Expansion does not have to be the end goal for a successful company, and Willie’s Superbrew is setting that precedent with their hard seltzer. The company is opting not to add states to their distribution roster next year, and is instead aiming to be the leading hard seltzer in the Northeast United States.
Willie’s Superbrew began with a single recipe developed in the kitchen of New England goat farmer, Willie Fenichel, along with a little push from Willie’s friend, a young surfer named Nico Enriquez. Over the course of a few years, the pair built up their little endeavor into an award-winning craft hard seltzer brand that prides itself on brewing with real fruit.
Commitment to Innovation
Available now in nine northeastern states, co-founder of Willie’s Superbrew, Nico Enriquez, spoke about his plans for the future of Willie’s Superbrew in an exclusive interview with Hard Seltzer News.
“Last year we made the first seasonal hard seltzer there ever was — pear and cinnamon,” Enriquez said. “We’re bringing that back this month, and then we’re going to rotate in a new [Spring] seasonal [sic] next year, as well as [try] to do some innovation that’s a bit wild and out there for seltzer.”
Innovation has always been at the forefront of the Willie’s Superbrew mission, and Enriquez cites curiosity and innovation as one of the company’s core values. Their first product, a lemon and ginger brew, was the first of its kind, according to Enriquez. The move to hard seltzer, and their dedication to using real fruit, meant Willie’s had to develop new techniques for fermenting cane sugar.
“There was no literature or art on how [to] ferment cane sugar because [it was] a new source.” Enriquez said. “We had to do a lot of lab testing and [figure out] how do we make a very clean beautiful base that doesn’t have off flavors — because it’s a new environment for yeast, and yeast isn’t made for that simple of an environment.”
Commitment to Craft
The company’s early contributions to hard seltzer brewing innovation set the stage for Willie’s Superbrew to lead the pack in the development of a “craft” hard seltzer category.
“The way I see it, [sic] the seltzer category is where craft beer was in the 90’s, where before, beer was always these lagers and scaled up products, and everyone was just trying to make this consistent liquid that’s kind of the White Claw equivalent, right?” Enriquez said. “What came after that was the craft brewers saying no, we can break this system. We can make flavors no one’s ever seen. We can make it in formats no one’s ever seen, and we can give customers an experience that’s [sic] a true connection to the local community.”
Enriquez said he wants to continue to learn from the styles of craft beer, and apply them to Willie’s Superbrew seltzer. He explained that means, “doing stuff like barrel ageing, or doing stuff like double blends, or doing a collaboration, or doing stuff that’s a benefit for local communities.”
Commitment to Community
Commitment to community engagement and conservation is indeed at the heart of the company. Last year, Willie’s Superbrew began an initiative to clean the beaches along Cape Cod, with a total of 195 miles cleaned. The company plans to bring back the beach clean up next year, with the hope of expanding their reach past Cape Cod to beaches in other states in New England.
As more consumers see the value in craft hard seltzers, we may begin to see a shift away from the idea that success in the hard seltzer market can only come from expanding as quickly as possible.
“How do we align our efforts and our soul with the product that we’re bringing to the market?” Enriquez said. “That’s really the focus.”
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