Molson Coors Beverage Company will begin distributing offerings from Eugene, Oregon-based Hop Valley Brewing east in 2021, as the company’s Tenth and Blake craft division takes the brand national in the new year.
“If you look at Molson Coors Beverage Company’s overall strategy, it’s all about growing our share and growing our proportion of our business in the above premium segment,” Tenth and Blake vice president Paul Verdu told Brewbound.
Hop Valley, which Verdu described as “on absolute fire in one of the toughest craft markets in the world,” gives Tenth and Blake an IPA-centric portfolio to compete with other national craft IPAs, such as Heineken-owned Lagunitas IPA and Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Elysian Space Dust IPA.
“The ability to take that nationally is just something that we cannot pass up,” Verdu said.
Molson Coors, which acquired Hop Valley in 2016, will launch two of the Oregon craft brewery’s SKUs throughout the global brewer’s footprint: Bubble Stash IPA in 6-packs of 12 oz. cans and the Cryo Hops Stash Pack, a variety 12-pack of four IPAs in 12 oz. cans.
At present, 11-year-old Hop Valley is distributed in 10 Western states. As Hop Valley sales and marketing EVP Walter Macbeth explained: “Draw a line down the Rockies and come to the Pacific, that’s us.”
In that footprint, dollar sales of the Cryo Hops Stash Pack variety pack have increased 103.6% year-to-date through November 1, compared to the same time last year, according to market research firm IRI. Dollar sales of Bubble Stash IPA have crested $1 million year-to-date, the firm reported.
“This is our fastest growth brand,” Verdu said. “It’s quickly becoming a top 20 craft brewer, and this year we’re going to surpass 100,000 barrels.”
Molson Coors’ ask of its wholesaler partners in new markets is to use Hop Valley to secure incremental growth without taking focus away from other Tenth and Blake brands, particularly in those brands’ home markets.
“Our aspirations for Terrapin in the southeast are really big, and they’re not changing,” Verdu said. “Hop Valley’s gonna put up its dukes and fight the fight against other national craft IPAs. That’s the story we tell in terms of how to think about this.”
Verdu likened the breakneck pace of beer industry innovation to baseball players blasting off solo home runs — “hit a home run, run around the bases, and then see what’s next” — but he sees Hop Valley aiming higher.
“We’re trying to load the bases for a grand slam,” he said. “This isn’t all about 2021. This is a multi-year plan to get the right products out there, to get trial and awareness going, to build this thing at the right pace, to make sure we stay true to the Hop Valley brand and then in Year Two, maybe that’s when additional SKUs come, whether it’s an additional pack format or Stash Panda as a solo, and Year Three even more.”
Bubble Stash and the beers in the variety pack are all brewed with Cryo Hops, an innovation from Yakima Chief Hops that uses “the concentrated lupulin of whole-leaf hops containing resins and aromatic oils” that provides “intense hop flavor and aroma,” according to the hop purveyor’s website.
“This is innovation in the IPA space like no one has ever seen before outside of our West Coast footprint,” Macbeth said. “When folks get to try this, they literally get to experience four distinctly different IPAs to fit all of the different styles of IPA that are out there.
“It provides a pathway for our consumers to be able to engage all these different styles and different hops and juiciness and aromas, all in one package,” he continued.
The Cryo Hops Stash Pack includes:
- Cryo Stash Imperial IPA, 8.7% ABV, 40 IBUs;
- Bubble Stash IPA, 6.2% ABV, 45 IBUs;
- Stash Panda IPA, 6.4% ABV, 50 IBUs;
- Mango & Stash IPA, 6% ABV, 30 IBUs.
Cryo Stash Imperial IPA uses Cryo Hops to differentiate itself from other imperial IPAs — and it’s paying off at off-premise retail. In Hop Valley’s existing footprint, where it is sold as a standalone SKU, dollar sales of Cryo Stash Imperial IPA are up 156.5% year-to-date through November 1, compared to the same period in 2019, according to market research firm IRI.
“It truly demonstrates the power of Cryo because, as you know, most Imperial IPAs — as that ABV or alcohol content starts to go up — they can get a little bit sweet,” Macbeth said. “So, basically, every brewer just throws a hop bomb in there, a whole bunch of hops to add some bitterness, and then they ultimately rip your face off at the end. Not with Cryo. Cryo’s a smooth criminal.”
Stash Panda IPA is Hop Valley’s take on a hazy IPA, with London Fog yeast contributing to haziness, and Mango & Stash is a fruited, slightly hazy IPA.
“You’ve got four different IPA styles that are all crushing it in one psychedelic funhouse,” Macbeth said. “Think about that: One IPA-focused variety pack, all with proven winners.
“It’s going to absolutely open up people’s eyes to the power of Cryo across every single grocery shelf, drug shelf, club shelf in the country and once people try it, we got ‘em,” he continued.