The brewery, majority-owned by Jason and Travis Kelse, set sites on broader distribution
I first published a story about Garage Beer and the Kelce brothers’ involvement with the company in June 2024. In case you missed it, Cincinnati-based Braxton Brewing Company created an uncomplicated light-bodied lager called Garage Beer. Accessible, not fussy, “beer-flavored beer,” branded to attract something other than the stereotypical craft beer audience. It was so popular and so different from the brewery’s other beers that Braxton spun off the brand into its own company.
Garage Beer hit the national news about six months ago when two NFL superstars became the majority owners: Jason and Travis Kelce. It remains a hot topic, as confirmed by my own website statistics as well as Google Analytics which reveals that garage beer is a popular search term lately. All that said, I want to offer an update on where things are at now.
Even before the Kelce brothers got involved, Garage Beer was a successful beer that enjoyed distribution to a dozen states. The uber-popular football stars brought two important assets to the business. First, they showed up with a truckload of money. Second, Jason and Travis Kelce are more than NFL stars, they are now bona fide pop-culture stars and some of the spotlight spilled over onto the beer. (If you get anywhere near Travis’ girlfriend, Taylor Swift, that is bound to happen.)
Garage Beer’s current plan is to expand distribution to at least another dozen states, and possibly more, looking to fill a gaping niche between big, corporate beer and the 9,000-plus small, independent craft breweries that dot the nation. Garage Beer isn’t alone. Not long ago legendary rocker Sammy Hagar introduced Red Rocker Lager with similar ambitions to take an approachable, craft-ish lager nationwide.
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Who’s gonna brew all that beer?
The original beer was brewed at Braxton Brewing in Cincinnati. Presumably, that’s still happening, but if the brand plans to expand its footprint, Garage Beer is going to need some assistance from other breweries. Like, for instance, Founders Brewing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Multiple reports on the web revealed that Founders Brewing is in the process of getting set up to start brewing and packaging Garage Beer. Neither company has commented on it yet, but the paperwork was filed with the federal government so that much is a matter of public record.
Founders Brewing’s beers enjoy wide distribution. I live in Seattle and regularly see All Day IPA at the local grocery store. Mahou San Miguel, Spain’s largest brewing company, is the majority owner of Founders, as well as Colorado’s Avery Brewing. Together, the three companies comprise Mahou USA. Presumably, the strength of that union enables broader distribution.
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Anyway, back to Garage Beer. Because it is plugged into large distribution networks, and because it has excess capacity at its brewery in Grand Rapids, Founders Brewing is a good fit for Garage Beer. As I said, no official confirmation from Garage Beer or Mahou USA yet, but at least some writing is on the wall.
Timing is everything
I saw a report lately that suggested Founders Brewing’s production dropped nearly 200,000 barrels in the past few years, from nearly 600,000 barrels in 2020 to just over 400,000 barrels in 2023. So yes, they’ve got excess capacity. They are not alone.
The Brewers Association recently reported that, collectively, craft brewers are only using about 50 percent of their total capacity for beer production. That means there are a lot of breweries across the country with the capacity to brew beer regionally for companies with their sights set on something bigger than neighborhood craft beer, but maybe not so big as Anheuser-Busch.
If the Kelce brother’s Garage Beer, or Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Lager, wants to make a play at going big and filling a niche between huge corporate beer and hometown craft beer, it seems now is a good time to do it. Will it work? Honestly, I doubt it. But it’s not my money swirling around the bowl.
Brewing a craft-ish lager at a brewery like Braxton or Founders is inevitably going to result in craft-ish expenses. Passing along a craft-ish price to consumers who are used to buying Busch Light and Rolling Rock might present some challenges. Even if this “beer-flavored beer” tastes really good, a lot of craft beer purists will see it as a gimmick. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there is a swelling tide of semi-craft beer consumers shopping for a tweener beer like this.
