Greater Good Imperial Brewing sees itself as “the authority on imperial beers,” and the Worcester, Massachusetts-based craft brewery is setting its sights on making that statement in 2023.
“The goal has to be to get to a 50% share of that [imperial] market,” Greater Good CEO Colleen Quinn told Brewbound. “So we’re targeting over the long term 50% share of the high ABV space in all markets that we operate in.”
Greater Good distributes its portfolio – which consists of beers all 8% ABV or higher – in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. The company has recorded consistent production growth since its founding in 2016, including +58% increase year-over-year (YoY) in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and +5% increase YoY in 2021 to an estimated 11,800 barrels, according to the Brewers Association (BA).
“2022 was a good year for us in the sense that imperial beers are growing like crazy, and when you’re a brewery that specializes in imperial beers, that backdrop lends itself really well,” Quinn said. “But it was also a year of a ton of transformation for the company.”
Greater Good prioritized strengthening its leadership group in 2022, including adding Quinn in January, initially as chief commercial officer, before being appointed CEO in July. In the fall, the company made two additional leadership hires: director of sales David Morrice (formerly at Yazoo Brewing and Stony Creek) and VP of operations Chris Zampa (formerly at Anheuser-Busch InBev and Redhook Brewery).
“Paul Wengender, our founder, was looking for a little bit of a succession plan,” Quinn said. “He’s a serial entrepreneur and passionate about imperial beers and has started a wonderful company in Greater Good, but he’s also one of the most self-aware founders I’ve ever worked with, in the sense that, while he was still very passionate about Greater Good, he wanted to make sure that he was setting the company up for the best success and finding somebody with more industry experience than he had to scale it up to that next level.”
While a lot of Greater Good’s work in 2022 is “teed up and getting ready to launch in 2023,” the company still recorded gains last year, including YoY dollar sales increases for its two biggest flagships, Pulp Daddy imperial hazy New England IPA (+21%) and Greylock imperial New England IPA (+12%). The two beers account for about 66% of Greater Good’s total portfolio sales, according to Quinn.
“[2022] was a big year for investing, rounding out the team, rounding out our strategy, implementing a few new things along the way…” Quinn said. “A lot of it is building a really strong foundation before 2023.
“We need to make sure that we were talking about our beers and our company in the right way and in a way that would resonate with consumers,” Quinn continued. “So this year, we did a ton of consumer research and brand work to land on our overarching messaging around our peers and our company being ‘bigger, bolder and stronger’ than the rest.”
Now Greater Good is ready to actively work toward its expansion targets, including that 50% share of the imperial market. While Quinn estimates Greater Good has about a 30% share of imperials in Massachusetts, its strongest market, the company sees getting to 50% as a “realistic path.”
“It’s not an overnight journey, but it’s also not an unattainable journey for a brewery that exclusively specializes in that segment of the market,” Quinn said.
Part of the strategy to reach those targets is an increase in innovation this year, including the release of four new beers.
“When I got here, probably 85% to 90% of our portfolio was hazy imperial IPAs,” Quinn said. “Which made sense, hazies are growing like crazy up in New England …but it’s really important to me that as we try to be the authority on imperial beers, part of what that means is pushing the envelope for what that can really look like.”
The first innovation, a winter/spring seasonal launched this month, is BIGG Thaw, a 9% ABV imperial cold IPA. Available January through March, BIGG Thaw is hop-forward with Citra and El Dorado, with a “light and crisp body.”
“We’re really excited about BIGG Thaw, especially as it relates to our big focus on innovation this year,” Quinn said. “That beer really embodies two of our key goals: pushing the boundaries of what an IPA can be, and introducing customers to imperialized styles of beers that they might never have encountered before.”
Two beers have been added as year-round offerings this year: Absolute Clarity American IPA and Bombshell imperial blonde ale. Absolute Clarity (8% ABV), created with a “fan-source taste test,” is brewed with a pilsner malt base and hopped with Centennial, Chinook and Ahtanum hops, creating a “juicy hop profile with a crisp and clean finish.”
Bombshell (8% ABV) is part of Greater Good’s strategy to secure its “authority status” within high ABV beers, by imperializing traditionally low ABV styles. The blonde ale is “light and citrusy,” with “a mild maltiness” and “subtle notes of pineapple, melon and sexy tangerine delivered by a Citra and Idaho 7 dry hop.”
Greater Good is also expanding its 55 Funk Series of bi-monthly releases of imperial sours, beginning with Pomegranate Tangerine (8% ABV) in January.
“We’ve put a lot of focus into growing the 55 Funk family based on customer and partner feedback,” Quinn said in a press release. “So we wanted to create a sour that would highlight winter fruits. Pomegranate Tangerine balances the tartness of pomegranates with the juiciness of tangerines to create a great winter fruit sour ale.”
Other offerings in the series to be released later this year include Kiwi Raspberry, Prickly Pear Margarita, Blueberry Lemonade, Cotton Candy Grape and Cran-Orange Spice. Additionally, Greater Good is expanding its Pulp Daddy brand family with three new variants: Smooth Daddy, Dank Daddy and Grapefruit Pulp Daddy.
To support all its innovation, Greater Good is “ramping up” its digital marketing and increasing sampling at events, Quinn said.
The brewery is also experimenting with different package formats. Last year, Greater Goodveered away from its usual 16 oz. 4-pack format and launched Pulp Daddy in a 19.2 oz can. It plans to continue to expand its package formats in 2023 with a 12 oz. can 12-pack of Pulp Daddy, as well as a Pulp Daddy variety pack.
The package diversity will also help with Greater Good’s plans to expand its presence in the off-premise channel.
“I like to joke around [that] Greater Good is probably the only brewery that you might talk to that has a higher percentage of our mix in the on-premise today than we did pre-pandemic,” Quinn said.
Excluding Greater Good’s own-premise sales, the company’s distribution mix was about 90% off-premise prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company plans on “doubling down” on existing markets before branching out to new states to fill some of the off-premise opportunities still available.