Smuttynose Brewing enters West Virginia

Brilliant Stream attended the beer introduction event for Smuttynose Brewing at Summit Beer Station in Huntington, WV, yesterday. The brewery introduced the West Virginia market to its Cherry Limeade Sour, Finestkind IPA, Old Brown Dog Ale, and Oktoberfest Märzen.

Tasting them all, one-by-one, we found the beers of this Hampton, New Hampshire, brewery to be well made and enjoyable.

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Smuttynose’s Director of National Accounts, John Boegle, was on hand to talk about the brewery and its beers. He said that while they still emphasize their traditional core brands of American IPA and American Brown Ale, for which the brewery has long been known, the brewery today leans heavily toward sours.

Represented in West Virginia by distributor Mountain State Beverage, you should expect to see a continuous line up of Smuttynose seasonal sours entering our market. As evidence of their sour beer’s popularity, Boegle said the Smuttynose Premium Sours are now the top selling sour category SKU of 16 oz. 4-packs across the Northeast.

Smuttynose: a long standing New England brewer

As many long-time craft beer fans and industry observers will recall, Smuttynose Brewing was one of the early New England craft breweries to find success. After opening in 1994, it had a great run, getting known and recognized regionally in the East as a very fine American craft brewery.

Through the 1990s and first decade of the new millennium, it gained notice for successfully Americanizing (more hops and higher AVBs) classic beer styles, such as IPA and Brown Ale. It fully participated in the rapid growth of American craft beer during the microbrewing era.

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Smuttynose started up at a time when there initially existed only a few hundred American craft breweries. It successfully navigated the tumultuous days of the first big microbrewery shakeout in the late 1990s.

The brewer continued on its upward path through the first decade of the 2000s and into the early 2010s. Selling around 15,000 barrels of beer in 2006, the brewer impressively advanced its beer production to nearly 41,000 barrels in 2012.

Brewery expands, hits wall

Like many other businesses that find their product sales growing and that have reached the capacity limits of their production equipment, Smuttynose decided to greatly expand its production operations. Their brand new Hampton, NH, brewery opened in 2014. Going into debt to build out a new, much larger production facility did not work out well for them.

Primarily led by the explosion of craft brewery start-ups in the mid-2010s and by a rapidly evolving shift in the American consumers’ beer-stye preferences, the craft beer market didn’t find a place for more of Smuttynose’s classic American craft beers. In the mid-to-late 2010s, the beer market was rapidly moving— with new craft consumers seeking out new beer styles from new brewers.

As the American small brewery count advanced rapidly from a few thousand to many thousand more, numerous old line craft brewers—brands that had for years built the craft beer industry—began experiencing slowdowns in sales. (BTW, this trend continues today.)

Likely most impacting Smuttynose was the new wave of New England brewers, which were opening their doors in the mid-to-late 2010s. These new brewers established an exciting new beer style in the IPA category. New England IPAs and their hazy-juicy IPA category, exploded onto the scene and quickly changed craft beer for the coming generation of beer drinkers. NEIPAs grew to dominate small brewery beer sales across the eastern U.S.

As they sought out new brews from the new hazy IPA specialists, beer consumers in droves passed by the more traditional, bitter American IPAs and brown ales that had been the bread and butter of old-school brewers like Smuttynose.

Smuttynose ownership changes

To make a long story short, Smuttynose Brewing was forced into foreclosure in 2018. Luckily for the brand, the company’s assets were purchased by a group of New England-based investors led by some very experienced craft beer industry folks.

Initially helped by having acquired the company’s assets at a very nice price, the new ownership team could began turning the brand toward sustainability. Over the past five years, they have expanded their beer style book by brewing more contemporary beer styles, rather than sticking with just the traditional ones.

Among today’s Smuttynose offerings, you’ll find numerous fruited sour ales produced in the modern, quick sour fashion. These sours have ascended in popularity, and that popularity has also helped the brewer continue brewing its traditional styles (American IPA and American Brown Ale).

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Navigating an ever changing market

While there may have been a time when Smuttynose was rated among America’s hottest brewers, those days have passed. A quick check of beer rating websites appears to show that craft consumers recently give their current beers mid-pack ratings. But that’s not to suggest the beers are not good, because they are definitely tasty and well made. It does seem, however, to demonstrate that the brand has not recaptured the buzz and excitement of its halcyon days.

Today, there are more than 9,000 American small brewers, and most all brewery growth is at the smallest end of brewery size. Many mid-sized regional breweries continue to struggle to maintain market traction.

Industry sources report Smuttynose Brewing produced a little over 19,000 barrels in 2022. That’s still a significant amount for a regional brewery today. As a positive note, industry sources also report that Smuttynose sours are now the #1 selling brand family in the sour category across the Northeast.

Markets change. Consumer perceptions and preferences change. Dealing with it is all a part of being a craft brewer these days. It’s our hope that the nation’s beer marketplace continues to have room for classic brewers of classic American styles—from brewers like Smuttynose.

What do you think of Smuttynose?

Give their beers a try. Judge for yourself. Tell your friends about them. Post your reactions and ratings on social media. Let the beer distributors and the beer-drinking public know what you think. That’s how we build our West Virginia craft beer market and help us get the variety of beers that we will continue to buy and enjoy.

LINKS

Smuttynose Brewing website
Mountain State Beverage Facebook Page
Summit Beer Station Facebook Page