When the founders of New Realm Brewing began planning their business venture, they had no plans of expanding outside the Southeast. They started their company with the core value of maintaining “localness,” building a connection to the communities where they operated, and refusing to distribute in states where they did not produce.
While they may be restrictive with distribution, the Atlanta-headquartered company is anything but with their product line-up, transitioning from a craft brewery into a total beverage company. It’s an evolution that New Realm co-founder Carey Falcone told Forbes is part of being “in the refreshment business.”
New Realm, which is backed by investment office DNS Capital, is one of the fortunate companies that claims to be stronger coming out of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. No one on staff, from the waitstaff to those in production, was laid off or lost wages, with pay cuts only to the executive team. Co-founders Falcone, Bob Powers, and Mitch Steele enforced stringent safety protocols beyond state guidelines. On the production side, volume grew from 16,000 barrels in 2019, to 20,000 barrels in 2020.
Over the last 18 months, New Realm noticed a shift in consumer taste profiles, moving from bitter and hoppy, to more light and sweet, driving the brewery’s next steps for innovation.
“The philosophy initially was, we didn’t want to lose that group of 10 people where maybe one or two people didn’t drink beer. And we wanted to have that other offering,” Falcone told Brewbound.
New Realm waded into the ever-expanding spirits category. The company started producing bourbon, gin and vodka, and, pleased with its success, continued to explore other innovations outside of beer.
New Realm launched Alphawater hard seltzer in February, rolling out a variety pack of four flavors: Acai & Blueberry, Black Cherry, Citrus Punch, and Lime & Cucumber. The malt-based seltzer went through more than a year of development, and has quickly become one of the top-five performing beverages at its locations.
“It seems like 15 years ago, an entry-level drinker would come of age and the first product that they would have was a beer. And now, you’ve got a lot of entry level drinkers that the first alcoholic beverage that they’re having is a seltzer,” Falcone said.
New Realm believes that seltzer acts more as a gateway to spirits for young drinkers, than for beer, and have decided to act accordingly. Enter ready-to-drink canned cocktails.
New Realm will launch three vodka-based, 7.5% ABV canned cocktails by the end of May: Lemon Drop, Orange Crush and Naka Cranberry. A fourth flavor — Tequila Paloma — will launch later in the summer. Gin and bourbon RTDs are also in the works.
“We’re really surprised at the initial orders that we’re getting from our distributors, much larger than we initially anticipated,” Falcone said. The RTDs will be distributed in Virginia and Georgia, where New Realm’s wholesalers are also spirits distributors.
“My goal is to make sure that anybody who walks into our restaurant is going to find something to drink that they like. And that could be from a wide range of beers, or cocktails, or seltzers, or RTDs,” said Steele, New Realm’s brewmaster since the beginning in 2016.
Steele and his team hope to create new RTD offerings as they receive feedback, and are already exploring non-alcoholic beer and possibly CBD beverages. They predict they’ll release their first two non-alc beers — a lager and an IPA — by the end of this year.
“We’ve got a system in Virginia Beach that’s a vacuum distillation system,” Steele said. “And as we were talking through a lot of this stuff, the idea came up that this might give us an opportunity to do some CBD drinks.”
Steele has already begun discussions with several CBD-related companies, including San Diego-based cannabis store Trinity Terpenes. The two companies are exploring combining hop and hemp terpenes, and have begun experimenting with beverage options.
New Realm has also been able to grow in brick-and-mortar locations. The company opened a new distillery in Savannah, Georgia, last month, and will open a new restaurant and brewery in Charleston, South Carolina, later this month.
“We’re not in a hurry to do anything,” Falcone said. “We’re not trying to do things quickly. We’re trying to do them right.”