Brewbound 2024 Rising Star: New Trail Brewing Co.

Brewbound [00:03] Welcome back to the Brewbound Live live stream. I'm Brewbound managing editor Jessica Infante, and I am thrilled to be having a conversation with one of our 2024 rising stars. Uh, joining me right now for, uh, what I hope is going to be a delightful chat is, uh, New Trail Brewing's director of brewing operations and partner Mike La Rosa. Mike, welcome to the live stream. It's so good to be with you again. How are you doing? Yeah,

Speaker 2 [00:25] of course, yeah, thanks for having me. Things are, things are good. Just busy.

Brewbound [00:30] Good. I mean, that's certainly better than than the alternative. So yeah,

Speaker 2 [00:34] for sure.

Brewbound [00:35] Well, you and I last caught up, uh, over the summer at New Trail's first ever distributor summit back in August, and you and the team unveiled an impressive and extremely focused innovation slate for 2025 that Includes new IPAs like Trailmarker West Coast IPA, Broken Heels non-AC IPA, 24/7 hazy session IPA, which I am personally really excited to see come out. Why was it important for New trail to quadruple down on IPA next year in the words of the CEO and co-founder Dave Hertwig?

Speaker 2 [01:04] Yeah, I mean, Neutralil has had a lot of success in hazy IPA and we have seen a lot of opportunities in the other segments within IPA. I mean, we're currently, I think it's like 20% of Pennsylvania's 16 ounce can format in in hazy IPA and We've gone after West Coast a handful of times in the past, but not really put a whole lot of vigor behind it. And, uh, you know, this year when we were sitting at the innovations table, it's like, well, what do we want to do? Where, where are the opportunities? And we see it in, in American West Coast IPA, we, we see it in NA, obviously, NA is on, on a huge rise. And, uh, personally, uh, you know, my, my favorite innovation that we're doing is 24/7, 4.72% session IPA.

Brewbound [01:54] You wanna move this cool, uh, amazing. I mean, the, the West Coast in trail marker, I, it's the liquid's delicious, and I hate myself for calling it liquid just now. Sorry to anybody out there that, that is offended by that. We used to have a rule at my, the old brewery I used to work at was like if you had called it liquid, you had to put $5 in a jar or something, so. Uh, so, it's just interesting to see an East Coast brewery going West Coast cause for years, it's been the West Coast breweries taking what we used to think of as New England IPA, kind of co-opting it, calling it hazy IPA and, and, you know, making and selling a lot of it. So, nice to have some cross-coastal IPA. Production going on.

Speaker 2 [02:39] Yeah, I mean, we, we talked about it when, when we spoke in August, um, the East Coast and West Coast thing and pre predating even hazy or or New England IPA, um, what used to be East Coast IPA, like very, very aromatic, pale, slightly bitter balanced beer, and I sort of just took that approach to approaching West Coast. I mean, we, you know, I, the majority of my career has been In a successful hazy IPA breweries, uh, that that started as East Coast IPA breweries, and, you know, I, I, I just don't see, um, How, how we couldn't make, you know, just as good as liquid on the East Coast as they do on the West Coast.

Brewbound [03:18] For sure, you guys have totally nailed it. So you've taken a page out of the classic craft beer playbook to launch Trailmarker on draft this month. How is it going?

Speaker 2 [03:27] Uh, it's a little early to say. I think we launched it maybe 2 weeks ago, so we're starting to see reorders and whatnot for draft, but we're, I mean, we're, we're very positive about it. I think it's going to, to work for us. I think it's gonna go well. Nice,

Brewbound [03:41] nice, great. Well, I can't wait to hear more about it once, once the numbers, uh, start to come in. I'm sure you've got people on the streets doing sampling and, and everything that needs to get done, so.

Speaker 2 [03:49] Yeah, I mean, that's the idea with going draft first is just to try to adopt the early innovators, you know, get the, get the bar owners involved in it.

Brewbound [03:57] Amazing. Well, IP is not the only style New Trail dabbles in. Tell the audience at home all about the Crisp family and how it's new extensions uh are doing and, and what else you have on, on the books for next year.

Speaker 2 [04:10] Sure, yeah, so Crisp is our, uh, American lager. It's kind of uh priced to be a domestic, uh, competitive. So for us, I think the, the retail or the consumer is paying about $25 for a 24 pack at the, at the end use, and I think a 15 pack for the consumer is generally around. Uh, it would be like $15.15 dollars to $14 to $18 I, I wanna say, depending on the, the retail markup. Uh, it's a no frills lager, it's, you know, it's base malt, it's got some, um, A little bit of rice in it, and we uh use the uh Yakima Chief Hops American Noble line to, to hop it. It, you know, it's maybe a little bit hoppy for the, the style, but the consumer is accepting it and we crush it. So, within crisp, we, uh, we brand familyed it, so there's crisp, uh, crisp lime, which uh is a lime version of crisp, and then Chris Bamber. Uh, Pennsylvania is obviously a really strong market for, uh, amber lager, and we saw an opportunity in that.

Brewbound [05:16] Makes all the sense in the world. Uh, how are crisp drinkers different from your IPA drinkers?

Speaker 2 [05:23] I think it's a bit of yes and with crisp and our drinkers, um, you know, people that are bringing broken heels, our, our flagship IPA home in a 12 pack or in 4 pack 16 ounce, also need to stock an American lager in their fridge, so that when their friends come over and watch the game, or um when they're out in the garages or or camping or we're doing whatever they're doing, they, they wanna have something that their their friends that aren't necessarily. Uh, IPA drinkers or craft drinkers can, can enjoy with them. And so I think we're, we're capturing, uh, that, that segment, but we're also, uh, by extension, grabbing, um, adventurous domestic drinkers, people that might be interested in import or, uh, local brands that that want to try something that's made around, around their homes.

Brewbound [06:13] Awesome, and I know you've got a special partnership with Penn State too, right? How's, how's that beer going?

Speaker 2 [06:19] It's great, yeah, so Penn State, uh, we have a partnership with their NIL, one of their NILs, where, uh, $1 per case goes to the, um, to the foundation to support students. Um, with that, we were able to, uh, enter Beaver Stadium, where, where, uh, Penn State football plays, so we're now sold in 16 ounce cans there. I believe it's Chris Bamber State Light, which is the, uh, the Penn State beer. I think Broken Heels made it into the stadium, so that's across uh Beaver Stadium, Bryce Jordan, and there's another one that's escaping my my brain at the moment.

Brewbound [06:58] Have you gotten to any games this year?

Speaker 2 [07:01] I have not personally, no, but our team has been out quite a bit.

Brewbound [07:04] Nice, nice. I mean, that must be a really fun partnership to, to activate in the field.

Speaker 2 [07:08] For sure, they're so close to us. I mean, it's the, the closest stadium to us by, by far. I think it's about 45 minutes to 1 hour to get to State College from here, but if we were to go to Philadelphia, New York, or Pittsburgh, it would be every bit of 3 hours

Brewbound [07:21] for sure. So one thing that I found really interesting about New Trail's portfolio is that you found success in a few package formats, and we've touched on this a little bit, but You know, there's a few package formats that really work for you guys that maybe aren't uh working as well for other craft brewers right now. Uh, but like you mentioned, 16 ounce, 4 packs, and 15 packs. Why is it important to offer these packages and what do you think you guys are doing that's, that's making it work?

Speaker 2 [07:48] Uh, yeah, so, um, 16 ounce, 4 packs for us have, have been very successful. Um, I, I would say in the earlier years of the company, it probably dominated more than 50 to 60% of our, our spread. Um, today, I, I, I was looking at the numbers before we hopped on. I, I think we're somewhere north of 25% of what we produce by volume is going into 16 ounce format. Um, and that's primarily uh Brooklyn Hills, you know, right behind me. Um, we, we've seen success with the, uh, the one-off brands, and, um, you know, ultimately our, our approach to, to, uh, the business is to, uh, offer what the consumer wants in, in whatever format they want. So whether it's a 12 pack, uh, 12 pack, 12 ounce, or 4 pack, 16 ounce, or single serve 192, we, we wanna get it to them that way.

Brewbound [08:39] They're, it's clearly resonating, so that's really great. Now, our team was really impressed with Netrail's meteoric growth in the past 6 years. You know, as Dave had shared during that wholesaler summit back in August, you hadn't had a down month yet. The beers are obviously on point, but what else do you think might be contributing to the success of the brewery?

Speaker 2 [08:59] Uh, I think it's the basics. It's silly to say, but I think it's the basics. We make, um, we make very good beer, we have a very good message, we hire very good people, and we treat those people very well, um, and You know, I, I think it's just an all-around team effort. Nobody really says that's not my job around here. Everybody's willing to, to do whatever, whatever needs to get done to get it done. I

Brewbound [09:23] love that, and I think your branding is spectacular. Every brand family within the portfolio looks and feels like Netrail, but also is distinct from each other, which I think is really important because consumers are, are busy and they've got a lot going on in their lives. If you can give them the visual cues to remind them like, hey, this is the brand that you like. They are probably more inclined to pick something else up off the shelf that maybe they haven't had before. So, really smart

Speaker 2 [09:47] for sure, yeah, I mean, no, we, we argue about branding all the time. It's a certain, certainly extremely important to the success of any business.

Brewbound [09:54] It's a super difficult process. I can certainly attest to that. So, Mike, as you mentioned, you've been at several successful breweries on the East Coast, but you've been at New Trail for a while. You've You know, in your experience, what do you think makes new trail special? I know you touched on the people, so maybe that's uh another. You know, rabbit hole we want to go down, but the brewery clearly has something very special going for it.

Speaker 2 [10:18] Sure, I mean, you know, the, I, I was with some, some pretty um emerging breweries at at the times that they were emerging. I was with Kane in the mid uh 10s, as well as tired hands right after that, and um time and place, right? When, when I was at Kane, East Coast IPA was really starting to to be on the rise, and um Michael had a had a great model, it was entirely self-distribution. I believe he's still entirely self-distribution just within. New Jersey. I learned, I learned a lot, um, there about trying to, you know, bunker down and, and, and just, uh, go a mile deep, like we say here, and, and, um, hold your ground. And when I was with Tired Hands, it was right at the, uh, formation of the uh fermentorrhea, their second location, which is what led to, um, milkshake IPA, a lot of innovation, and, and the rise of the, the 16 ounce, uh, 4 pack model. Uh, I, I, I learned a lot about really just fast paced, you know, you're going east and then all of a sudden you're going west style innovation, and I, I, you know, just kind of combined, uh, that sort of knowledge to, to what Netrail became.

Brewbound [11:31] Amazing. Well, Mike, it's always a joy to chat with you and uh all of us here are so happy to be able to name you guys a rising star for 2024. We cannot wait to see what happens for new trail in 2025, and thank you for being here with me today.

Speaker 2 [11:45] No, thank you so much for having me. It's really an honor.