Non-alcoholic beer brand Best Day Brewing is chasing a Year 2 milestone, producing between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels of beer, founder and CEO Tate Huffard told Brewbound.
Huffard launched Best Day in 2021 after more than four years of developing the brand and proving the concept. The company opened with three offerings – Kolsch, Hazy IPA and West Coast IPA – which are contract brewed at Octopi Brewing in Wisconsin.
Year-to-date through July 16, off-premise sales of non-alcoholic beer are up +31.4%, to nearly $191.5 million, while case sales are up +19.5%, according to market research firm Circana.
Huffard acknowledges that Best Day is a small brand in an increasingly crowded segment. Heineken, Athletic Brewing, Lagunitas, Partake and Guinness have each established themselves in the market already, while craft heavyweight Sierra Nevada plans to begin shipping its first two NA beers – Trail Pass IPA and Golden – in late November.
Even as the non-alcoholic beer segment becomes more crowded, Huffard believes the “rising tide” will float all boats, including smaller players. Marketing investments from Heineken, which has invested $50 million annually, have helped increase consumer awareness.
“Where we come in is competing with products and with brands, and I love our ability to do that,” Huffard said. “As a pure play non-alcoholic brand, we are engaging in building the market in a way that they’re not. They’re spending on Super Bowl ads and F1 placements; we are out there handing out cans.”
Sampling, which is in the throes of a post-pandemic comeback, is the biggest opportunity for a brand such as Best Day, Huffard said.
Out of the gate, Best Day has struck partnerships with Life Time fitness club and the Professional Pickleball Association. Huffard sees both as opportunities to engage with 28- to 55-year-old consumers via sampling at events and gyms. He recalled handing out 10,000 cans over two-and-a-half days at Life Times’ Sea Otter Classic bicycling and outdoor sports festival in Monterey.
“That energy that we can see when you hand a customer a cold Best Day, and they crack it open, we’ve got a name for it,” he said. “We call it the ‘Oh, fuck moment.’ That’s when they crack open that beer and they could be a skeptic, they could be an Athletic drinker, they could be a Best Day drinker, doesn’t matter. They crack open that beer and they’re like, ‘oh, fuck, that’s different.’
“If you got that moment, you got something,” he continued “As a result, it’s part of our company culture that everyone – doesn’t matter what role you play, whether you’re marketing or sales or operations or beer – everyone does sampling in the tents.”
Huffard added that the conversion rate from trial is “10 out of 10,” but he admits there are challenges in doing it at scale.
“But there is no question that the more we do that, the more that we will have the ability to dictate our own success and really be a big mover in this category,” he said.
So far, Best Day Kolsch is the company’s top-selling beer, albeit by a narrow margin, as each core offering makes up nearly a third of the business, Huffard said.
Best Day’s portfolio expanded this summer with the addition of its first seasonal: Electro-Lime Cerca de Cerveza, a Mexican-style lager. At 75 calories, the offering gives the company another offering aimed at health-conscious consumers, Huffard said.
The Mexican-style lager, sold in 12 oz. can 6-packs, is made with fresh lime puree and leans into sea salt for electrolytes, serving as a “recovery beer.” Whole Foods, BevMo, Target, Total Wine and HEB grocery stores have each picked up the beer, which will be available until the fall.
“I’m really excited by it because I think it has the potential to really push the envelope on the category,” Huffard said.
Best Day’s beer is distributed in California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. The company is looking to expand in the coming months to Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The company also has a website and subscription base. Huffard described Best Day’s e-commerce business as “just getting going.” However, he said the repeat rates are “really high” and have the potential to be 10% to 20% of topline revenue.
“The reality is non-alcoholic beer has been around for decades,” Huffard said. “We are not inventing a new category. I think we are fundamentally redefining it though.”