Girl Beer’s Ray Biebuyck on Bridging the Gaps and Winning in Hard Seltzer Sets

On the precipice of a massive rollout, Girl Beer founder Ray Biebuyck joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss wholesaler selection, product placement, social-first marketing and the brand’s first major sports partnership with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings.

The fruit-forward flavored lager has found that it’s more at home among hard seltzers than the beer aisle, Biebuyck explained. Girl Beer targets legal-drinking-age (LDA) women drinkers, who are more often shopping for beyond beer products. 

“We find that getting that consumer over to beer, what it takes is placing directly in the set where they're going to,” Biebuyck explained.

Kroger and Walmart have been forward-thinking about placing Girl Beer outside traditional beer sets in an attempt to stop prospective drinkers in their tracks. Other retailers place Girl Beer near similar fruited lager offerings, such as Garage Beer Lime. Biebuyck hopes that eventually a more robust flavored beer segment will materialize and help shape shelf sets. 

“I see it as this is all written in pencil and as the category changes and we see more entrants into this flavored beer set, that'll all hopefully shift and change,” she said. “But right now that's [hard seltzer sets] what we're seeing perform the best.”

In addition to Girl Beer’s placement, Biebuyck also discusses Peggy, the brand’s recent intern hire turned social media spokesperson, and forthcoming markets, including Vermont and Massachusetts. 

Before the featured interview, the Brewbound team discusses recent beer industry headlines, including bev-alc’s run at spooky season, Boston Beer’s Q3 earnings results and Mark Anthony’s forthcoming RefreshAde.

Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.