HoneyMoon Brewery wins grand prize in Miller Lite competition

Here’s a rare moment of Big Beer helping out the little guy: Miller Lite named Santa Fe, New Mexico-based company HoneyMoon Brewery as the grand-prize winner of its 2016 Tap the Future competition. The company took home the $200,000 grand prize, following two rounds of rigorous live pitching, which included serial entrepreneur and business mogul Daymond John, from ABC’s Shark Tank.

Now in its fourth year, Tap the Future is a business plan competition that offers entrepreneurs a chance to grow their businesses. This year is especially fun because this isn’t a competition for just breweries. There are hardly any breweries in it all. Among the 13,000 applicants, all kinds of businesses enter — from storytelling platforms to beauty products and so on. So, Miller having to hand over an oversized check to a brewery is especially sweet.

Congrats to HoneyMoon Brewery and its cool product — it produces an adult probiotic Kombucha tea with a touch of alcohol.

“Winning the Miller Lite Tap the Future competition is a tremendous honor,” said Ayla Bystrom-Williams from HoneyMoon Brewery. “From the very beginning we knew that we had a product that could be revolutionary, it just took the work and dedication of our team to show the judges the same thing. The exposure from this competition, as well the prize money will go a long way in getting us to the next level. And more importantly the business knowledge we gained from the judges has given us insight on how to improve our brand and sustain it for years to come. We’re extremely thankful to Miller Lite for the opportunity and applaud the company for empowering entrepreneurs through Tap the Future.”