GREENVILLE, S.C. — Birds Fly South Ale Project, located in Greenville, SC is excited and hopeful for their new beer release schedule for 2021. After some learnings in 2020 the brewery is altering some of its focus on particular brands and releases which includes; brand new beers, as well as offering some of their mainstays in new packaging formats. The “funk first” brewery has continued to see a decline in green bottle sales and popularity amongst craft beer enthusiast over the past couple years, which has presented a challenge for their wild and funk beer projects. “The green bottle sales just aren’t there anymore.” says founder, Shawn Johnson “Everyone wants cans and the can craze is causing us to evolve to meet those demands.” The brewery will be migrating most of its core Saisons from green bottles into 16oz cans to be offered in 4- packs. “We’re excited to offer this update to our customers, we’re hopeful it will re-energize some of our core Saisons and re-engage people’s interest in these award-winning beers.” After extensive conditioning testing the brewery is migrating the majority of its Saisons from bottle to can.
For the first time, you can view Birds entire 2021 release schedule on their website. The schedule also highlights brand new beer launches and fresh takes on some their critically acclaimed products such as; Empress Rising imperial stout variants, Apologize Less hazy IPA rotating hop series, and some new fruited Brett sours and Farmhouse ales.
Can shortages remain a concern for Birds, as it is for most breweries within the current beer landscape. It’s hard to depict if it will have a rubber band effect and cause brewery formats to go back to utilizing more bottled products. But for now if you “can” you should. This is something founder/owners Shawn & Lindsay Johnson are both mindful of, however after last year’s impact on breweries they are seeing the need to be more aggressive with format demands.
Package Format Highlights
Specific core Saison format changes for the Birds Fly South:
- Rustic Sunday | Solera Rye Farmhouse Ale – Green Bottle > 16oz Cans
- Saison is Dead | Mixed-Culture Saison – Green Bottle > 16oz Cans
- Brand New Eyes | Solera Farmhouse Ale – Green Bottle > 16oz Cans
- Empress Rising | Imperial Stout – Black Matte Bottle > 16oz Cans
- Flutter | Foedre Aged DDH Farmhouse IPA > 16oz Cans