San Marcos, Texas-based AquaBrew and Austin, Texas-based ShotGun Spiked Seltzer announced a merger agreement Tuesday.
Through the agreement, ShotGun will join the Aquabrew company. ShotGun co-founders Brad and Lori Foster will stay on as co-CEOs of the combined company, which will operate out of AquaBrew’s San Marcos facility, according to a press release.
“For us, AquaBrew was a perfect fit,” Lori Foster said in the release. “It was a way for us to control our own destiny by gaining ownership in a brewing facility with the capacity we needed to properly grow the brand.”
The Fosters are also the co-founders of Texas Libations, a brand developer, co-packer, incubator and startup consulting firm.
Since its founding in 2019, ShotGun has grown from a draft-only seltzer exclusively available in Austin, to a packaged product distributed in more than 4,000 on- and off-premise accounts throughout Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
“We have a large state-of-the-art facility, but we needed help with expanding our distributor network and scaling sales across Texas and beyond,” AquaBrew founder Carlos Russo said in the release. “This merger allows us to tap into ShotGun’s 80+ years of combined experience, distributor and retailer relationships.”
AquaBrew expanded into its current location, which includes a 20,000 sq. ft. production floor, taproom and beer garden, in 2021. The expansion increased the brewery’s annual capacity to 50,000 barrels.
Financial details of the deal have not been released.
Update January 4, 3:48 PM ET
Lori Foster told Brewbound in an email that the merger agreement was finalized December 31.
She added that Russo will remain with the new company as founder and board member. The company will also be “immediately ramping up [its] production team,” which will help with the merged company’s goal to “keep up with demand on the seltzer side and expand distribution on the beer side.”
Texas Libations will remain a separate entity, owned by the Fosters.