New non-alcoholic beer brand DrinkSip has set its sights on becoming a top competitor within the fast-growing craft NA beer segment.
DrinkSip co-founder Julian Yakoo, who also owns e-commerce craft beer marketplace CraftShack, told Brewbound the opportunity for his brand is to “be a competitor with Athletic Brewing,” which crossed the 100,000-barrel threshold in 2021 and is on pace to be a top 25 Brewers Association-defined craft brewery in 2022.
“They own something like 50% of the non-alcoholic beer market right now for craft, so we think there’s a huge opportunity,” Yakoo said. “There isn’t really a second place right now — a competitor — if you were to ask me. There’s Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but in the non-alcoholic craft space, there’s really just Athletic.”
The opportunity is growing within the non-alcoholic beer space. In 2022, the overall non-alcoholic beer segment increased sales +17.2%, to nearly $278.9 million, and volume (case sales) +7.8% in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by market research firm IRI. The whole of non-alcoholic beer’s growth isn’t captured alone in off-premise scans, as NA beer producers are able to sell their products through e-commerce throughout much of the U.S. and IRI data also excludes sales at bars, restaurants and brewery taprooms or other channels beyond grocery and c-store.
On October 30, DrinkSip launched e-commerce sales with a pair of 6-packs — Watermelon Refresher Wheat and a Hazy IPA. Each 12 oz. can, containing 94 calories, is emblazoned with the tagline “Hangovers suck.”
The playbook for DrinkSip isn’t far from the one Athletic Brewing has used. Athletic boasts top athletes among its brand ambassadors, including now-retired NFL defensive star J.J. Watt.
For DrinkSip, Yakoo has enlisted Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence as a co-founder and national ambassador.
Lawrence played college football at Boise State with Yakoo’s brother, and the two stayed in touch over the years.
“We had always wanted to do something special together,” Yakoo said. Non-alcoholic beer provided an opportunity to work together.
Lawrence isn’t the only familiar name attached to DrinkSip. Cigar City founder Joey Redner’s Largo, Florida-based contract facility Commerce Brewing is also among the nascent brand’s ownership group.
Yakoo met Redner through a mutual acquaintance. Now, Redner and his team are helping scale production and producing the beer at Commerce’s contract brewing facility in Florida, Yakoo said.
The process of producing DrinkSip was described in a press release as “a non-traditional brewing method, unique to DrinkSip” in which the alcohol isn’t removed. Yakoo added that the beer is pasteurized.
In addition to e-commerce sales nationwide, DrinkSip is distributed in Florida by Altered Craft Distribution and in California by Lime Ventures. The company plans to work with more distributors in the future.
“We want to figure out the lay of the land first, figure out who’s the right partner for us before we make that decision,” Yakoo said. He added the company is hoping a positive showing in this year’s World Beer Cup will attract future partners.
“So we don’t want to get in with the distributor before the World Beer Cup,” he said.
DrinkSip expects to add additional athlete ambassadors in the future, Yakoo said. However, the model will differ from Athletic Brewing’s, with DrinkSip giving those partners their own customized label, with a revenue-commission share structure, he added. Although he wouldn’t name potential collaborators, he said the company has held discussions with athletes in other major professional sports leagues about having their own specialized label featuring a caricature of themselves.
“With it being their product [within DrinkSip’s product lineup] and this really aggressive revenue share structure, we’re hoping that they promote it, and it’ll elevate the overall brand and our exposure in the market,” he said.