Hi, there! 

This is the fourth and final exclusive topic we’re covering here in our newsletter as part of the broader 2025 Beer Branding Trends Report. 

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Let's get into it.


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There are hundreds, if not thousands of older breweries across the United States right now quietly having similar, pressing conversations behind the scenes: 
 
– How do we recruit new, younger drinkers? 
– How do we make our packaging stand out in retail?

– Should we release a beyond beer product?
– Is it time to build a Sub Brand? 
– How can we get our distributor(s) to care about our brand again?
– How do we stand out from the dozens (or hundreds) of local options?
– What even is our story today, XX years in?


 
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This weariness is particularly prevalent amongst older, mid-market breweries: Outfits who are ~10 to 20+ years old and making anywhere from ~5k to 15k+ bbl per year. In many cases, they're no longer seen as a cool, romantic or sexy brand. They're no longer seen as relevant, especially compared to their younger counterparts.
 
But, perhaps most painful of all, you have a growing number of lapsed fans — folks who have moved on to drink beer from other breweries, or beyond beer products, or less alcohol in general.
 
This leaves you at a crossroads, unsure where to go from here.
 
We have all this history, this legacy. We have this volume (though it's slowly eroding). What do we do?


(Above): Here's a behind the scenes look at how Mission Brewing breathed new life into its historic brand.

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You could lay down and die. Watch the rest of your volume disappear and hope someone swoops in to buy you.
 
Or you could roll up your sleeves and build something on the strong foundation you already have.
 
I’ve been heartened over the last year through our project work with Legacy and Regional Breweries across the country who are making smart moves aimed at shoring up their flanks and better positioning their business for the long term.
 
This issue focuses on a few compelling through lines we’re seeing in our projects and field work with this cohort. 

Note: Click here to read our full definition of a Legacy Brewery. This is semantic, but we consider any outfit that was founded before 2010 to now be a Legacy outfit.

(Above): After more than 20 years in business, KettleHouse felt that it was time to clean up their brand identity and overall presentation. This was an important move that set this popular Montana brewery up for continued growth (including through the last several challenging years). 

Read a deep dive case study on KettleHouse's brand refresh here.

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How can we court lapsed fans and younger drinkers? 


 
This is the most common refrain we hear from older breweries. Yeah, your packaging needs to be refreshed, your identity could use some work, a new website would be nice, and on and on. But why? Why do you want to make these changes? To reach more people and sell more beer.
 
(And while we’re here, this is how you should view any investment in your brand.)
 
You don’t have to be 25+ years old to have lapsed fans. We’ve worked with a few ~10 year old breweries who were facing this issue.
 
Recruitment of younger drinkers is a category-wide problem (we’ll speak to this more directly later), but this is acutely felt amongst older breweries who are already fighting the dusty-old-dad-beer perception.
 
So how do you do this? Can an older brewery reach out to older, lapsed fans and speak to younger drinkers at the same time or is this like having your cake and eating it too? 
 
This is a steep hill to climb. But here are a handful of things your brewery can do to help pull it off.

(Above): How can you honor your past and speak to long time fans, while also courting younger drinkers? It starts with your brand and story itself, and extends to what types of products you create, what sorts of stories you tel and where you show up.

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1

Define your Brand Strategy to get a lay of the land 
Strategy as a diagnostic
 
Upstream Brand Strategy work is crucial for framing all downstream design and business decisions. It’s how you understand your positioning and differentiators, key messaging, values, personality, voice, vision and essence.
 
CODO is fielding a lot of dedicated Brand Strategy and Brand Architecture mapping engagements right now with regional clients to help take stock of their brand and figure out where to go from here.
 
This is a fun process that can unearth pain points to address, opportunities to move on and other strategic recommendations (e.g. naming conventions, portfolio suggestions, co-branding opportunities and merch ideas). 
 
This is a great opportunity to bring in an outside set of eyes to size up your situation, tell you where you sit relative to your competition and make recommendations that you might explore based on what we’re seeing.

(Above): We regularly work with breweries who are 10, 15, 20+ years old and brew 10's of thousands of barrels per year who have never gone through a proper Brand Strategy process. This work is always fun, and challenging, and completely revelatory. And it's also a good diagnostic step if you're not sure what your next move should be. 

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2

Define your Key Communication Pillars (and your brand voice & personality)
 
Back to our core idea here: How can an older brewery court lapsed fans and new, younger drinkers alike?
 
A big part of this, and something that we work to frame during our Brand Strategy process, is defining your Key Communication Pillars. 
 
That’s a churched up way of saying which big ideas you want people to associate with your brewery’s brand. What do you want people to think about when they hear your brewery’s name? How do you want them to describe your brand to their friends? What big ideas and differentiators do you want them to remember?
 
One of our favorite ways of sussing out compelling ideas in our work is to have everyone on your team answer this question: 
 
If you could go into someone’s head and put three or four big messages about your brand in there, what would those be?
 
(That’s it. Really.)
 
Here are some examples we’ve seen emerge from this exercise:
 
– We are one of Canada’s original craft breweries.
– We are the quintessential Upper Peninsula beer brand.
– We source all of our ingredients directly from Germany. 
– We are one of San Diego’s most beloved breweries. 
– We are your go-to fridge stocker beer.
– We are the no-frills Midwest cocktail company.
– We use tech to grow the best cannabis in Michigan.
– We are Oregon’s original craft brewery. 
– We are the iconic Wisconsin / New Glarus Supper Club. 
– We deliver wild Alaskan seafood directly to your door.
– We make cider from apples grown on our 75 year old family farm. 
– We build our own whiskey barrels in-house at our cooperage.
 
Your first attempt will likely result in dozens of ideas. Work with your team (or branding partner) to winnow this down to 3–4 big ideas. Why 3 to 4? 

Because people have limited bandwidth, so less, but better, is the goal here.


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Move beyond table stakes 
 
It’s important to challenge yourself to think beyond table stakes when revising these messages. 
 
We see this come up constantly when defining brand values and Key Communication Pillars. These are the sorts of ideas that, while maybe true for your brewery, can also be claimed by (a lot of) your competition. A few examples:
 
– We make high quality beer.
– We only use the best ingredients.
– We’re community-focused.
– We’re environmentally responsible.
 
(I’m still waiting for the day a brewery hangs its hat on brewing objectively flawed beer for people they don’t like. “Flawed beer for flawed people” …)
 
Again, these things (high quality beer) are likely true and should guide how you act behind closed doors. But we’re looking for true and compelling differentiators around which you can build your brand.
 
Once you have a grasp on these big ideas, you can start to frame out what brand personality and voice best fits your brand.
 
Here’s a recent Beer Branding Trends Newsletter issue that dives more fully into this entire process, including how to define your brand personality. 

(Above): Key Communication Pillars are crucial for long-term brand building and developing a differentiated, compelling brand voice. Read more about how to frame your brewery's communication pillars here. 

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3

Brewery to Beverage Company 

At this point, I probably don't have to mention that consumers are looking for Fourth Category / Beyond Beer products. (But I will anyway, because they are.)

That can include seltzers and other FMBs, or spirits and RTDs, hard cider, Hop Water and other non-alcoholic and/or whiz bang functional beverage. 

The Legacy Breweries we're working with today are all embracing this and creating a variety of products to stay relevant with their fans.

If you're interested in this idea, have your team take the Beverage Extension Assessment Tool (B.E.A.T.). This will help you quickly figure out how you could position, name and brand a non-beer product. 

4

Consider Co-branding: A tactical way of authentically connecting your brand to a region 
 
Co-branding with another beloved local institution is a fun way to signal-boost your brewery, reach new audiences and authentically tie your brand to your region.

It's also a great way to show your brewery in a new light.
 
We explored this idea in last year’s annual Beer Branding Trends report. Read our Quick & Dirty Guide to Co-branding if this idea interests you.

(Above): Co-branding is a fun way of energizing your brand and speaking to a broader audience.

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5

Build Sub Brands (and have a broader focus on your Brand Architecture)
 
We talk about Sub Brands in more detail in the Brand Architecture section of this broader report. But for the Legacy Brewery, this remains one of the most important opportunities you can consider. 
 
The problem is this: Can your parent brand credibly reach out to a twenty-something drinker? (Compelling brand voice notwithstanding.) This will be challenging for most Legacy outfits. But if executed right, you can slide right in there with a well-positioned Sub Brand. (Bonus points if you’ve got a compelling Lifestyle Brand positioning angle.)
 
Prominent examples of this strategy include Voodoo Ranger (New Belgium), Little Thing (Sierra Nevada), Beer Hug (Goose Island), Hearted (Bells), Dead Guy (Rogue), Dale’s (Oskar Blues). 
 
We’ve written extensively about Sub Brands over the last few years. Here are a few resources if you’d like to learn more about this: 
 
> Are fancifully-named beers Sub Brands? – [BBT Newsletter]
> Sub Brands vs. Endorsed Brands – [ Podcast ]
> How to Scale the Sub Brand Ladder – [ Podcast ]

(Above): Sub Brands are one of the most pervasive trends in beer branding right now. If you've got a flagship (or two) that comprise 50% or more of your revenue, consider whether it could make sense to continue building that brand via the "Sub Brand Ladder."

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6

Consider a brand and package refresh (You gotta knock the dust off)
 
We’re putting brand and package refreshes at the end because these sorts of investments should only be made after you’ve ironed out everything else we’ve covered here: Framing your Brand Strategy and positioning, defining your Key Communication Pillars and brand voice and personality and Brand Essence.
 
If you’ve got these all squared away, then a proper refresh can be the last remaining piece to pull this all together and really make some dramatic changes in your market.

(Above): Alewerks invested in a brand refresh to solidify their positioning, define their key messaging pillars and bring consistency to their overall portfolio. Read a deep dive case study on this project here.

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7

Can you use scarcity as a nudge? 

I think more Regional Breweries could consider how to introduce measured scarcity into their business model. 

Thought exercise: Spotted Cow is a wonderful beer. But would it be as revered if you could roll into any big box grocery store across the country and grab a case?  

My point here is that scarcity can be an important part of brand building. How can we apply this idea to your flagships? 

Consider whether all of your beers need to be in every market you’re in. Pore through your sales data and see what insights it can provide. If your Kölsch over-indexes in one state (out of the four or five you’re currently in), double down there. If your Pils isn’t doing as well in another market, work to understand why and/or pull those dollars and reinvest in an area where it is performing.

As a Legacy Brewery, you possess unique intangibles that your younger competitors can't match: A sense of history, established brands, proven recipes, years of community involvement and industry experience. Your challenge lies in figuring out how to spin all of this together in a way that resonates with people.

You’ve been around 15, 25, 30+ years… so what? What does that do for me?

Here’s how you start figuring that out:

– Conduct a thorough Brand Strategy process to understand your current position and identify opportunities. 
– Define your Key Communication Pillars to highlight your unique strengths and resonate with both loyal and potential new customers.
– Consider co-branding opportunities to authentically connect with your local community and reach new audiences.
– Explore whether or not a Sub Brand could help you reach a specific demographic (or occasion) without compromising your core identity. 
– And when that’s all done, refresh your branding and packaging to reflect your renewed strategy and appeal to contemporary tastes.

Remember, your history is an asset, not a burden. By embracing your legacy while innovating for the future, you can reconnect with lapsed fans and attract younger drinkers.

Show up in ways that matter to your community — through meaningful events, partnerships, and initiatives that demonstrate your commitment to both tradition and progress.

Your story isn't over — it's evolving. And the next chapter could be your most exciting yet.