How Non-Alcoholic Beer Got Cool

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12/12/23 • 59 min

Athletic Brewing Company wasn’t the first non-alcoholic beer brand, not by a long shot. But it was the first to successfully cross the flavors and aesthetics of the craft beer segment consistently, and at scale. Its considerable success since first hitting the market in mid-2018 has helped open up horizons for millions of drinkers — and today, co-founders Bill Shufelt and John Walker are here to talk about how it all went down. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe!

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Previous Episode

How Coors Capitalized on Craft Brewing's Boom

Returning to Taplines today for the second installment of our two-part episode about Blue Moon's historic, controversial rise is Keith Villa, the former Coors brewer who created the iconic, top-selling Belgian-style witbier in the mid-'90s. We discuss the brand’s soaring success after its rocky first few years in the Rocky Mountains — and how once Blue Moon found its footing in Coors' portfolio, it started to face criticism from some members of the craft brewing industry, who painted the beer as an interloper to “the movement” that Villa had considered himself a part of. (This is Part 2; make sure to check out Part 1 in your podcast feed if you haven't yet.) Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe!

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Next Episode

How Left Hand Bottled America's First Nitro Stout

When Left Hand Brewing opened for business outside of Denver in the early '90s, the plan wasn’t to become known nationwide as “the milk stout brewery” or “the nitro brewery,” and certainly not “the nitro milk stout brewery.” But when it introduced its chocolatey, none-too-heavy milk stout in the Aughts, people loved it, and especially the silky smooth nitro draft pour. Co-founder / CEO Eric Wallace and the Left Hand team started wondering: "Hey, if Guinness is able to package nitro beers, couldn’t we?" Nobody else in America had figured out to do widget-free nitro in the bottle, but that didn't stop them milk stout boys. They succeeded, and forevermore Left Hand would be synonymous with the hard-poured, inky-black, velvety stout. The rest was history—history we discuss with Wallace himself on this week's episode. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.