Best Day’s Tate Huffard on Fitting Into Non-Alc Beer’s ‘Belonging’ Phase

[00:00:00] Justin Kendall: Next on the Brewbound podcast, life as a challenger brand with best days Tate Hufford. Hello and welcome to the Brewbound podcast. I'm Justin Kendall.

[00:00:22] Jessica Infante: I'm Jessica Infante. And I'm Zoe Licata.

[00:00:26] Justin Kendall: And that's Glenn.

[00:00:27] Jessica Infante: That was Glenn, I'm sorry I muted for a second. We are dog sitting for my brother and you just heard a woodle who is very excited about something, unsure what.

[00:00:39] Justin Kendall: So how y'all doing this week?

[00:00:42] Jessica Infante: Pretty good. Better than the latest scan data, that's to be sure.

[00:00:46] Justin Kendall: We're going to get into that here very soon. We'll talk all about July 4 scans, we'll get into some major people moves at New Belgium Brewing, and then we'll get you to our featured interview this week with Best Day Brewing founder Tate Hufford. Jess and I chatted with him about Life as a Challenger brand in the non-alcoholic beer space, a bunch of retail expansion that they're doing, and the coming shakeout of non-alcoholic beer brands.

[00:01:14] Jessica Infante: I really enjoyed our chat with Tate and I told you guys this the other day. What I came away with was that, to me, I sense that Best Day is more for sociability. They are positioning themselves, whether they realize this or not, as the N.A. beer to bring to a party, to hang with your friends, to bring out to occasions where there are other craft N.A. brands that really position themselves as being for personal betterment. Be interesting to see how that evolves.

[00:01:40] Justin Kendall: Definitely some beach vibes. Beach vibes for sure. which I would know nothing about. The sun is my enemy. But it will be my friend in December, on December 9th and 10th, when we're in Los Angeles for Brewbound Live. We've got a keynote address lined up with Allagash Brewings, Rob Todd, and Celine Fru. They're gonna tell you all about how to build a world-class culture.

[00:02:09] Jessica Infante: It was a very smooth transition. You should be proud.

[00:02:11] Justin Kendall: I didn't even work on it, so I am proud. Speaking of transitions, why don't you become Allagash's LA field sales rep because they've got that job listed on our job board. You get the job, you can come over to Brewbound Live, you can see Rob and Celine give their talk, and you can think about the culture you've joined, and then you can hit the streets and sell some beer.

[00:02:36] Jessica Infante: can help us drive depletions of Allagash White at Shea J. I don't think we need any help with that, honestly.

[00:02:42] Justin Kendall: No, no help is needed there, but lots of great jobs on the job board. Hey, do you want to be the head brewer of Russian River? You can be. Do you want to run QC at Coronado Brewing for Uncle Rick? You can. Do you want to be an assistant cider maker at Yonder Cider Company? Yes, you can. Lots of great jobs over there. There's even an innovation tech job at Sierra Nevada. And if you're looking for employees, there's no better place than the Debrew Bound Job Board.

[00:03:13] Jessica Infante: Nicely done.

[00:03:14] Justin Kendall: Thank you.

[00:03:15] Jessica Infante: So many fun jobs.

[00:03:17] Justin Kendall: All right, let's get into the July 4 scans. And Zoe, you can bring us all up to date because you've got the latest read on this thing.

[00:03:25] Zoe Licata: Yeah, not a super upbeat 4th of July, unfortunately, but I don't think we were expecting that much different. Our first taste of what we were probably in for was the early read of scans by NIQ last week as we were recording this, and it had total alcohol down 9.5%. which is pretty huge. Now the more updated numbers are a little bit, it's smaller of a decline than that, but that was the largest decline of all CPG categories. So this wasn't just something that, you know, the holiday was down for everyone. Alcohol really took a hit. On a positive note, beer was up according to this. It was up 14.3% for that specific week compared to the week prior. So hey, we got some positive week over week momentum, but year over year, not so much. Now we've gotten updates on that data based on the usual weekly scans that have come in. Cercana has total alcohol sales about flat. So plus 0.1% and volume down 1.6%. NIQ, you know, they release on a four-week basis. So they had total alcohol for the four-week period ending July 4th down 3%. Volume down 4.9%. So not great.

[00:04:47] Justin Kendall: Too hot to drink. Too many storms.

[00:04:50] Zoe Licata: Yes.

[00:04:51] Justin Kendall: Everything you'll hear on an earnings call coming up.

[00:04:54] Zoe Licata: Exactly. We're going to be hearing that over and over again for the next couple months. But yes, Scott Scanlon from Circana definitely put the weather out there as something to play with heat waves going on through much of the country. We'll have to get Lester Jones from the NBWA to tell us what that temperature is because we've heard him say temperature can be a factor. It can be too hot for beer. I am with him on that.

[00:05:16] Justin Kendall: So I've been communicating with Lester, and he's telling me that the story of 2026 in beer is occasions, not volume. We're talking on premise, everybody out drinking, you know, seeing that boost from the World Cup. I think we all have big questions on how we keep that momentum going without a expediting citizenship for the Scots.

[00:05:42] Jessica Infante: Yeah, I mean, it's easy to say that, and I'm not discrediting Lester at all, but where do we keep finding these occasions? Because this year had several large ones, and 2027, what are those occasions?

[00:05:55] Zoe Licata: Yeah. I'm curious to see what the July 4 data is for the on-premise, because all these numbers we have right now are just off-premise.

[00:06:01] Jessica Infante: But that's not really an on-premise holiday, so. No. Maybe the people will surprise us and they'll have gone out.

[00:06:08] Justin Kendall: Maybe. Maybe. Go out to the bars, people.

[00:06:12] Zoe Licata: If you want to pull something positive, at least it was technically better in terms of trends than last year. So last year the industry was down while this year, you know, it's around flat, at least dollars wise. You can look at it two ways. You can look at it as, oh, they had soft comps last year and they still didn't quite meet it or almost met it. Or you could look at it as, well, at least it's not getting significantly worse.

[00:06:39] Jessica Infante: That is an excellent glass half-full approach here.

[00:06:43] Speaker 1: Gotta take some of the positivity from Scott, I guess.

[00:07:07] Justin Kendall: In other news, we've got big people moves, like I said, at New Belgium Brewing. Dave Nospi, who's been with the company for seven years and has really been one of the driving forces behind the Voodoo Ranger creative, is taking over as chief marketing officer. And he's taking over the role from Rebecca Dai Janusunas, who is leaving after two years. She's exiting the company in early August. And this is very much of her own volition, her own plan here. She's told me that She values her time differently now and she wants to spend more of it outside of work, it sounds like.

[00:07:45] Jessica Infante: Good for her. Who doesn't want that? I guess that's not a thing I should be saying out loud at work.

[00:07:52] Justin Kendall: Aim for that life balance.

[00:07:54] Jessica Infante: Yeah, Rebecca, I think we all agree that she is a star and she graced the Brewbound Live stage twice in her two years at New Belgium. So can anyone top that? I don't think so. 100% Brewbound Live speaking attendance rate. She did a great job. Last year she spoke about fun and how consumers don't feel like they're having any of it. And I think it's nice to see somebody that's been with the brand for a good chunk of time and Dave, you know, take that top marketing spot. And I look forward to seeing where everything goes from here.

[00:08:30] Justin Kendall: Speaking of people who you've seen on the Brewbound Live stage, Dave Dosby has been on it at least a couple of times at this point. Definitely some brew talks for sure. I know he's spoken at Brewbound Live.

[00:08:42] Zoe Licata: Yeah, he was on our hard tea panel when they came out with Voodoo Ranger hard charged tea.

[00:08:48] Justin Kendall: That's right. You can see some of his creative that he's had a hand in, in person, as the 21-foot Voodoo Ranger tanker truck is back for year two, and it's traveling the East Coast. By the time you're listening to this, it'll be in New York City, then it's headed to Charlotte, Virginia Beach, and then Chicago. And probably Fort Collins in time for the distributor meeting that I'll be going to in September. But big launch this year for GeForce, which has been a convenience focused brand, 11% ABV. And in the last four weeks, it was the number seven craft beer brand in C stores with more than $2.7 million in sales. So not a bad start.

[00:09:35] Jessica Infante: No, not at all. Whenever you think one of the new voodoos can't possibly be topped, another voodoo comes right along and tops it. Hey, more breaking news from the New Belgium C-suite. Our buddy Sterling Riethman, who handles public relations and communications and media relations, which is why, you know, Sterling is somebody that we talk to all the time. She has been promoted to chief communications and external relations officer.

[00:09:59] Justin Kendall: Yeah. Congratulations.

[00:10:01] Jessica Infante: Per her LinkedIn as of one hour ago. Congrats, Sterling.

[00:10:05] Justin Kendall: That's awesome.

[00:10:07] Jessica Infante: Yeah. Lots of good news in Fort Collins.

[00:10:10] Justin Kendall: Well, we'll take the good news where we can get it at this point.

[00:10:13] Jessica Infante: For real. I know we didn't get into a Jersey Shore banner plant update, but that's because there isn't one. Might as well close it out with that. There's nothing.

[00:10:20] Zoe Licata: None? No booze planes. How disappointing. Right? Wild.

[00:10:27] Jessica Infante: Look, I don't want to go up in the plane, but I do kind of want to talk to the company and be like, what are you noticing this year? Because you've had no beer banners and there were some super light and spiked aid and I think a few surf sides, but currently nothing.

[00:10:42] Zoe Licata: Is there other things or just no banner ads at all? Plenty of banner ads for other stuff.

[00:10:48] Jessica Infante: A lot of like health insurance, a couple colleges. There's like one wedding factory family that flies a banner plane that says, will you marry me? But then it's an ad for their wedding venues. They've also diversified into tomato sauces. Yeah, it's deeply New Jersey here. The other metric I think I have is the umbrellas on the boardwalk, patio umbrellas. Right now, the Seaside Heights boardwalk has been entirely colonized by Sun Cruiser patio umbrellas. So if nobody's putting their money in the sky, I guess they're putting it on the boardwalk. And that has been A deeply boring update from Ocean County, New Jersey.

[00:11:29] Zoe Licata: Any bev-alc brands listening, you could be the one up there. You could. Apparently not a lot of competition.

[00:11:36] Jessica Infante: And as long as you were flying over the beach at the too brief time that I get to spend there, I will talk about it on this podcast. I think I did see a Suncruiser one during working hours from this very seat one day last week and told you guys about it. Maybe it was Friday.

[00:11:50] Justin Kendall: Did you have to rush out to get a Sun Cruiser?

[00:11:52] Jessica Infante: No, there are some in our basement fridge.

[00:11:56] Justin Kendall: Have you talked to the local distributors lately?

[00:11:59] Jessica Infante: No, I haven't even been in the liquor store. Wow. I know.

[00:12:03] Zoe Licata: Our local Kappy's has been overtaken by buzz balls. Really? The entire front section is just massive buzz balls displays, including boulders and biggies, which are like the two massive sizes, and then a full fridge filled with the regular size buzz balls.

[00:12:26] Jessica Infante: How do you drink those? You just get a bunch of straws?

[00:12:28] Zoe Licata: You could. I assume you just kind of pour it into like a big serving thing. What is that called?

[00:12:36] Justin Kendall: A bathtub?

[00:12:38] Zoe Licata: No, like an event and you have it in ice and it's like a tower thing.

[00:12:43] Jessica Infante: How much is a boulder going for these days?

[00:12:45] Zoe Licata: According to the KIappy's website, you could get a BuzzBall's Boulders Pink Lemon Squeezy for $32.99. It says it's three liters. Yeah, they're huge and they're heavy. Yeah, well they look heavy. Bevmo has them listed for $29.99.

[00:13:04] Jessica Infante: I wonder if you could make like a like a buzz balls boot camp class where you got the boulders. You could do the small ones for like bar type like. high volume reps of lighter weights and you can take the boulders and do like goblet squats with them and then drink them when you're done.

[00:13:21] Zoe Licata: I would not be shocked if we saw at some point a buzz ball sponsored workout event that did just that. You'd have to do it in the shade or something. Make sure they don't get really hot and gross.

[00:13:32] Jessica Infante: Yeah.

[00:13:33] Justin Kendall: Uh, I won't be signing up.

[00:13:34] Jessica Infante: The brew band podcast where all the ideas come from.

[00:13:38] Justin Kendall: Yeah. Let's get you to your featured interview with Tate Hufford from Best Day Brewing, who will gladly get you a non-alcoholic beer to work off that boulder. Best Day Brewing is now available in 10,000 retailers and hospitality outlets nationwide, including major grocery chains, Kroger, Albertsons, Walmart, and Whole Foods Market. What's next for the non-alcoholic challenger brand? Founder and CEO Tate Hufford is joining us now. Thanks for being here, Tate. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Non-alc is one of the segments that just keeps on chugging as far as growth goes. So I'm curious to get a take from you on where the non-alc category is in its life cycle.

[00:14:27] Tate Huffard: I stumbled into this category circa 2016. And you know, when you told people non-alcoholic beer was your big hunch back then, they look at you like you had three heads. So I feel like I've seen a lot of the life cycles as we've ticked the years by. The way I see it, non-alcoholic beer feels like it's in this second wave. And I guess depending on which way you look at it, this could be the third wave. I would say that the first part of non-alcoholic, the O'Douls, the St. Pauly Girls, what that was forever wasn't a wave. It was more like a flat pond forever. So let's not call that a wave. So we're in this second wave now, and the first wave was all about athletic. I give those guys just an incredible amount of praise for creating an environment where people could participate in the category, and it wasn't weird. And the concept of non-alcoholic craft beer was born in that first wave. And a lot of the taking to the trend was really oriented around this universal message of like, alcohol is bad, sleep is good, alcohol affects your sleep, it affects your mood. There were all these negative connotations with alcohol. And that was really, I think, the centerpiece of that first wave. And, you know, the N.A. involvement was really, I think by and large, came from sobriety stories, right? And it was stories about what happens when you remove alcohol from the equation. That lit a spark, and that was pretty cool to see. It really normalized having an N.A. beer, right, on a menu, at a party, at a wedding, whatever it was, in a beer set. And I think this second wave, now that we know what the consumer participation looks like, the characteristics that are associated with that. I mean, first of all, something like 94% of the people that are drinking NA beer are still drinking. It couldn't be further from a sobriety movement. and two-thirds of the volume that's coming into the category is coming from things like water, iced tea, soda, sparkling water, kombucha. What's happening here in the second wave was exactly as I saw it, happened to see it back in 2016 when I opened up the fridge and I saw the beers that I love drinking, which have 4%, 6%, 8% alcohol and saying, well, Wherever I am on the spectrum, I want a great beer and I want a cool brand. Why isn't anyone focusing on that other end? If we could open up that other end of the spectrum, well, that's just more beer. That's just more occasions for drinking great beer. Because that's how I wanted it in my life personally. Like I wanted this to be a tool where I could have more beer throughout more moments in the day, throughout more days in the week. That's what the second wave is all about. And it's pretty cool to be at our core of best day, just perfectly aligned with that second wave. And the word that I would use to describe that second wave is belonging. What we see now is that Non-alcoholic beer belongs on menus. It belongs in beer sets. I'm in Minnesota right now, right? Boating in the summer is a big deal. Every boat has elk and it has non-elk, every cooler. All these beer occasions warrant a great non-alcoholic beer for sure. And yet part of the magic is like unpacking and uncovering these new occasions that deserve a beer. Case in point for me is a lunch beer. How great is that? You want to put some time, effort and money into the thing that you're eating, but what you've been drinking with that has been a total afterthought. And now you can have a great beer. And that's just good. And so I see this second wave as, you know, the narrative here isn't at all about zero sum. The NA guys aren't coming for the A guys. The NA guys, you know, especially brands like Best Day that don't come from a place of sobriety are here to grow the pie. And we're here to expand the baskets at grocery. We're here to just bring more beer to more moments in everyone's life. So, you know, it's been a crazy decade here seeing how this thing has played out, but I think it's really important that the category has reached the behavior and the milestones that it has, because that behavior is super sticky. That behavior is the type of behavior I think that gets us from 2.5% or wherever we are of total beer right now to 10% and beyond.

[00:19:19] Jessica Infante: Tate, you did mention Athletic and they're pretty much the, I don't want to say the gorilla in the room, but they are the giant of NA Craft, which has created a really interesting challenge and opportunity for all of these other brands that are trying to get in on this segment, which a lot of brands are doing a great job at this differentiating. What do you view as Best Day's role in this crew of challengers? Where do you guys hope to be able to position yourselves and what do you want people to think of when they think of Best Day?

[00:19:48] Tate Huffard: Yeah, great question. You know, I think consumer products, whether you're selling beer or whatever, it comes down to brand and product. And so I think the differentiation happens at those two levels. From a brand perspective, I just gave you a little window into just where Best Day comes from. It came from a place of really loving beer, loving where beer fits into our culture, the really unique role that beer plays in bringing people together. Whether that's Opry skiing or at a concert or at a pizza parlor or, you know, in a backyard, beer is magical in that sense. And I love that. That's my association with beer. I love beer in that regard. I want more of it. And I also want beer to fit into more of those moments. And our brand is really a celebration of that. You know, on all our cans, there's this laundry list of people. And it's kind of quirky and funny and charismatic. And the whole point is that beer connects all those people. Everyone has their association with beer. And Best Day, I think, is uniquely suited to speak to those people in a way that they're wanting non-ALC to connect with them. So from a branding perspective, we have this big tent philosophy. We have this optimistic philosophy. We have this like philosophy that also ties perfectly with zebra striping and having a pacer beer and just all these new things that are happening, right? Which are, I would argue are absolutely the future of drinking. And then from a product perspective, you know, we've been at this for a number of years now. I think our beers are fundamentally different than everything out there in the market. Obviously, I'm a little biased to that, but I think first and foremost, the red line in the sand for us was like, this is not worth doing unless this is truly a great beer on its own. I'm sure you guys have tried your fair share of non-alcoholic beers, both old and new, and non-alcoholic beers, it's really easy to make a non-alcoholic beer. It is really hard to make a great non-alcoholic beer. No matter which methodology you choose, it's hard to avoid the sweetness, the wordiness, the flatness that, you know, as soon as you have a sip, you're like, oh man, I'm drinking something less than a beer. With Best Day, the way that we make our beer, you don't get any of that. And so that has been, I think, a step up in the category, a game changer in the category. Because let's face it, you get one sip and that cements someone's perception of what the category is, what the product is. Most recently, we had our beers up against, I think it was hundreds of other non-out beers in the North American non-alcoholic cup. And our Wild American, our Pilsner, took home double gold and best in show. So we're feeling like we're really putting out beers into the market that, you know, again, they stand on their own as truly great beers and they have None of the things that people typically associated with non-alcohol beers, they're just great beers.

[00:23:04] Justin Kendall: Let's talk about some of the grocery gains you've made this year. You've picked up some space. What's the biggest challenge in trying to claim retail space with today's larger NA market? And how have retailers needs and wants changed?

[00:23:21] Tate Huffard: It's got to pull, right? It's got to be productive for the retailers, depending on which class of retailer and how closely they've been tracking the category. They've seen this tectonic shift in consumer behavior happening. They have also seen the rest of their sets slow down to varying degrees, but like the long tail of the set is not doing what it used to. And so there's been this validation that, OK, non-ALC is here, right? This isn't a flash in the pan. This thing ain't going away. So how do I play it? And I think they've been most recently bombarded with a plethora of new SKUs. And these are everything from line extensions to new things popping up. A retailer does not want their set to look like a dog from every town, right? They want to have a strategy. They want to have something that works. And the success for us has really come in proving that, you know, Best Days, the number two pure play brand, we've been expanding distribution pretty rapidly. I mean, our distribution has grown 30% in the last six months. And with that growth and distribution, our velocities have ticked up. And regionally, we are at least double digit growing in all regions across the country, right? So we're not a pocketed brand. We're not specific to a certain geography. This thing is pulling everywhere. And we really lean in there too, right? We have to also acknowledge that for as big as we think non-alcoholic beer has been, we're still in the early innings. And that means that the brands have to do a lot of the heavy lifting to make sure that the product does pull and to make sure that the awareness is there. And so with getting on the set, that's just the beginning. That's just step one. Step two is like, how are you activating that? And we have really increased our digital marketing plays. We have really leaned into events. We're constantly doing events. We're constantly getting samples out in the market. We love working with retailers and doing the samplings because the magic is in that moment where you have your first sip of best day and you're like, oh, now I get it. So it's a combination of all those things, but it's definitely not a set it and forget it type of category. We are not even close to being there. We are still in our infancy. So a lot of that falls onto us, but you know, again, for all the reasons that we described in terms of brand and product, we really feel like we've got something special here and we've definitely got the tiger by the tail and we're leaning in.

[00:26:04] Jessica Infante: You mentioned being the number two pure play NA brand and the NA segment is I feel like a decent mix of pure play and then line extensions from traditional brewers. Do you have any data or insight onto how those interact with each other, whether that's in terms of how consumers view them or how retailers view them? What's the difference here? How do you think this is going to shake out?

[00:26:23] Tate Huffard: I mean, you can start with what's happening at the World Cup level right now. I mean, we all see Mic Ultra Zero splashing around money that is big money. And, you know, a brand like Best Day, our largest marketing spend ever would be a rounding error on a rounding error and a rounding error for them. And I think those two things actually work together. I see those two things really playing off each other because the big marketing spends, that validates the category. They're only gonna get in, they're only gonna be excited about it if it's real and if it's something worth investing in. And that brings a whole lot of eyeballs to our section of the beer aisle. you know, as long as it's met with good product, I'm not just saying this about Miculture Zero, but any of the big players that are spending on it, right? You've got to deliver a good product. And then I think with that, that validation comes exploration. You know, they want to know, like, what else is out there? They want to find a, you know, our Electra line, Mexican lager with fresh lime. They want to find a Kolsch. They want to find a Hazy IPA and a West Coast IPA. And so I think that's how the journey happens. Certainly in terms of awareness, I think that's how it happens at retail too. And I think in the on-prem, we've seen menus really start to develop around like, yeah, I think a really good menu looks like having a big macro and then a craft offering. And, you know, it's probably not six, it's probably, you know, one and two. But that really feels to be like where the success is right now. Consumers, especially American consumers, they love brands that stand for something. They love brands that are doing fun things. We're getting out in the market and we're activating at music shows, 5Ks, 10Ks, beach cleanups, whatever, and everything in between. I think it's a balance of those two things, but I think they absolutely play off each other. But let's face it, like Nick UltraZero, that was extremely disruptive for our category. When they came in, they immediately got to, what, 15 share of the category or something like that. And you can see it in the data. That was really felt hard by the rest of the NA set, big and small. But, you know, Best Day, in that environment, managed to gain share and accelerate momentum. I think that speaks to that second wave and how we're perfectly aligned with what's happening in that second wave. It's made us stand out.

[00:28:50] Justin Kendall: When you look at categories, whether it's energy drinks, where there's a lot bigger set, or maybe you look at super premium, where it's a one brand game with Michelob Ultra, When you look at a non-alcoholic set, you've got Michelob Ultra and Heineken from the major manufacturers. In craft, you've got Athletic and then you. And then we've seen an influx of all these other brands. And there are some celebrity brands out there. There are other crafters who are adding non-alcs. But we've also heard from retailers who say, there's not room in my set. So when we think about how this is going to shake out, is this going to be a four to five brand race? Is this something that can handle multiple brands? Can it have a longer tail? What is your vision for what this can be?

[00:29:46] Tate Huffard: We've always got to match the set and how big the set is to how big the category is, right? And if we think back to what non-alcoholic beer used to be back in the day, it was like a half a shelf in the darkest, dustiest section of the beer aisle. We've come a long way since then. And I think it has been a game of like, okay, you know, where does that set exist and how big is it? I think that'll constantly increase, I really do, because I think there's tons, despite being at 2.5% a beer or thereabouts now, I think there's tons of upside. And so I think with that upside will come shelf expansion. We've got to match the shelf expansion to how big the category is so that all the brands in that set are pulling. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. That's probably an obvious statement in and of itself. But you know, the other part to recognize here, it's really hard to make a great non-alcoholic beer. At the end of the day, that's what turns into productivity on the shelf, right? You need repeat. You need people spreading the gospel. You need people telling all their friends about this great beer that they tried. You got to go get it. That equals velocity at the shelf and productivity for the set. There's a barrier to entry that is real. And I think that's going to be a controlling factor in and of itself. You can have all the celebrity in the world, but if you're making subpar beer, it's going to go absolutely nowhere. It's going to go in a set and out the set. You know, my hope is that we can manage that growth in the set over time and critically, that the brands that are getting a shot in that set are making great beer and they're doing their part to make things pull because that's going to be the rising tide that's going to help everyone. So to answer your question, like, I honestly hope it's not a long tail right now. How many breweries are there in the country? 9,000? Like if every one of the 9,000 tried to make an NA beer right now, it wouldn't go well. And there's a reason why we do a ton of business through breweries throughout the country. It's because they realize we're in the business of making great beer. And if we can't make a great non-alcoholic beer using our own equipment and our four walls, let's get Best Day in here. I know that there's been a rush into the category. I don't think anyone would argue that we're not over skewed for the size of the set right now, but I think two things are going to happen. The set is going to grow and the amount of brands that are making beer that's commensurate with the level of quality that we're putting out in the market, it's going to manage itself.

[00:32:17] Jessica Infante: Really interesting to me that one of your big constituent bases is fellow craft brewers. How did that channel develop for you guys? And when did you come to realize, hey, like these guys need our beer?

[00:32:27] Tate Huffard: Yeah, well, you know, we spend a fair amount of time as a team in breweries throughout the country. So we kind of saw it organically. I have to say like it wasn't part of the plan as we saw it. We were so focused on bars and restaurants and then traditional off prem. But it's truly been one of the joys to see it happen, and it's happening all over the country. I mean, a lot of our top accounts in regions across the country are breweries. And it's kind of amazing. You know, we like to call ourselves a brewer's beer. That's a validation that we hold in high regard. We take pride in. You know, it just kind of happened organically. They were just looking at what's out there. They understand that if they don't have a great offering on the non-alcoholic side, they're walking a whole bunch of business. And what happens at breweries, it's people getting together, it's families getting together. And in today's day and age, 20, 50% of them aren't drinking, or they want to have one and then switch, or they want to do that. And so you just got to, you got to meet the customer in the moment. And yeah, it's pretty, pretty magical to see that happen with Best Day.

[00:33:36] Justin Kendall: I want to circle back and talk a little bit about getting distributor buy-in because I mean it's one thing to get retailers interested but also activating your wholesalers as a whole different story and I know it's a challenge for anybody that isn't Anheuser-Busch out there too because If you look at what they were able to do with Mic Ultra Zero, they turned that thing on like that. And I think it was the envy of the segment. Other large players have talked about how just them being able to turn that on and just the AB Red Network distributors pushing it hard. What's it like to operate in that environment and how do you get that buy-in that you need from those wholesalers and keep them on board and energized with the brand?

[00:34:26] Tate Huffard: Yeah, it's a great question. And that one hits close to home because we're aligned mostly with the AB network. So we saw what it was like to be in that portfolio and, and see bud come in and go from zero to approaching 15% market share, right. And 40, 45% ACV and here's best day at close to five nudging on 5% ACV and. There's no way around it. It's extremely disruptive to us as a brand, but it's also reality. These things happen, and if you take the big picture look at that, it's just nothing but good for the category. It's going to get bigger. They are now, as I said, like you could just look at what's happening at the World Cup. That's just good. And so to your question, like, how do you play in that environment? We just keep focusing on what we're doing. We're a cool brand. We make, I think, the best non-alcoholic beer out there in the world. And for a distributor, they just want to know, how is that all going to fit together? Once the dust has settled on getting Mic Ultra Zero out there, how does Best Day play with a Mic Ultra Zero on the shelf? How does Best Day play with Mic Ultra Zero on a menu? And I think we try to educate and talk to our distributors as much as possible to kind of tell them what we're seeing out there. We're seeing that this is great. You guys are doing a great job getting that beer on the shelf. And then customers are coming in and they're finding best day. And so it's not a one or the other, it's a both. They compliment each other. And that's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of data to tell that story. But I think, you know, distributors are people too. Like they see it out in the market. They see how these menus are, are getting built and they, they just know it intuitively. Like, yeah, okay, this is great. Like I can have a big macro and then there's a place obviously for craft. And there's a place for best day within that alongside a Mick UltraZero in the portfolio or a Heineken, right? It's the same story that's happening. It's like, there's a tremendous amount of validation that happens. And then there's exploration and participation at the craft level.

[00:36:32] Jessica Infante: We've talked a lot about the quality of the beer and how Best Day is just a really good beer regardless of alcohol or non-alcoholic status, but I was looking at your portfolio and it's a nice mix of easy drinking styles, Kolsch, lager and IPAs. Is there any appetite for innovating beyond those buckets? And are there any styles that drinkers have been asking for?

[00:36:51] Tate Huffard: We've dabbled beyond that. I mean, we've got to constantly constrain ourselves and focus on making the hero products do hero things. But last night, I was drinking our Shandy, which we came out with last summer as a summer hit. It's so good. I don't know if you ever tried that one, but it's yuzu, ginger, Shandy. And that really showed us that like, man, there's this balance of fruit and there's this balance of spice and all these ginger pushing into kind of new areas. That sounds delicious. Yeah, it's really, really quite good. You know, we've got a beer coming out in a couple of weeks that we're calling Endless Mango, and it's a mango IPA that's just built for summertime and built for those moments. We try to do four to six of these kind of hits every year. And there's a lot of learning that we find from those, obviously, like what plays, what can we do with NA? It's a balance of being focused on the things that are just the pounders and then, you know, listening to our customers, listening to the breweries out there, listening to the retailers and working with them and kind of bringing stuff to life that the NA category hasn't seen before.

[00:37:59] Justin Kendall: Before we let you go, I kind of want to get your vision for what you view as the endgame for Best Day. When you look at the market out there, we haven't seen a lot of acquisitions of non-alcoholic craft brands or brands in general. We have seen big investment come into the space. When you look at what you want to do with Best Day and where you see it going, do you see looking for a partner at some point? Do you want to ride this to the end and see where it goes? What's your goal with the brand at this point?

[00:38:35] Tate Huffard: Yeah, I mean, the mission for the brand is really that we see us as the voice and the emblem of, you know, this tectonic shift to consumer behavior. And I think as I described that kind of first wave, second wave trajectory arc of the category, we're in just the earliest phases of that second wave. But what's really clear is that we found our sweet spot and we have just total alignment with the customer at this moment. And boy, do I want to ride that wave. Like, that's going to be fun. If you look at where we are, we're at 5% ACV, despite the fact that we've grown distribution 30% in the last six months. But we're outpacing the category from a growth perspective by 3 to 5x. We're going places. I want to be a part of that. Like I want this brand to be a real contributor to NA beer going from two and a half to 10% to 15% and beyond of beer. That's what we're focused on. If we execute on that, I think good things are going to happen. There's a lot of upside for this company and there's a special place in being a real part of one of the biggest things to happen in the world of alcohol. And that's pretty exciting. Certainly gets me out of bed in the morning.

[00:39:55] Jessica Infante: It's been really, really great to get to know a little bit more about you guys because we see the press releases, we see the posts.

[00:40:01] Tate Huffard: We're very heads down. We've got a big job to do. So yeah, it's really nice talking to you guys as well. Great to catch up. So thank you for doing this, Tate. Yeah. Thank you guys.

[00:40:13] Jessica Infante: And that's our show for this week. Thank you for listening. The Brewbound Podcast is a production of BevNET CPG. Our audio engineer for the Brewbound Podcast is Joe Krachie. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski. Our designer is Amanda Huang. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your colleagues and friends and review us on your listening platform of choice. You can find our work at Brewbound.com and we also welcome feedback and suggestions at podcast at Brewbound.com. On behalf of the entire Brewbound podcast team, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week.