For a brewery like Garden Path Fermentation, which makes mixed-culture beers, cider, and wine packaged in large-format bottles costing $15-$25, DTC shipping represents an opportunity. The BA reported that Garden Path made 125 BBLs of beer in 2021, putting it in the bottom-third of beer makers in the country in terms of volume.
“We’re a niche producer located in a somewhat remote area and our customer base is really going to be spread throughout the world,” says Garden Path’s co-creator Ron Extract. Extract cites two recent beer festivals he attended as an example: At Pittsburgh’s Mixed Culture Festival and North Carolina’s State of Origin Festival this August, Garden Path poured its beer for customers who deliberately seek out farmhouse and mixed-culture beers. Some of those drinkers expressed interest in buying Garden Path beers, but unless they live in or visit Washington, there’s no way to legally purchase them. These drinkers are exactly who Garden Path would like to sell beer to: consumers who have enough interest in mixed-culture beers to pay $60-$115 to attend a festival focused on those niche styles, and who then spend similar amounts to have those beers shipped around the U.S.
Meanwhile, Extract says, major retailers and even specialty bottle shops in Washington State have shrunk the amount of space they dedicate to mixed-fermentation, Farmhouse, and Saison-style beers in recent years. While chain grocery stores were likely never going to stock Garden Path, declining interest from craft-focused bottle shops—the retailers that should be a small brewery’s biggest advocates—is a significant blow to sales opportunities.
“Grocery stores are always going to go with what’s most in demand, but even a lot of the beer stores and specialty bottle shops, we’re seeing the type of products we make somewhat sidelined as well,” Extract says. “They’re now being dominated as well by what’s trendy … a huge selection of IPAs, Hazies, and fruited Kettle Sours.”
Of course, retailers do have an incentive to stock the most in-demand beer styles, and lately, large-format, mixed-fermentation beers have struggled to find mass appeal. But that’s exactly where the advantage of DTC shipping comes in: There are still fans of such beers, but they’re not necessarily geographically concentrated near the breweries that make them. And as beer has gained more drinkers around the country who show interest, that kind of geographical spread is likely to continue.
“DTC is not for everyone. In fact it’s not for most, which is why it’s hard for us to move this through the legislature or even with the blessing of our guild,” Leigh says. “It really only works for higher-margin products.”
