High Rise Founder Matt Skinner’s National Ambitions for Intoxicating Hemp Beverage Brand

[00:00:00] Justin Kendall: Heading to CBC? Kick things off the day before at Brewbound's meetup at Love City Brewing in Philly, Sunday, April 19th from 5 to 7 p.m. Connect with beer industry leaders, grab a drink, and catch up with the Brewbound team. It's free to attend and walking distance from the convention center. Head to Brewbound.com slash lovecity.rsvp. And don't forget to catch the Brewbound team at booth 956 during CBC. Next on the Brewbound Podcast, we catch up with High Rise co-founder and CEO, Matt Skinner. Hello, and welcome to the Brewbound Podcast. I'm Justin Kendall.

[00:00:49] Zoe Licata: And I'm Zoe Licata.

[00:00:50] Justin Kendall: Jess is not with us for the news portion of this episode, but will be here for our featured interview with Matt Skinner from High Rise, the THC infused beverage brand that's now in 10 states and growing very fast. So stay tuned for that.

[00:01:08] Zoe Licata: Another one of our Brewbound Podcast on location conversations.

[00:01:12] Justin Kendall: That's right, recorded at the National Beer Wholesalers Association's Annual Convention in Las Vegas. We have a couple more of these interviews that we'll be bringing you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for that. We're on the road a lot, it seems, this fall, and you just got back from the Massachusetts Brewers Guild's conference. Any quick takeaways from your trip to Framingham?

[00:01:38] Zoe Licata: Yeah, always a nice quick trip, our shortest travel commute, I think, of all our fall travel. But yeah, the keynote for that event was Brian Connors, who is the Director of Innovation and Strategy at Accelerating Leaders, but basically gave a pretty extensive dive into Gen Z consumption habits and They talked about zebra striping which we've heard recently and the kind of two cohorts of Gen Z that exist now, there's the 1.0s which are the ones that are really the ones that are drinking right now. It's the 97 to 2004 and then there's the 2.0s which are the ones that were even more severely affected by COVID and those are the ones that are going to be coming up to shape the state of beverage alcohol and consumption in the next few years.

[00:02:28] Justin Kendall: You're Gen Z 1.0, right?

[00:02:30] Zoe Licata: I am technically a 1.0, and I was a surprise participant in yesterday's presentation. Oh yeah? Where Brian took a survey at the beginning of his keynote about, you know, which generation everyone affiliated themselves or associated themselves with. And there was, I think, three of us in the room who raised our hand for Gen Z, and I was up front. So every time he had a question about Gen Z or something, I was, unfortunately, the target. But yeah, it was a good conversation that did have some new stuff as the generation continues to have a larger and larger impact. Dave Williams from Bumpling Hills Consulting also spoke. There was a great conversation about When's the right time to sell your brewery or to close your tap room? Another conversation about making your business more profitable. So a bunch of fun little nuggets that we'll have sprinkled around either in the newsletter or on the website. So make sure you stay tuned for those.

[00:03:27] Justin Kendall: Speaking of your participation in Gen Z, happy birthday, by the way.

[00:03:32] Zoe Licata: Thank you. Yes, my birthday was on Sunday. I'm 29 now and I feel like it's hard for me to be, even though I was the spokesperson for Gen Z on Monday, it's harder and harder to be the spokesperson for the youth when I don't feel like the youth anymore.

[00:03:49] Justin Kendall: You're the youth, don't worry. You got a long way to go.

[00:03:53] Zoe Licata: No, but yes, I am now 29. So last year of my 20s, once I hit 30, then I think we have to get a new, a new youth spokesperson.

[00:04:03] Justin Kendall: Yeah, sure. We'll work on that.

[00:04:07] Zoe Licata: Work it into the budget.

[00:04:09] Justin Kendall: So speaking of Gen Z, I just had our prep call with Burkhard Nessen and He's going to be presenting at Brewbound Live this December 10th and 11th, actually on the 11th. So mark your calendars for that. And I feel like his research earlier this year has been cited so many times by so many different people. And I did a prep call with him. I wouldn't describe it as short. It was probably longer than the actual presentation will be. But if what comes together is what we talked about, I think there's a lot of exciting things in there. Some nuggets for people, both big brewers, small brewers, things to consider, routes to profitability in your taproom that you might not be thinking about. So lots to come there. I would recommend checking out Brewbound Live. Obviously, I'm biased, but I think it'd be well worth any of your time. So check out brewboundlive.com. Tickets are available now. You're going to be at the Beer Institute meeting. So will Bacard. The next few days.

[00:05:16] Zoe Licata: Yeah.

[00:05:16] Justin Kendall: And Bacard will be there. I'm going to be at the California Craft Brewers Association's meeting next week. I get in Monday. I leave Wednesday. And then I'll be at the Iowa Craft Brewers meeting, I-BEST, on Friday. So we are on the move.

[00:05:32] Zoe Licata: And Jess will be in New York this weekend for Beer Marketer's Insights event too. So if you're in New York and you want to see Jess or let her know of anything going on, hit her up.

[00:05:44] Justin Kendall: Hit any of us up when we're on the road. Feel free to reach out when we're in person. We'll have a booth at CCBA. I'll be recording some future episodes of this podcast. So keep an eye out.

[00:05:56] Zoe Licata: The last two months of this year really

[00:06:00] Justin Kendall: This month is going to fly by. This is the month that I'm afraid is going to be extra packed. Let's get to our news of the week. And we've had to sit on this news for a little bit until they were ready for us to release it. But we got a full look at New Belgium's innovation slate for 2026. They ran down a lot of new things that are coming, especially after this year where they didn't have that big Voodoo Ranger release or anything this year. They are definitely jumping in in 2026. They've got a pair of new Voodoo brands that are going to be year-round. Very targeted approach. We've got some new RTDs. We've got Bell's Two-Hearted getting its own bottle, a stubby bottle. It's going to have an embossed trout on it. It's not ready for primetime yet. They showed off an image, but they haven't had images to share since because It's not quite ready yet, but that's on the way. So what should we dive into first? Should we do Voodoo Ranger or should we do some of the other stuff?

[00:07:10] Zoe Licata: Yeah, let's do Voodoo. We haven't been able to talk about anything really new from it. Was it two years ago when there was something new all the time? It felt like we were constantly talking about it and now it's been a minute.

[00:07:22] Justin Kendall: Yeah, they were doing the juice force and then the fruit force and then the tropic force. And they really did take a step back this past year where it was sort of core brands and then some fun stuff like Malort IPA, which they put 50 of those cans under seats at this distributor meeting. It was like room temperature Malort IPA for the lucky 50.

[00:07:50] Zoe Licata: Everything about that sounds absolutely terrible.

[00:07:53] Justin Kendall: So let's talk about things that aren't terrible. Like SweetRide IPA, which is a 6.5% ABV IPA. It's targeted to the grocery channel. And Dave Nospi, who does marketing for the Voodoo Ranger. We've had him at Brewbound Live before. This is what he said will be the biggest craft launch of the year. which I think is a pretty bold prediction, given how things go. But at 6.5%, it falls lower than the singles that have really taken off for them in the forced family. And this is an area that they think is ripe for disruption, this 5% to 8% ABV range. where they argued there hasn't been a lot of drinkable everyday brands that have popped in the last five years and maybe even longer than that.

[00:08:52] Zoe Licata: I think it's a fair assessment. I feel like it probably is primed for some of the folks that have been in the higher ABV range consumer-wise to maybe start looking for something a little less as they're thinking about their consumption habits. So I can see where they're coming from for sure.

[00:09:13] SPEAKER_??: Yeah.

[00:09:13] Justin Kendall: Aimed at the grocery channel, we'll start in the hoppy pack and then it'll end up in six packs. So look for that in the spring, summer timeframe. And then they're not giving up on high EBV. They are going up to 11, I guess is what SpinalTap would say. They've got G-Force. It is a juicy IPA. It's in that force range, but they're going 2% ABV higher than the normals. And definitely a product that is not aimed at me. To say the least.

[00:09:49] Zoe Licata: It's not me either, but I'm sure I mean there are plenty of people drinking beatbox and that's 11%. So there's a consumer out there for it.

[00:09:59] Justin Kendall: I don't have a lot to offer on GeForce. They're definitely trying to build out that convenience cold box space. They've got GeForce. They got Imperial. Those are doing really well. They've captured I can't remember if it's a quarter of the share in C-stores or if it's like 17%. I can't remember, but they have a significant share of the craft C-store shelf space and just consumer purchasing in C-stores. And obviously this is targeted to them. And a lot of the learnings coming out of this, and it shouldn't be a surprise, is there's a Voodoo Ranger that is in the grocery channel. And then there is a Voodoo Ranger who is in the C-store. And they are very different and they do not overlap. And this innovation slate speaks to that. You've got sort of an affluent drinker in grocery stores who will buy the multi-packs, who are looking for the mid-strength stuff. And then you have the more urban, multicultural consumer who is buying the singles in the C-stores. That's essentially how it broke out. Not a big overlap in that Venn diagram.

[00:11:18] Zoe Licata: Yeah. It's like different consumer priorities, right? It's like convenience and value when it comes to how much money you're putting down in that single purchase versus more of a, okay, you're going on your grocery trip. You want to make one trip. Maybe you're willing to pay a little bit more. So it's definitely different consumer base. It feels like there've been tons of conversations the past couple months about folks focusing on singles on convenience on high abv singles so to see how that shakes out and how how even C-stores are going to determine how they're going to split that up between Kraft and so many F&Bs now trying to go after that similar consumer base. There are a lot of people trying to play in that space now. And New Belgium has grown a reputation over the past couple of years of being pretty dominant in that space, but they definitely have quite a few new challengers.

[00:12:16] Justin Kendall: And they're going to bring more to that convenience space too, because they have Vandal Cocktails, a 10% ABV vodka-based RTD. It is coming to Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Ohio. That's your first round markets because they're doing this incubator test market. You know, they're going to learn. This is something that they sort of pulled out of launching LightStrike. where they very quickly learned that this is a product that should be in single, should be in convenience. And they had to pivot pretty quickly on that because if you remember when Lightstrike first hit, which is that hard refresher brand, it was in shrink wrap, four packs. And I remember going to a grocery store and it was just like jammed into the shelf set because you didn't know what to do with it.

[00:13:08] Zoe Licata: Right there wasn't really anything like it so people didn't really know where to place it. I think the Total Wine by us had it. It was in with all the other like hard seltzers and hard ciders and things but it just looked a bit odd on shelf compared to everything else was in traditional like cardboard boxes. It didn't quite fit with everything.

[00:13:29] Justin Kendall: And I'm probably burying the lead here on Vandal because It very much is a Voodoo Ranger adjacent brand. It essentially has the Voodoo Ranger on it, but he's got a bandit mask on, so it's that subtle but not so subtle nod that this is very much a Voodoo Ranger product, and it's going to be available in Blue Raz, which apparently was a popular light strike flavor, Cherry Limeade, and Citrus Charge. They are 12 ounce single cans, and that's Vandal.

[00:14:07] Zoe Licata: I kind of like the kind of similar branding, but not where the true Voodoo Ranger fans are going to recognize it and know it and associate it with that brand. But folks who may not be super familiar or just think of it as this super high ABV craft beer brand might not immediately be put off because they're not thinking, oh, this is a beer. They're seeing it as a cocktail first. So I think that's a nice way to toe that line.

[00:14:34] Justin Kendall: They are very much building out that cold box too, because we talk about those 19.2 singles. These are 12 ounce singles. And then you've got the mini ripper cans. What are they? Seven and a half?

[00:14:46] Zoe Licata: Yep.

[00:14:47] Justin Kendall: So you can see that shelf set coming together where they're, they're blocking it. And then they also are bringing the top selling RTD from Japan to the US, which is, and I apologize if I mess this up. Haikatsu, which is a Chuhai cocktail. And if you were at Brewbound Live last year, you might remember Suntory spoke, and they revealed Maruhai, which is a Chuhai cocktail. And this is what New Belgium is going to bring to Tampa, Florida and Hawaii to start. So 12-ounce can, four packs, two flavors, pineapple and strawberry. I don't know. I think they've got the Kirin brand behind it. They've clearly repositioned Kirin. They've got new packaging for that. Kirin Ichiban, that is. And I mean, this is just another level for them to go after that Japanese-American, Asian-American consumer in the U.S.

[00:15:50] Zoe Licata: Yeah, this one I think I'm most excited about because it is more unique with its viewpoint as a brand. It already has an existing consumer base internationally. It's speaking to a lot of things consumers want when it comes to flavor, when it comes to spirits. It's doing a lot. So I think this one makes a lot of sense. It's been cool to see how New Belgium is incorporating some of the Curin and Ichiban and they haven't been just immediately putting out everything in the U.S. I think Curin has been very intentional about they want more business in the U.S. but they want to do it in a way that makes sense. And so now you're starting to see more of that happen now that it's been a few years.

[00:16:34] Justin Kendall: There's definitely an authenticity here to this product because Like you said, it already existed, and I couldn't find strawberry on the website for the existing brand, but pineapple was definitely there. And you can see where the new flavors might come from, too, if you just kind of search that out. There's a lot of citrus. So we mentioned the Bell Stubby Bottle. I don't think there's much more to really say there, but I think it's a cool play. And then this is something that I know will speak to both of us because we were there for Oberon Day this year and we got to try Oberon Light, which was going to be a seasonal offering. And it was, and it did really well from March to September while it was in the market. But what they really found out was this brand is really connecting with these younger legal drinking age consumers. It sort of tapped into what hard seltzer and RTDs have been able to do. It's playing into session ability, it's playing into day drinking. And I'll speak for myself, this is the beer that I drank the most while we were in Kalamazoo.

[00:17:48] Zoe Licata: I think the same for me. It was definitely the easiest to drink. And I don't want this to be an insult to either of the brands, but I feel like it's doing what Blue Moon used to do or is currently trying to do, where it has a lot of that citrus feeling. It's supposed to be lighter, but it's still a craft brand, so it's a bit more of a premium product. I think it speaks to a very similar consumer base, but the 2025 version of that. And it's just delicious. And just to be a little biased, but it is really good.

[00:18:23] Justin Kendall: I don't know what it says about my palate these days, but this was one of my favorite releases of the year, along with Corona Sunbrew. Again, I'm very much on that citrus range here.

[00:18:35] Zoe Licata: Yeah. I don't know if we fully understand why it hit as well as it did, but I mean, we've talked about some of the points that it hits, but I mean, even New Belgium and Bells were surprised by, I think, how much of a hit it was when it came out. It really resonated with people.

[00:18:53] Justin Kendall: In the last piece of this we didn't really talk about in the Voodoo Ranger section was they're gonna be partnering with Invincible, which is an animated superhero series on Amazon, on Prime. And then also with Borderlands 4, which is a major video game release. I think they pegged it as $100 million in advertising spending that the video game publisher is doing behind the brand, not them. But they're gonna have cross-promoted packs of Voodoo Ranger IPA with Borderlands for so the Voodoo Ranger is going to have some like Borderlands gear on basically, but you're also going to be able to get in game stuff. I am not a gamer. So I can't really speak to that. But it's like, not rewards, but you basically pick up, I imagine, weapons or something.

[00:19:53] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I am sure there's some sort of branded gear or something you get digitally and stuff.

[00:19:59] Justin Kendall: You probably get the Voodoo Ranger too.

[00:20:01] Zoe Licata: Yeah.

[00:20:03] Justin Kendall: Who will also, well, I don't know if he appears in Invincible, but they're definitely playing up the Invincible versus Voodoo Ranger portion of that. And there's a Blood Orange IPA that will be in the Hoppy pack. So you can see that they're putting a lot of energy into that Hoppy pack, which is the top craft IPA pack out there.

[00:20:28] Zoe Licata: The news of this, of the Borderlands partnership and everything too, comes right after we just heard from analyst Nick Modi about how beer really hasn't capitalized on the video game culture at all. And we've seen a little bit from some folks, but I think Sapporo Stone was doing it a little bit too. But it really is a consumer base where it's product-wise mostly dominated by energy drinks. BevAlc really hasn't gotten a really big grasp on targeting them and integrating beverage alcohol into what is another occasion. So it's interesting to see folks actually start to do that now.

[00:21:07] Justin Kendall: And this is something Dave Nospy talked about too, is they've done sort of small scale partnerships in video games. But these are two of the biggest releases of the year. And I should mention, Invincible will have its own video game this summer. So it goes deeper than just Borderlands. They've got Invincible also. So aside from Grand Theft Auto, if it ever comes out or whenever it comes out, these are apparently two of the biggest video game releases of the next year.

[00:21:39] Zoe Licata: I want to know who's going to partner with Animal Crossing because that would be my preferred partnership. Cozy vibes.

[00:21:46] Justin Kendall: Don't be surprised if the Voodoo Ranger shows up.

[00:21:50] Matt Skinner: This episode is brought to you by the Craft Brewers Conference, where big ideas, bold beers, and brutally honest shop talk collide. Join thousands of industry pros leveling up their game. Don't miss it. Register now at CraftBrewersConference.com.

[00:22:09] Zoe Licata: I'd be really alarmed. If the Voodoo Ranger showed up on my island, I'd be scared. But if there's a nice cozy Bebel brand, maybe Bells could get in there. Highly recommend.

[00:22:24] Justin Kendall: Let's talk about Molson Coors because you sat in on the earnings call today and there's some big numbers out there.

[00:22:34] Zoe Licata: some big numbers. The biggest number of them all would be a more than $3.6 billion goodwill impairment charge that the company had to take for the quarter, which is a very large number. And then we had to check a couple of times to make sure I was reading that correctly, but they did confirm on the call that yes, they did take that $3.6 billion, not million, And they naturally were asked about it on today's earning call. And Raul Goyo, who is the new CEO, officially took over in October and this was his first time kind of taking leadership for this earning season. He said, yeah, it kind of is part of our new process of really reevaluating how we're doing business. And it is us checking ourselves and saying, all right, this is where we're actually at. But that's a really scary number.

[00:23:27] Justin Kendall: Their market cap is $8.1 billion.

[00:23:30] Zoe Licata: Right. So it's nearing half of that. So yeah, Raul is pretty confident that they can still kind of bounce back, that they can return to grow. We're very adamant that they believe a lot of the challenges that they're facing and that we are facing are part of a cyclical environment. It's not structural, that things are going to get better. I don't know if analysts were totally convinced, but that is where they believe things are. Their Q3 in general was down. It was a little bit better than Q2 and definitely better than last year, but still not great. And they expected to be about the same throughout the rest of the year. They maintained their guidance, which if you remember, they adjusted their guidance twice this year. They maintained the one they shared last time, but they're looking more towards the lower end of that guidance. It's a lot to do with their losing share. It's not necessarily just the beer is performing poorly and they're just taking the brunt of that. They're also underperforming compared to some of their competitors. And Raul is like, we're really looking to restructure how we do business and how we are marketing our brands, taking more of a regional focus for a lot of them so that they can fix the things that are in their control. which is what everyone is saying, control the controllables. But he had some actual talking points for what they are physically taking steps to do. It's definitely, I think, fair to say it's an overhaul of how the company operates and what their priorities are. Raul's really just been in there a month and he's definitely staking his claim or his new leadership chapter of what business is going to look like.

[00:25:14] Justin Kendall: When he says they're moving at pace, they are definitely moving quickly because that reorganization, the 400 people being laid off or 400 jobs being cut, some of that, I think a few hundred of that are open roles, but yeah, they are moving quick.

[00:25:33] Zoe Licata: Yeah, they cut, it was like 9% of their America's headcount is cut, but they did note that a lot of those things were just open rolls that they did not have in the first place. But there are also folks in there who did, they do have to pay severance too, and that's also impacting their bottom line, which is all detailed in their earnings as well.

[00:25:54] Justin Kendall: Yeah. Part of that write down that they did this time around was related to the Blue Run Spirits brand that they acquired, which I think essentially writes off the entire value of that purchase, if I remember that right.

[00:26:09] Zoe Licata: Yeah. $75.3 million of the loss was for Blue Run Spirits, which was their first big spirits acquisition. They acquired 75% stake in that in 2023 for $78 million. So it's pretty close. Yeah, which is interesting because they also say later in the conversation that they believe they have a gap when it comes to spirits and specifically spirits based RTDs. So they still do want to spend money and pursue M&A when it comes to spirits. But that particular purchase has not worked out the way they expected.

[00:26:46] Justin Kendall: Anything else on Molson Coors before we get to the featured interview here?

[00:26:51] Zoe Licata: I would just read the story because there's a lot of really good bits about their marketing strategy when it comes to their brands and how they're adjusting that and also what their plans are for investing in both economy brands and premium brands. Premiumization right now is kind of iffy. So they address both things.

[00:27:13] Justin Kendall: Yeah, there's some real talk in there as far as Blue Moon goes to.

[00:27:18] Zoe Licata: Yeah. Yeah. Blue moon has not met expectations. They were very upfront about that.

[00:27:26] Justin Kendall: Well, with that, then let's get to our featured interview with Matt Skinner from High Rise.

[00:27:34] High Rise: Welcome back to the Brewbound Podcast on Location Studio. We are here at the National Beer Wholesalers Association's 88th Annual Convention. I am Brewbound Managing Editor, Jessica Infante, joined by my co-hosting colleague, Justin Kendall. How you doing?

[00:27:50] Justin Kendall: I'm doing all right. We bringing this one home.

[00:27:52] High Rise: Yeah. I am super excited for our next guest. We've got Matt Skinner, founder of Hi-Rise.

[00:27:58] The Charleston: High Rise Beverage. Thank you for having me.

[00:28:01] High Rise: Awesome. I didn't want to give High Rise the last name that it didn't have, but I was right. It's High Rise Beverage. That's it. Matt, it's so nice to meet you because I know we get so much of your stuff from your amazing PR team at Turn It Up.

[00:28:13] The Charleston: They are great.

[00:28:14] High Rise: Aren't they? They're the best. I'm glad we were able to connect and make this happen. First of all, how are you doing?

[00:28:19] The Charleston: I'm great. I'm great. It's been an awesome couple of days. It's very interesting to see where this category is going. First time was last year, and didn't really know what to expect. Me and my wife, we got in this business, we do not come from beverage, so it was kind of a first time. It was much, but this year is, you know, it's been interesting, because like I said, there's a lot of conversation around this world of THC and hemp-derived THC right now.

[00:28:44] High Rise: I think you were smart to get in on a non-Vegas year, because Las Vegas year is, for your first time, would be a lot, so.

[00:28:50] The Charleston: Yeah, and I've had my Vegas days, so I know what those are like.

[00:28:54] High Rise: So tell us about High Rise. I know one of your big launches this year was a 10 milligram product line, but what were you before, previously just 5 milligrams?

[00:29:02] The Charleston: Yeah, we started actually, we're based out The Charleston, South Carolina. We started in The Charleston market, not coming from beverage, you know, we went 10 miles deep, not 10 miles wide. just really want to focus on our hometown. And with that, kind of our strategy was really going into the on-premise world. You know, a lot of these brands have really focused on the bottle shops. They came out and started with a 10 milligram. But being an on-premise focused brand, we came into the market with a 5 milligram product. So that's kind of how we started. But we did see, you know, the trends show that this 10 milligram is taking its place universally throughout the country. So we felt like that was our new launch. And we launched our 10 milligram. It's doing great.

[00:29:42] Justin Kendall: What was your pitch to on-premise retailers to be able to bring you in?

[00:29:47] The Charleston: I think understanding getting away from the category as a whole and just kind of focusing on an NA product. We're just seeing the touch of this category of THC hemp-derived beverages also was aligned with this movement that we're seeing right now of people trying to find alternatives. to non-alcoholic products. So our approach, and it's always been this way, is when we go in and we talk to an on-premise account, we try to talk about the category of N.A. as a whole, not only about our brand. We try to make some suggestions for them, and it's just an uncomfortable space. I mean, when you're a mixologist and you've always dealt with spirits and working from that angle, coming into this N.A. world and understanding what a customer wants is a little bit of a challenge. So we've helped coach that piece up.

[00:30:33] High Rise: And how about your conversations with distributors? How does that usually go? How much education do you have to do?

[00:30:38] The Charleston: You have to do a lot. And, you know, I think at first for a lot of us in the category, we were just trying to set a partnership up because we wanted somebody to distribute our product. Understanding that having a network is what it's all about. That way, when the chains get involved, which they have heavily in the Carolinas over this last year, having that full network established is important. And we've been lucky because we've had some excellent beverage industry professionals come on board our team and they've helped coach that process for us and be a part of it.

[00:31:10] Justin Kendall: When you're at this conference and there are distributors from across the country here, are you having those conversations? Are you getting a lot of interest in bringing your product into some of those states where they can legally distribute it?

[00:31:24] The Charleston: We are. You notice I said that with a little bit of pause. And I say it because I think everybody is truly there. They're truly interested now. It's just still formalizing more legislation around it. So a lot of people are jumping in the category because they understand that's a necessity for where we are right now. But there's a lot of sidebar conversations going on. And I think there's a lot of us in this category. So a lot of us are looking for the right partnerships. And the distributors want to align themselves with first in class, the ones that they see putting the work in, the homework in for the industry. But yes, we've had a lot of conversations over the last couple of days.

[00:32:02] High Rise: So you guys are in 22 states. What's your distributor network like? Mostly Molson Coors, mostly AB, a big old mix?

[00:32:11] The Charleston: It's very new. A lot of onboarding happened over the last 12 months for us. We went from two states to 22. So that's when you're putting full network together, it's a lot. The AB network is a big portion of our portfolio. Also, Mosin-Kors, they've done an amazing job with us in the markets. We're established with them. And then we've aligned with about 10 independents as well. So it's been good.

[00:32:32] High Rise: Nice. And those states, I mean, I'm not expecting you to rattle them all off because that's a lot, but concentrated in one area of the country over another?

[00:32:40] The Charleston: I think coming from the Carolinas, that southeast region is extremely important to us. Midwest is doing extremely well in this category and so is some of the north, but We have put a lot of our focus, I mean, if you look at High Rise as a brand, you see we're a coastal themed product. That's kind of, when we built our brand out, that was extremely important to us to find the best pieces of the coast and to really pick up on that. So, the Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, those are big focal points for us. Tennessee.

[00:33:10] Justin Kendall: When you think about what you wanted High Rise to be, how do you view that? Because you mentioned, you know, you wanted to be local at the start, but how has that thinking either evolved or do you still sort of see yourself as a Southeastern US brand?

[00:33:26] The Charleston: I would definitely say we're in the space of being a nationwide brand at this point. In having those partnerships and getting in with the right distributors now, I think is important. They're finding who they feel like their horses are in the category, and I think we are aligning across the country with that. But, you know, the Southeast is really important to us. Dropping in South Carolina, Southern Crown's done an amazing job with our brand in that market. We had this opportunity two years ago with CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee. That was our second market, and we're with Lippmann there. And Sony was looking for a company, an NA partner, to do a one-off with them for CMAs. And they're like, there's no way they're going to touch THC, right? So sure enough, they got it approved, and we were part of that with them. And 30 days passed, and we got a phone call. And Sony offered us to be their NA partner. So we're partners with Sony Music and Nashville. So that was a big kickoff for us in Nashville, Tennessee. And I think that helped normalize it too. Again, every time we can make a move like that, it helps normalize this industry, which is what we're looking to do.

[00:34:35] High Rise: What are those conversations like when you're talking to, say, consumers? Do they have questions or are they pretty much on board now?

[00:34:42] The Charleston: You know, three years ago, when we first started, everybody had a question about it, right? And I mean, we're, you know, people say we're in the Bible Belt. We are. But I feel like that Southeast has really, really grabbed a hold of this category, probably more than most places in the country. And I think anybody in this space will share that with you. But it was tough three years ago. Now it's just part of the conversation. So it's very normal.

[00:35:08] Justin Kendall: We had a conversation with Lester Jones from the NBWA and he's looking at data and he's telling us. Basically, there's not a frontrunner in the category yet. And so when you look at the opportunity ahead of you, what do you see for High Rise?

[00:35:24] The Charleston: Well, I will say there's a lot of great founders in this industry. We've got a lot of great brands out there. I think one thing that really separates us is the ingredients in our product. We use real fruit, which is a challenge. I mean, you know, it is a challenge to use real fruit. Not everybody from a co-packing perspective will work with a real fruit puree, but we're very minimal with our products. We use organic cane sugar. So health and wellness is a big focus for us, and we keep that on the forefront. I think High Rise is as good as anything out there. There's a lot of great brands, but I think we've really, really kept it simple, and our taste of our product is Excellent.

[00:36:03] High Rise: Flavor-wise, is anything pulling away from the pack?

[00:36:06] The Charleston: You know, it's funny. Our top three are all right there with each other, but a blueberry, which is very unique, is our number one runner. Number two is blood orange, and the number three is pineapple. So they're outside of the blood orange. The other two are pretty unique for the industry and for a flavor profile.

[00:36:22] High Rise: I mean, you don't even really see blueberry in hard seltzer that much. I know there's a few here and there, but they're usually mixed with something else. So I love blueberry.

[00:36:31] The Charleston: It's good. It's light and it's refreshing.

[00:36:33] High Rise: Delicious.

[00:36:35] Justin Kendall: When you look at the share race within THC infused beverages, what do you think it takes to get to be that next level brand that's leading the category?

[00:36:45] The Charleston: I think you constantly, right now, have to make sure that your team is having those conversations with the chains, educating. As long as your education focused first, I also think it's really important to build a category, not just your brand. I think a lot of us are putting that mission out there first. So that's something we do. And I think when we partner with a distributor, they know they can lean on me to talk about what other brands are doing, what's in the market. So I think that's one thing that separates us.

[00:37:16] High Rise: Are there any segments out there either in beverage alcohol or non-alcohol or anything else? Are there any segments that you're looking at to take cues from? Like, okay, hard seltzer did this six years ago and here's what we're not going to do. Like, what do you look at as either a North Star good or bad?

[00:37:32] The Charleston: You know, I think this is a whole new world in beverage. And I believe that a lot of us that are in the space don't come from beverage. So we're kind of creating some of our own rules as we go along. The innovation component was another piece of that that I was going to share. A lot of us are blending now, not only coming out with a spirit, we also have a seltzer or vice versa. I think you're going to see a lot of that in 2026. So innovation is important. But I think we're breaking from the standard rules. And I think that's making it fun and exciting again in the beverage world.

[00:38:03] Justin Kendall: When you see something like what's going on in Minnesota with Target bringing in the products to 10 stores to kind of test things out, what do you think that says about the opportunity?

[00:38:14] The Charleston: Oh my gosh, it's incredible. That was a big move last week. I think everybody was doing their own little celebratory dance wherever they were when they saw that happen. There were rumors around the campfire about that and now it's taking place. I just think it puts all eyes on the category. You know, once Target gets involved, and we've seen some very big regional players in the Southeast as well get involved, and I think everybody's taking note of that.

[00:38:40] High Rise: Awesome. Well, I mean, it's been fascinating to watch this category take shape. It's, you know, really we're seeing something we've never seen before, as you said, so.

[00:38:47] The Charleston: It's fun, for sure.

[00:38:48] High Rise: Good. Well, Matt, thank you so much for joining us. This has been a pleasure.

[00:38:51] The Charleston: Awesome. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thanks for doing it. Take care.

[00:38:55] High Rise: And that's our show for this week. Thank you for listening. The Brewbound Podcast is a production of BevNET CPG. Our audio engineer for the Brewbound Podcast is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski. Our designer is Amanda Huang. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your colleagues and friends and review us on your listening platform of choice. You can find our work at Brewbound.com. And we also welcome feedback and suggestions at podcast at Brewbound.com. On behalf of the entire Brewbound Podcast team, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week.