It's cider season. Here's how to sell more of it.

If you refer a colleague or friend and they subscribe to Brave New Bar, we'll shout out your business in a future edition!

Refer a colleague or friend

What will the shout out look like?

Here's an example:

📣 Shout out to Los Molinos Beer in San Clemente, CA. They're a community-focused microbrewery that arrived in beautiful San Clemente just over a year ago. Cool can art, cool vibe, tasty beer. If you're in the area or just passing by, stop in for some LOMO (their words). Follow Los Molinos on Instagram and Facebook.

So you know, more than 11k folks get Brave New Bar each week, so you'll be getting some eyeballs for sure!

Kyle Sherrer is the owner of Backpack Brands of Newburgh, NY, which puts out three craft brands:

• Graft Cider, a craft cider that innovates on flavors. Think cutting edge craft beer, but for cider.
• Hudson North Cider, a hazy dry cider brand that's lower in sugar than their competitors (like Austin Eastciders, for example).
• Ritual Hard Kombucha, a west-coast style hard kombucha made in NY.

Kyle's been in the cider game for a long time, so it was super interesting talking to him about how bars and restaurants can sell more cider. In Kyle's mind, cider's un-budge-able seat at the beverage table comes from its inextricable link to comfort and nostalgia. That link means bars and restaurants are in a great spot to sell more of it.

Here's why (and how):

• Cider may have taken a bit of a hit with seltzer's insane rise the last few years, but it's not going anywhere and is in fact well positioned to continue its growth.
• That's because cider is uniquely positioned to be a vessel of comfort and nostalgia. From Johnny Appleseed to "American as apple pie," nothing says Americana like an apple.
• Successful cider makers lean into this comfort and nostalgia when they're crafting their seasonals because they know people love them. (Proof: Kyle made a Bomb Pop Cider last summer that sold like hotcakes.)
• So as a bar or restaurant, your job is getting your cider selection over the finish line and into customers' line of sight: your customers want comfort and nostalgia. Cider makers have intentionally crafted ciders that appeal to comfort and nostalgia. You just need to merchandise them by giving them prominence on your menus, in your bar, and in your employees' interactions with guests. If you do this, you will definitely sell more cider.

Check out the full video interview to learn more about where Kyle sees hard seltzer going, whether he thinks hard kombucha is headed for the same meteoric rise, and to hear more about how he and his team intentionally build comfort and nostalgia into all products across his three brands.

Why it works

Customers can order more quickly, meaning your bartenders can serve more customers, faster.

How it works

• On their own, without the help of the bartender, your customers can read your full-info Print Menu (includes beer descriptions, ABV, etc.) to hone in on what to order.
• Then they can step up, look at the TV Menu, and just say “I”ll have a number 4” to the bartender.

The interaction is finished and significant time saved—no asking what's on tap, no samples, no back-and-forth about what to order.

This time savings can add up quickly on a busy night, and the more time saved means the more folks served per hour. And that means more sales.

David Hayden of multi-state chain Up-Down says this phenomenon "works out to thousands of additional dollars on a Friday or Saturday night."

How can I do it at my business?

You could do this manually. Google the beers you have, copy the info you need, drop the info into your Print Menu doc and your editable TV Menu, then adjust the design as necessary.

• Yelp recently released what Eater calls a "wall of shame" that calls out restaurants who pay or otherwise compensate guests for reviews. Here's the page. Yelp determined the listed businesses went too far in requesting reviews from customers.
• The New York Times ran an article about how Jack Daniels has used special releases to remake its image, attempting to move away from being known as just the distiller of No. 7 and toward exclusivity.
• A new study found that climate change is resulting in fewer and less bitter hops. Researchers found that warmer temps and less precipitation have already pushed hop season up by an average of 13 days since 1970, a trend that's expected to continue.