Watch the story behind craft beer’s biggest non-alcoholic beer maker — Athletic Brewing

Off-premise craft beer sales are struggling a little in 2023 — for a variety of factors — inflation, less beer consumption overall, fierce competition from other craft breweries, fierce competition from other beverage alcohol (spirits to ready-to-drink cocktails) and an aging out of hardcore fans (a reason the non-alcoholic segment is growing). In fact, non-alcoholic beer saw +25.2 percent growth in the last 52 weeks off-premise, according to our recent report with NIQ, noting NA beer only made up less than 1 percent of beer consumption in those 52 weeks in off-premise.

Still, it’s an exciting time for non-alcoholic beer. On the Brewers Association recent Top 50 U.S. Craft Brewing Companies list (craft brewer defined here), non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing Co. jumped up to No. 13 from No. 27 last year. Last year being the first time an NA beer maker ever made the list. This amazing story of Athletic Brewing is still ongoing. Last year, one of the biggest beverage companies in North America, Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), invested $50M in Athletic, giving KDP an equity stake that is comparable to other lead investors like TRB Advisors and Alliance Consumer Growth. That was part of a whopping $75 million Series D funding round.

Ever since Athletic Brewing was founded in 2017, the brand has been buzzing. Founded in Stratford, Conn., the company now has multiple breweries, including one in California. Athletic Brewing first began making headlines when it generated $17.5M in Series B funding and then $50M in Series C funding and when it came to light that some of the investors in the company are famous folks from athletes to chefs — J.J. Watt, Lance Armstrong, Momofuku restaurateur David Chang. The company has definitely changed the NA landscape in America, evolving the low-no alcohol beer category, making NA a cool, healthy choice and not an apologetic, alcoholic stigma.

Athletic has been busy on all fronts. It earned Certified B Corp status last spring. The company launched its new brand campaign Fit For All Times this past September. Athletic dropped its app last October. In 2020, the company grew almost 500 percent year-over-year for the second year in a row. Athletic was named one of Time‘s “100 Most Influential Companies of 2022” (check it). The company even recently celebrated Earth Month with its largest-ever Two for the Trails donation. You get the idea. This brand is blasting in all directions.

But how did this all happen? Who are the two founders behind this venture? Who are the team making it all happen? Well, I suggest you watch the video above with Founders Bill Shufelt and John Walker, and then watch the video below with the Athletic team. That should help catch you up.