabs your attention. I don't know if it's makes more sense to call out gluten-free because, you know, the, the space has been soiled by people before him, but like the beer tastes good. And like from our own outreach we know that there's a lot of people with gluten allergies out there that are looking for like a, a cold beer that tastes like beer so um I think they're getting the messaging out there it's just that thin line of. You know, turning on regular craft beer folks that don't have any gluten allergies to this beer as well, because I think it'll be a good beer for them. It's just gluten-free can scare people away.

Speaker 1 [05:23] All right, good stuff.