Brewbound Awards 2024: Large Brewery of the Year - Narragansett Beer

Speaker 1 [00:05] Our large brewer of the year is someone who everybody should know at this point. It's been 134 years. It's Narragansett based out of Rhode Island, and here to chat all about it is Mark Hellendrung. Welcome, Mark. Let's talk about Narragansett.

Speaker 2 [00:22] Hi neighbor, I don't feel that old.

Speaker 1 [00:25] I, I don't think you're quite that old, but you are in charge of this brand that is 134 years. That's a very long time.

Speaker 2 [00:33] Yeah, we keep, we keep chugging along, keep creeping up on the, on the top of the pack, so, yes.

Speaker 1 [00:39] You guys are our large brewer of this year because you, even after all this time, are still finding growth in beer, have such a beer-focused portfolio, and so we're gonna talk about what, how you're doing this and how Narragansett has come to be where it is now. And I want to start with, you know, Narragansett has had a pretty, uh, extensive and sometimes complicated history of just ownership and where it's even produced and all those fun things whenever we talk about craft beer. You took over in 2005. It was quite a, a, a change, I think, for you a little bit. You had some brewer experience, but you also were in other forms of CBG. Why did you wanna take on this, this big juggernaut that is Narragansett?

Speaker 2 [01:26] Well, it, it, uh, first, this is such an honor and, and, and thank you. Um, this is incredible. It, and I don't think it was such a juggernaut. I think when I got Narragansett from Pabst, it was doing about 500 barrels a year and it was pretty close to, pretty close to dead and, and really the, the short story is, um, I was in transition. I was, um, consulting with Magic Hat at the time. I had finished up my time at Nantucket Nectars and Really looking for that next journey in my professional career and, and um I just, I love beer and I, I fell in love with the people who remembered the brand. I was, I was sitting in um a bar, uh Cappy's in Newport, Rhode Island and You got to remember this was like 2003 and, and so craft beer was like basically just Sierra and um Boston Beer, Sam Adams and, you know, Bass Ale was still on tap and I'd had all that and I asked for uh if there was anything else and this, this old timer at the end of the bar said give the kid a gant and it was amazing. The next thing you know, the whole bar is just talking about. Kirk Gowdy and Red Sox baseball and Goodwill guys and, and just everything that was just so awesome about Narragansett and Rhode Island and, and the brand. And I just, I felt like it deserved a, uh, a fate a little bit better than what it was experiencing at the time.

Speaker 1 [02:51] I remember Narragansett was one of the first craft beers I was drinking in like college because South Street Diner always had, you could get a Narragansett for, it's probably like the cheapest beer on the menu, but also like the best quality beer you could get at this diner that's open 24 hours a day, and so that was a common choice for us in college, so it has a fun place in my heart for sure. That's awesome. When you took on this brand, uh, it wasn't. They weren't producing it in Rhode Island at that time, that was something that you kind of made it a mission later on to do, and as of just a few years ago, now you do have that location back in Rhode Island again. Why was that something that was important for you?

Speaker 2 [03:37] You know, The brewery in Rhode Island was so important because I, I think, um, listen, I'm not a marketing major, but the best definition of, of a brand is that I've heard is, is just a promise kept. And when Falstaff bought Narragansett back in the day, it just started breaking promises, right, where it ended the Red Sox sponsorship, it started laying off people, it moved the brewery to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I thought if we're going to be Completely true to the brand's history and roots and heritage, and now 134 years, we would have to brew it, or at least have a brewery in Rhode Island again just to Really solidify everything and, and keep that ultimate promise and, and it's been great. We, we opened up just after COVID and, and gosh, we had over 100,000 people in there a year and it's, it's just an awesome place to, to just interact with all our fans.

Speaker 1 [04:31] Narragansett, and particularly your your flagship, the Narragansett blogger has a a pretty big legacy, or at least especially here in New England, like, you, you know what that can looks like, you see it everywhere, it has a pretty um A passionate support base, I guess you could say, um, longtime fans. How are you balancing, you know, making sure you're keeping up with those longtime consumers, but also staying fresh and staying relevant with folks?

Speaker 2 [05:02] Yeah, I, I think, um, Yeah, I've got the easiest job and the hardest job in the world at the same time in a weird sort of way in that. The easy part is um You've got all this great rich history to draw on, right? And when, when I got the brand back and we redesigned the packaging, it was just this beautiful collection of different pieces from 1905 and 1965, and, and it just came together beautifully and So, so there's all that to lean into, but at the same time we have to really honor the history and heritage and so like a hazy IPA under the Narragansett name doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense to most people. So it's really honoring the past, thinking about where the where the beer drinker is going and kind of meeting them on. Um, in that, in that space where the past meets the present meets the future and, and, and, and all of that is really just grounded in stories, right? Like that, I think that's what makes this brand so special is everyone has a unique story about it. I was, I was just flying to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago and, and you mentioned your college experience. The airline stewardess, she was like, I love Narragansett beer. I drink it all the time, and I'm like, are you Atlanta-based? And she's like, Well, yeah, I am. I buy it in Publix all the time. I was like, well, how did you discover Narragansett? And similar story. She went to college in Boston and that she just took that with her to Atlanta when she, when she moved. It was amazing.

Speaker 1 [06:32] You still, I mean, like you said, you just said, hazyIP maybe not in the future, but you still have some uh innovation going on in your beer setup. There is a pretty robust beer program for you to, for consumers to try styles, particularly out of that taproom. What else can people find from Narragansett other than that classic lager?

Speaker 2 [06:53] There's a fine line between what you do in your tap room and then what actually makes it out into the real world and what can be successful in a much more competitive landscape, but you know, we can do anything and everything at the tap room and that's what is so great about the team and their perspective on things where Of course, we do um hazy IPAs and, and we do sours and then we have a, a really great seasonal program where um we've got a traditional Oktoberfest, our top selling beer in the fall is always a uh cinnamon rim pumpkin ale, and, and so it, it, it's just great. And, and so it's, it's not, you know, some of these breweries, they really kind of hone in on one style and Really, if, if you come to our taproom, the first thing I think you'll notice is that it's really just, it's like this beautiful community hall of people from all walks of life, and they all come together in this space and they're all drinking different types of beers and, and that's a, it's, it's a celebration of our brewine and um the history of this beer because we also, while we do have this lager, right, um, Narragansett was the, the only New England brewery at the original GABF in 1984 or whatever it was, right? And so going back to 191933, we've had these Bock beer festivals and we've always had Oktoberfest festivals. So really the regional brewers, which is what we originally were, um, were the original craft brewers, right? It was just consolidation and kind of the big domestics that kind of put most of them out of business and, and so it's pretty cool to be here standing. After 134 years.

Speaker 1 [08:33] A lot of folks right now with the current state of craft beer and just consumer wants and trends, they're looking into other spaces beyond beer, and you guys have some a little bit of that. You have that hard tea with um that Dell's partnership you have, but you're still pretty primarily beer focused in your profile in your portfolio. Um, why is that approach? Rather than becoming more of this total beverage company, the best for Narragansett.

Speaker 2 [09:02] We're staying focused on beer right now for a couple of reasons. I, I think one, Just we have so much runway left in lager. I mean, we're in, um, I don't know, 13,000 off-premise accounts and maybe 7000 bars and restaurants, but gosh, we could be in double that. So I just in our existing footprint, so I just look at that opportunity. I said we're not going to get distracted, we're going to stay focused and we're going to finish that job. But at the same time, you know, I think what everyone in our company does a pretty good job at is, is seeking advice and listening and, and the market speaks to you if, if you're Willing to listen, right? And, and so we've got some great distributors where we do business with with some of the best retailers in the country, and they're, they're just like, Mark, Narragansett, stay focused. Like we don't, we don't need another NA, we don't need another RTD. We don't need another whatever. So, um. I think we just try to, try to stay focused and, and, you know, we used to do all that stuff, but the market changed and you need to change with it, right? Like, we've got a great Oktoberfest. It wins awards, but, and we used to sell it up and down the East Coast, but Something changed and maybe, I don't know, 2014, 2015 or so where it was like, all right, you look at North Carolina, there are, I don't know, 200 other breweries who are doing an Oktoberfest. What, what makes yours different and, and at the end of the day, there wasn't a lot that was different, right? So, um, uh, we just, we just try to stay focused and I think Part of the secret to our success has been just keeping it simple, stupid, not to use a dumb term, but uh Maybe we're not smart enough to overcomplicate it for ourselves.

Speaker 1 [10:47] I think focus should be like the, the word of 2024 for the beer industry, cause that has been every single person we've talked to, especially in this awards season and doing all these videos, has been, we're doing OK now because we're focused and we're not overextending ourselves or the brand. So it's definitely really key for folks right now when there's so much out there, product-wise, company-wise, it's just Really easy to get lost in all of that for sure.

Speaker 2 [11:16] Yeah, I couldn't, I could not agree more with that statement. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 [11:21] One thing that you all have also done that has uh been kind of a struggle for some folks or has been um deprioritized a little bit has been your draft business, and that has been pretty robust for Eric Ganett, um, and it was deprioritized a little bit by the industry of naturally from the pandemic, but since then, we're still pretty heavy package focused. How have you been able to maintain that business and that focus on, on draft?

Speaker 2 [11:47] Narrogance is just always been rooted in the on-premise channel and I'd say like way before I got involved and, and so um the Narragan the Narragansett Salesforce was Legendary in the Northeast back in the day as just on-premise focused draft line and, and the old adage that, you know, a, a pint over the bar is worth a six pack in the liquor stores. And I think we've, we've always just sort of held true to that and, you know, Some of my key sales guys are, are just, um, they love working the on-premise and, and, um, so it was. You know, the Northeast took it especially hard during COVID, and then, and, you know, shut down more than other parts of the country, I think, or as much as anybody else, and we just took it as a point of Point of pride, point of competition, and, but just a a point of community too, right? Where we just, we wanted to rebuild this channel together with the on-premise channel. And so, you know, you won't find Narragansett in, in big chains and, and, um, and all that. It's, it's local. Sole proprietors, small groups, neighborhood bars, dive bars, foodie joints, craft beer bars, and, and we just, um, it, it's what we do, I guess. I don't know.

Speaker 1 [13:08] So, over 100 to 30 years down, looking ahead to the future, what, what can we expect to see on the horizon for Narra Gansett?

Speaker 2 [13:17] I, listen, I think the future is, is a lot of, uh, a lot of what we've talked about, right? A lot of focus, a lot of um really Continuing to connect with the people who love our brand in, in new places and, and finding uh new people in, in other places and, and, and I talked about stories, those, I'm, I'm traveling a lot and, and I, I, I'm just blown away by the, the, the people that I meet and the stories that they have and, and, and even the restaurants that we're in, like I'll, I'll go into a place in, in Nashville and just ask like, you know, how do we get in here? And it's like, Man, my wife is from Rhode Island and, and I go there on vacation. I just, I just love it and I fell in love with this beer and uh And yeah, so it's, it's, it's really a lot of that. We're in 26 states. We'll, uh, we'll open them up pragmatically. Um, we've got a big year next year with, uh, it's the 50th anniversary of Jaws. So we're gonna try and open up a few states, um, really to kind of open up that opportunity and, and, uh, it's just, it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a pretty fun year.

Speaker 1 [14:25] So, final question for you, Mark, Bar Ganett, large brewer of the year, posting significant growth even after all this time, and especially in such a critical time for beer. There has to be a piece of advice that you have or something that was given to you that you think might be uh helpful for folks that was useful for you and your business.

Speaker 2 [14:46] Yeah, I, I go back to Bill Contantine, who his dad was actually the head of sales for the brewery back in the 50s and the 60s and, and he was running one of the distributors we were with when we launched and, and uh He, am I allowed to swear? Go for it. He basically sat down and, and said, Mark, just don't fuck it up. And, and um I think a lot of, a lot of us take that to work every day, right? And, and so that's, that's where it comes into that history of 134 years. It's like you really have to respect that heritage and um where we've been and, and kind of boil that up and take it forward to where we want to go with this thing. So hopefully we're living up to that.

Speaker 1 [15:35] I think so, and I think that's great advice for folks. So thanks again, Mark, and uh congrats again on being the large brewer of the Year. We can't wait to see what happens next in the next 134 years.

Speaker 2 [15:48] Thank you. This is such a great honor and uh it's so nice to talk to you, Zoey.