The life of Bevy Long Drink, Boston Beer’s malt-based foray into the Finnish long drink segment, won’t be very long after all.
The company has discontinued the brand, which it launched in 20 test markets late last year and expanded nationwide earlier this year, according to a company-wide email CEO Dave Burwick sent yesterday.
“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, it hasn’t gained the traction in the marketplace we had hoped,” he wrote. “As a result, we’ve decided to no longer produce Bevy and instead focus our balance-of-year efforts on maximizing attention to – and sales of – our core brands.”
Bevy was modeled after the Finnish long drink – a traditional cocktail of gin, grapefruit soda and tonic that traces its roots back to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki – but it lacked the gin, seemingly a key component in a beverage-alcohol industry in which spirits-based, ready-to-drink cocktails are outpacing growth of nearly every other segment.
The product, which Burwick described as “a hybrid of an FMB and a hard seltzer” in his email, was available in three flavors: Hard Citrus Refresher, Hard Berry Refresher and Hard Lemon-Lime Refresher. Citrus and Berry were sold in 6- and 12-packs of 12 oz. cans and 24 oz. single-serve cans. All three flavors were available in variety 12-packs.
Boston Beer attempted to bolster Bevy’s nationwide rollout in March with a campaign produced by Finnish agency TBWA\Helsinki that included ads featuring a Scandinavian pool party. The company invested $10 million behind the push, according to Good Beer Hunting.
Following Bevy’s nationwide expansion and subsequent discontinuation, Burwick said Boston Beer will reevaluate its go-to-market strategy for innovation offerings.
“In hindsight, we would have been better off introducing the brand to a select group of markets to learn, nurture and evolve the brand, but took a chance by going national,” he wrote. “As we move forward, you will see that only in special circumstances will we attempt to launch a new-to-world brand in a very young category nationally vs. testing it first on a smaller scale.”
As the company prepares for 2023, attention will center on its “large, established brands – Truly, Twisted Tea, Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, and Angry Orchard – along with testing new-to-world brands to ensure their long-term success,” Burwick wrote.
Bevy isn’t the first brand Boston Beer has killed a short while after a lackluster national launch. In 2019, the company discontinued 26.2 Brew in October, seven months after its national rollout in March.
Bevy launched amid a raft of other innovations, including offerings produced through partnerships with other beverage companies, such as Hard MTN Dew and Sauza Agave Cocktails, sugar- or malt-based offerings made through JVs with PepsiCo and Beam Suntory, respectively. Later this summer, Boston Beer’s Truly Hard Seltzer brand will launch a vodka-based option, following debuts of its cocktail-inspired, seasonal Poolside pack in May and margarita-style hard seltzer in January.
Boston Beer’s entry into the Long Drink space came as other spirits-based competitors have tried to stake claim in the U.S. Last summer, Hartwall Original Long Drink, which first produced the cocktail after the Finnish government commissioned it, launched in California, Georgia, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, The Finnish Long Drink, another brand built off the Finnish staple, launched in the Midwest after rolling out in California, Florida and Arizona in late 2020.
The Finnish Long Drink closed on a $25 million funding round last year led by New York-based investment management firm Neuberger Berman that included actor Miles Teller, DJ Kygo and pro golfer Ricky Fowler, with other backers including Founders Brewing Company co-founder Mike Stevens and NFL player Dalvin Cook.
Still, there remains a chance for Bevy to rise again like Finland’s famed midnight sun.
“We plan to bring a rejuvenated and retooled Bevy back to some test markets next year,” Burwick wrote.
With Boston Beer’s embrace of spirits-based products, it won’t be a surprise if Bevy 2.0 includes gin.