Sarasota, Florida-based JDub’s Brewing is alive and about to launch a new flagship offering, following its April 2020 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing thanks to a partnership with Orlando-based contract brewer Brew Theory.
Under the licensing agreement, JDub’s founder and owner Jeremy Joerger retains creative control over the decade-old brand, and Brew Theory founder Jeremy Roberts and his team oversee the production and sales of JDub’s portfolio.
“JDub’s is still a very strong brand,” Roberts told Brewbound. “I’ve been a big supporter of Jeremy’s for a long time, three years now probably; I always felt the brand could do well in not just Florida, but in the southeast.”
The licensing agreement, which began in October 2020, plays to both partners’ strengths and comes at just the right for Joerger and JDub’s, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida in April 2020. Joerger said the process took a toll on him.
“I’ll be straight up, my passion burned out a few years ago, hard,” he said. “We got to a point where we’re saying ‘Are we even going to go forward anymore? We don’t know,’ but the brand was just too strong.”
Instead of fizzling out, JDub’s will be rolling out a new year-round offering next week with statewide placements in Publix grocery stores. The brand’s taproom at Brew Theory’s facility, dubbed JDub’s Dub Shack, opened in June 2020.
“What this partnership allows me to do is step out of the daily grind, leave the management up to Jeremy and his team,” said Joerger, who described himself as “a creator, a passion guy, a brand developer.” “I still own 100% of the company, and I still have creative control over everything that the company does.”
That includes refreshing and renaming Bomb Berry IPA, a 6.5% ABV blueberry IPA that gained popularity in JDub’s seasonal Fruits of Florida series. It will roll out next week in 16 oz. can 4-packs.
For 2021, Roberts and Joerger are projecting JDub’s will sell between 8,000 and 10,000 barrels of beer produced in Brew Theory’s four-vessel, 30-barrel brewhouse.
“That really allows us to take on a lot of different size breweries, so we’re really out there helping a lot of brands out,” Roberts said, adding that he plans to double or triple capacity in the next two years.
Brew Theory works with four brands, including JDub’s and Portland, Maine-headquartered Shipyard, as licensing partners, and co-packs for six other brands. For its licensing partners, Brew Theory handles brewing, packaging, shipping, selling and marketing, of which most take full advantage. But Joerger remains enthusiastically hands-on in all creative aspects of JDub’s, which starkly contrasts with attitude a year ago.
“There were more days than not that I was so down I couldn’t even look at anything relating to JDub’s,” he said. “It would just add to that depression that I was pretty much going through.”
In addition to JDub’s, Joerger will enter the growing non-alcoholic beer segment next month with a new brand, Non Alcoholic Brewing Company (NABC). Brew Theory will produce NABC’s first offering, NaNaNa IPA, which will be available in 12 oz. can 6-packs.
“Non-alcoholic in five, 10, 15 years, there will be no stigma, because the quality of the product will be that good,” Joerger said.
NABC will launch in Sarasota and Manatee counties with Gold Coast Eagle Distributing, an Anheuser-Busch InBev house, but Joerger expects the bulk of the product’s volume to flow through direct-to-consumer e-commerce.
Non-alcoholic beer dollar sales increased 36.9%, to $192 million, for the 52 weeks ending January 24, according to market research firm IRI. Heineken 0.0 is the segment’s top-selling brand, and several large craft brewers have launched non-alc offerings, including Lagunitas, Brooklyn Brewery and Boston Beer’s Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head brands. These are in addition to non-alcoholic dedicated brands Athletic and Partake.
Joerger hopes NABC will fill a local niche for Floridians who chose to abstain “for whatever reason” — which is the brand’s tagline.
“The fact is, in Florida, no one’s doing it; in the Southeast, no one’s doing it,” he said. “To be that ‘tip of the spear’ will hopefully bode well because I know we’re doing it well.
“I’m a craft brewer and I’m not going to put a crap product out there, which I think is a part of why JDub’s succeeded for so long and still does,” Joerger continued.
Other changes for Joerger and JDub’s include the closing of its Sarasota taproom, announced on JDub’s Facebook page Wednesday evening. Joerger is on the hunt for a new taproom in the area and hopes to include food service and more indoor seating than the previous taproom’s 900 sq. ft.
“I’m just grateful for where the brand is,” he said. “I’m excited that I still own 100% of it, that there’s a future on the other side of this thing.”