Distributor: these products are trending

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📣 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.

Nick Wendowski and his wife own Stone's Beer & Beverage in Philly. PA liquor laws are weird (more on that below), and Nick's license allows him to serve 3 rungs in the booze ladder:

• Beer store
• Distributor
• Exclusive beer brand rep

Given this, it was interesting to talk with him about the trends he's noticed over the last 6 months or so. (We also touched on some crazy PA liquor limitations). Here are takeaways from the conversation:

• Craft drinkers are swinging back to more traditional beer styles. Customers want crisp lagers more than a double dry hopped IPA with fungus added. JK about the fungus, but you know what we mean.
• But these craft drinkers aren't getting High Life or PBR—they want craft versions of the traditional styles.
• Nick is also seeing a lot pull from malt-based versions of popular liquors. I.e. Fireball, 99 Bananas.
• And then there are other malt-based things, like BuzzBallz. Laughable name, obviously, but they're selling.
• RTD cocktails are obviously huge. Not breaking any news there.
• The interesting thing is how they're sold and managed in PA. Because they're not malt-based, only liquor stores—which are all state-owned—can sell them.
• But these state-owned stores aren't selling as much as they could be. It makes sense—they don't have a delivery infrastructure, they're not as efficient as if a business were running things, etc.
• As a result, the state is missing out on a ton of RTD cocktail revenue. Nick said RTD cocktail revenue is 90% lower in PA than in neighboring states. Which is wild.

Check out the interview clip for more color on these trends and also a little more about PA liquor laws:

👉 And if you'd like to hear more from Nick check out this playlist on the Brave New Bar Youtube channel.

❓ Why is it worth it?

Because if it’s not listed on the menu, customers won’t know to order it, and it won’t sell.

Even if your servers are ready to answer the question (which, honestly, often isn't the case), many customers just don’t want to have to ask. Instead, they’ll just order something else that they know is available, or maybe nothing at all.

❓ How can I do it at my business?

For starters, anything is better than nothing here. If all you can muster is just a half sheet of paper with your rotating beers listed on it, that's still much better than "ask your server."

If you'd like to up the design a bit, you could of course do something manual—create an editable menu template in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Excel. And once you have your template designed, just edit it whenever you get a new beer in and print it out.

• The Financial Times reports that high-end liquor sales in the US—which surged during and immediately after the pandemic—have started to drastically fall, and liquor companies are feeling it.
• Liquor stores in NY are now able to be open from 10am to 10pm on Sundays, a change from the 12pm to 9pm hours they were previously allowed.
• Tesla has a beer. I certainly don't care, but I suppose it's worth a note.
• And finally, news is coming out about a huge liquor theft in FL over the summer. Thieves took more than $1.6 million of booze over a 5-hour period in July, brazenly loading them into three tractor trailers. The cops are still working on the case, but all this info came from the recent unsealing of a search warrant, so they appear to be making progress.