Brewbound Podcast Episode 29: Rob Tod on Building Brands and Introducing Cans

In a beer industry littered with hazy IPAs, one cloudy brew stands above the rest.

Allagash White, the ubiquitous Belgian-style witbier made in Maine and sold in just 17 states, is the eighth-largest craft brand, sold on draft, in the entire U.S., according to research firm Nielsen.

“It’s a very, very strong brand on-premise, but we are probably selling 75 percent of our beer on-premise,” Allagash Brewing founder Rob Tod told Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall during episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast.

According to Tod, Allagash White is one of only two top-10 craft beer brands growing sales on-premise.

But the brand’s impressive on-premise presence hasn’t necessarily led to strong sales at grocery and liquor stores, as only a quarter of the Allagash White business occurs off-premise.

That’s likely to change, thanks to the introduction of canned packages, which rolled out in February.

“I think people kind of view us as a special occasion beer on the off-sale,” Tod said. “We want to use cans to bring Allagash White to really every occasion on the off-sale.”

In episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast, Furnari and Kendall chat with Tod about how the addition of canned packages will transform the Allagash business in the years to come, how the company is repositioning itself off-premise, why it invests disproportionately in quality-control measures and how it approaches innovation without chasing trends.

Listen to episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday.

Episode 30, featuring NBWA chief economist Lester Jones, will be released on Thursday, April 4.

For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Show Notes:

0:00 – 16:45: Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall introduce episode 29, discuss recent people moves and provide an update on #Corntroversy

16:45 – 1:00:10 Furnari and Kendall interview Rob Tod

1:00:10 – 1:11:35: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview

In episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast, Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall chat with Allagash founder Rob Tod about how the addition of canned packages will transform the Allagash business in the years to come, how the company is repositioning itself off-premise, why it invests disproportionately in quality-control measures and how it approaches innovation without chasing trends.