Brewbound Pitch Slam 14: Semi-Finals - RationAle Brewing

Speaker 1 [00:24] Let's move on. Up next, we have Jamie Fay, who's the founder and CEO of Rationale Brewing. Come on up, Jamie. Great to see you. Grab any microphone. Please keep an eye on your timer.

Jamie Fay [00:38] Hey, my name is Jamie Fay. I'm the founder of Rationale Brewing. It's good to be back for year two, have another opportunity on stage. Last year, my 2 minutes went way too fast. Um, so Rationale has been around for 18 months. We're one of the fastest growing non-alcoholic craft beers on the market on the West Coast today. And Rationale actually started with a conversation with my two sons up on the right. Uh, my oldest was heading off to the University of Alabama. I was sharing with him my life history and my family, uh, disruption with alcohol and was trying to plead with him to make. Some rational decisions around how much he drank, who he drank with. And after I said rational about 3 times, my other son said, Dad, being a bit of a smart ass, why don't you just launch a beer company called Rationale. So that was 18 months ago. You fast forward within 3 months, I was able to find my brewing partner up in Sonoma County. They had incredible technology. They use vacuum distillation. And that is what makes our beer so incredible. We first launched in 16 ounce cans a year ago and 6 months ago transitioned into 6 pack, 12 ounce cans, which we have today. We have these 4 flavors and we have been quickly, uh, picking up distribution across Colorado, Nevada, California, and Oregon. We've been closely working with retail partners, making sure that as we pick up our new distribution that we're investing into our velocity and really listen to the consumer needs, we're heavily investing in the sampling. And focusing on building out our DDC platform. Our consumer is the consumer that is the mainstream beer consumer that's now starting to moderate, that's learning a little bit about alcohol consumption and moderation. It's a consumer that typically probably hasn't been in the non-alcoholic beer space before. So we're really focusing on being that beer that is permissible, approachable, and different. So, we really wanna build that maverick, disruptive approach to the brand through our social media, which is just beginning now. And we want to be, make this brand. The brand that the mainstream beer consumer can pick up and navigate having an evening out and having a couple of beers and maybe a rationale in between, or they may be just choosing a Tuesday night to have rationales with their tacos. Uh, our goal is that we will be, uh, 2 within the NA beer space within 18 months and we want to be the #1 premium non-alcoholic beer. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [02:52] Right, Ryan, let's start with you. Um, You met Rationale last year, heard a perform, I heard a presentation last year. Um, what do you think about the progress that Jamie and his team have made? Yeah,

Speaker 3 [03:02] I like the, uh, I think more clarity of focus, and I think hearing more of the backstory of why you created it, I think is really helpful to connect with the consumer and, and people that have kids of their own or will have kids of drinking age soon. Um, those connection points are really valuable.

Speaker 1 [03:14] The stigma around non-alcoholic beer is that it just doesn't taste great, or at least it has not traditionally tasted great. Rich, what do you think of the flavor rationale?

Speaker 4 [03:20] I thought it was good, man. Like, uh, when you're, when you're talking about like non-alcoholic beers, like to grab onto the existing consumer segment, it needs to taste like beer first, and that's the first thing he knocked out the park. So,

Speaker 1 [03:33] yeah, Jamie, um, a pretty ambitious strategy that, uh, Jamie, uh, laid out there, you know, what do you think about that

Speaker 5 [03:39] plan? Listen, this is a hot space. Um, I think you've really got to find. Um, what sets you apart from the other brands that are in this space, right? Like, um, you've gotta tell the story. There's 0 0s, there's 05s, um, don't make the consumer work too hard to understand what this is and why it should matter for them. Um, and then just make sure you have a point of difference, right? Like I think there's brands that have done this really well and have grown. I think you have big ambitions. Um, I think it's gonna be really about what's the thing that sets you apart from the others that are currently in the, um, in the market, and you're doing that already through some of the flavors that you have through the emotive story. I think that just needs to come to life a little bit more via the proposition.

Speaker 1 [04:25] Jess, uh, Jamie laid out, and we can see it on the screen there, um, they're West Coast key accounts, a bunch on retail, a bunch on premise, um, you know, what do you think about the progress like for, for the brand and how much do you take into account that progress when you're considering a brand like this?

Speaker 6 [04:39] Well, depending upon the state, obviously if you're looking at Virginia or Florida or California, you know, that's gonna get a lot of attention from our team, um, and that's gonna probably get you into one of our places, um. You know, it's, it's amazing what you, you've been able to do and it's a hot category. I think people are willing to take a, a risk on it, a little chance on it, but, you know, just try to get that product to the floor in these places and, uh, then you'll work your, your way into the shelf.

Speaker 1 [05:02] Yeah. All right, great stuff.