New Belgium Brewing Company is making its biggest investment yet behind a Voodoo Ranger brand with the launch of Juice Force, a year-round hazy imperial IPA.
Dave Knospe, Voodoo Ranger brand manager, told Brewbound that New Belgium is investing more than $1 million in media for Juice Force (9.5% ABV), which is rolling out now.
“We eclipsed 15,000 barrels before we even ran $1 media on this brand, which is crazy,” he said. “It seems like this is going to be a really, really big launch for us.”
New Belgium’s initial projection for Juice Force was 50,000 barrels in Year One, which has since been revised to around 70,000 barrels. That would make it the biggest Voodoo Ranger launch ever, Knospe said.
If Juice Force reaches the 70,000-barrel threshold, it would rank within the top four brands in the Voodoo Ranger portfolio, trailing Voodoo Ranger Imperial, Juicy Haze, and IPA.
Juice Force is off to a strong start. Within its first four weeks on the market, Juice Force 19.2 oz. cans are a top-five selling craft beer single-serve package in the convenience store channel, and the second fastest turning single-serve, behind Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, according to NielsenIQ total U.S. convenience store data for the four weeks ending February 26, shared by New Belgium.
The early success is likely due to the brand playing at the confluence of two of the fastest growing style subsegments — hazy IPA and imperial IPA.
In 2021, hazy IPA and imperial/double/triple IPAs were the two fastest-growing style subsegments, increasing off-premise dollar sales 10.4% and 9.7%, respectively, according to NielsenIQ total U.S.xAOC + liquor plus convenience data shared by Bump Williams Consulting. Both hazy and imperial increased their dollar share of craft by a little more than 1% last year. Helping drive that growth is Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, which was the second best-selling craft brand in 2021 and the top-selling IPA in the beer category. Through the first two months of 2022, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA increased its share of the beer category by more than 1%, to 3.48% share, and has grown its off-premise dollar sales more than $5.3 million compared to the same period in 2021.
Knospe said while there are parallels to be drawn between Voodoo Ranger Imperial and Juice Force, the new release brings a more fruit-forward composition. The beer is brewed with Mexican orange, mango and passionfruit, and Chinook, Mosaic, Pahto, Galaxy, Lotus, Sabro and Strata hops.
Knospe expects Juice Force to be “a really good summer beer,” while still playing well in the colder months due to its higher ABV.
The genesis of Juice Force came in a meeting about another beer, one that Knospe can’t remember the name of now. The R&D team shared samples of what would eventually become Juice Force. What they shared was a fruit-forward, 10% ABV hazy imperial IPA. Knospe said everyone in the meeting quickly realized what they were sampling could be a “game-changing beer.”
Juice Force checked the box of offering incremental sales to the existing Voodoo Ranger year-round portfolio, as well as the craft beer segment.
“If we’re going to release something year round, it feels like it should fill a hole,” he said.
Knospe admitted releasing a hazy imperial IPA wasn’t a “novel idea” from a brewer known for IPAs, however, when the Voodoo Ranger team looked at the market, they didn’t see a widely available option.
“The hazy imperials that everyone knows and loves are generally made by much smaller brewers but aren’t available at some of the channels where Voodoo Ranger is distributed,” Knospe said. “So we were talking about it and, ‘Oh, hazy imperial. Of course everyone does one of those. Wait, does everyone do one of those? Does a competitor on a national scale make a really good successful hazy imperial?’ And the answer is really no, even if we are drinking them just as consumers at our favorite local breweries.”
In addition to 19.2 oz. single-serve cans, Juice Force is available in 6-packs nationwide. Those packs are being line priced with Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA 6-packs, Knospe said.
As for the overall strategy for Voodoo Ranger in 2022, New Belgium has “taken the brand and turned it into like a mini Adult Swim” with a “full animation system running pretty much at all times,” Knospe said. That includes Instagram posts, year-round connected TV, and weekly animations of the skeleton character.
Teams of artists between in-house creatives and Boulder-based agency Fact & Fiction now work on Voodoo Ranger day in and day out, Knospe said.
“We’ve really doubled down on let’s make this an art brand as much as a beer brand and commit to the artists who have made Voodoo what it is today,” he added. “It’s been awesome. We’ve run a film festival, we’ve run TV ads, we’re now like a real social powerhouse.”