MINNEAPOLIS — Indeed Brewing Company is proud to announce their latest partnership with Guest Brewer, expanding distribution to a few select national markets.
A newly founded program by Brew Pipeline, Guest Brewer aims to connect award-winning craft breweries to the top 100 markets nationwide.
“The objective of the Guest Brewer program is to provide reach to recognized brands into a new market, to provide distributors access and management of brands that increase their share of rotational accounts, and give consumers the opportunity to get what they are seeking in new, highly regarded, yet hard to find brands,” president of sales, Marty Ochs, described. “Guest Brewer’s main focus for brewers is on new markets that they had little to no access to previously due to cost, logistics, or available and willing distribution partners to take the product to market.” With Brew Pipeline’s federal wholesale permit, they are able to act as a master distributor from start to finish by handling all logistics and communication from breweries to distributors and eventually the retailers.
A few years back president and co-founder of Indeed Nathan Berndt, came across Guest Brewer’s innovative business model and was enticed by the founders’ extensive experience in the industry. “Finding ways to innovate in craft beer is part of what makes the industry what it is today, and that includes finding new ways to market our beer in order to stand out.”
The team at Brew Pipeline vets breweries and beers by using third-party competitions such as the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup as guides. They also check the brands across beer-rating communities to ensure that they will be viable in the market. Guest Brewer has chosen Indeed’s L.S.D. Honey Ale and Mexican Honey Light as the two brands to introduce into selected markets for their brand recognition and unique stories, “We chose Indeed Brewing Company first and foremost because of its reputation,” said Ochs. He goes on to say that the story of the Mexican orange blossom honey in Mexican Honey Light makes it an attractive brand. “Awards are a great means to justify a brand, but sometimes having a unique quality on top of a qualified brand name like Indeed will work too,” he adds.
Both of these beers have been previously considered for national distribution, but not without barriers to entry. Berndt believes this program creates a low-risk path for Indeed to take this leap, saying, “There may be markets of the country where we strike a chord with unique beers like L.S.D. and Mexican Honey Light, and now Brew Pipeline’s Guest Brewer program offers that access to the market without the major investment of resources that would typically go into launching a new market.”
Brew Pipeline connects local breweries with other local distributors with a goal to introduce a long-term relationship between the two. Marty Ochs says the program is made to bring brands through new markets just once or twice a year and that introducing a new Indeed brand may be part of the future plans, “We would look at bringing in a different Indeed brand due to new states being added, new brand accolades or another unique story to share in 2020,” Ochs explains. “We’re working on other programs that Indeed may fall into for a more permanent spot in new markets.”
Indeed is looking forward to seeing what this program could mean for them. “These beers are in the market for a quick 30-60 day run and, if we’re lucky, we may find an area that one or two brands resonate,” says Berndt. “And then boom, we’ve found a new market for selling beer that we can justify the resources for pursuing sustainable growth. If not, then we’ve exposed and sold beer to a new audience and we can continue to execute our company vision for Indeed.”
Preorders for Indeed beer have been placed from Liberator Distributing in Georgia and Galli Beer Distributing, Wilsbach Distributors, and Shangy’s in Pennsylvania, with more soon to come.
About Indeed Brewing Co.
At Indeed Brewing Company, we’re cultivating an artfully eclectic line-up of beers from the heart of Northeast Minneapolis and our new home in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee. We are thirsty creatures, Indeed. There’s more to explore at indeedbrewing.com