E-Malt.com News article: USA, VT & OH: Long Trail Brewing Co. of Vermont to expand into Cleveland, Ohio

Long Trail Brewing Co., the 30th largest craft brewery in the United States, has entered the Ohio market, Cleveland.com reported on April 10th.

Long Trail is based in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont.

To give an idea of the brewery's size, Great Lakes Brewing Co. is 23rd on the top 50 craft-breweries list, which is compiled by the Brewers Association. Roughly 75 percent of the breweries in the top 50 distribute in Ohio.

"Clearly Ohio is saturated, but you're not alone in that," said Jed Nelson, marketing director at Long Trail. "Pretty much everywhere you look is market saturation. We've taken a hard look at where we want to expand." The brewery's last expansion, he said, was 2012 into Virginia.

“Long Trail, which was founded in 1989, is distributed in 13 states. Its flagship, Long Trail Ale, is Vermont's top-selling craft beer,” Nelson said. The brewery offers about 12 to 15 beers at any one time, with four year-round brews, half a dozen seasonals and "a bunch of rotating" beers.

Most of Long Trail's labels include a white and red silhouette of a hiker with backpack and walking stick. “Long Trail Brewing is named after the Long Trail, the nation's oldest long-distance hiking trail,” Nelson said. It spans the 272-mile ride of Vermont's Green Mountains.

He cited the state's "Rust Belt revival, with great chefs" as an appealing draw to enter the market.

"Clearly with 116 breweries, you guys are cranking," Nelson said. "You've got to go where the drinkers go."

Vermont might be small, but it has the second highest rate of breweries in the country, he added.

"Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati are definitely appealing," he said. "When we looked at what made most sense we looked at Ohio, also Chicago, Colorado and California - all those places are more saturated and tougher for us to get to."

"Tougher" means longer shipping time, and freshness is one of Long Trail's priorities, he said.

Nelson also said the brewery sees "a fair amount of traffic" on its website from Ohio, with people asking where to find Long Trail ales. Locally, Giant Eagle will carry the beers, he said.

Long Trail also owns Vermont's Otter Creek Brewing, which it bought six years ago and will mark 25 years in business in 2016.

In Northeast Ohio alone, Long Trail will have to compete with crowded store shelves and an area with established and burgeoning breweries. Of the Brewers Association list, the top 15 are all represented in Ohio, though that includes Minhas at No. 10 with an asterisk of sorts: The only Minhas-made products in Ohio are private-label contracted brews with Costco and Trader Joe's, said Dennis Rego, a rep for the Monroe, Wisconsin-based brewery. But regarding its core brands, "we don't have anything currently distributed," he said. Minhas also produces SpinDoktor, a hard root beer, for a Northeast Ohio company.

Yuengling, Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada hold the top three places on the list.


15 April, 2015