Outdoor Enthusiast, Entrepreneurial NA Beer Brewery Founder, and New Dad Bill Shufelt Talks Trail Reconstruction, the Benefits of Time Spent in Nature, Fatherhood, and Great Beer (Sans the Alcohol)
by Steven John
Let’s be clear from the get-go here: I love a good beer. For much of my adult life, I’ve been a hobby brewer, I’ve attended beer festivals and tasting events, I’ve sampled styles from around the nation and around the globe, and I’ve done quite a bit of writing about beer, too. But as I’ve gotten older and, more to the point, as we had one and then a second kid keeping a clear head and getting a good night of sleep became more and more important, so I’ve come to sip on fewer and fewer brews.
That is, I’ve come to sip on fewer standard brews with their full complement of alcohol. As it happens, in a fortunate turn of events, right about the time I eased back on consumption was the very time that non-alcoholic beer was having its moment. Or its moment of growth, greater appreciation, and a surge in the quality of NA beers out there, that is, because the rise of NA beer is unlikely to be a flash in the pan – rather it’s finally a decent beverage category, and one being led by an American brewery called Athletic Brewing.
Why do I say these relative newcomers to the brewing world are leading the way? Because while lots of breweries have offered an NA beer or two in the past – some of which are even damn good, like Dogfish Head’s LemonQuest wheat brew – Athletic Brewing has brewed up an entirely pioneering business model: this is not a beer brewery that offers one or two NA beers, this is a brewery that offers only non-alcoholic beers, and they offer well over a dozen beer types at that, from stouts to golden ales to IPAs (their Run Wild NA IPA happens to be beside my keyboard right now – great taste achieved and clear head remaining) and on it goes.
If you love a good beer, you will love an Athletic Brewing beer, and you can do so any time, anywhere, from the dinner table to the trail to the kayak and beyond. If you love a good brand origin story, you’ll love the chat I recently shared with Bill Shufelt, co-founder of the rapidly growing brewery and an outdoorsman and dad himself.
I started with a pretty obvious couple of questions…
What was the inspiration for starting Athletic Brewing?
“Well, with Athletic Brewing, we wanted to take non-alcoholic beer out of this penalty box category,” Shufelt said. “Non-alcoholic beer was always something you drank when you were having a ‘less than’ experience, or it was for a very certain, specific people only. Just the whole perception of non-alcoholic beer was out of whack with what it could be. Non-alcoholic beer fits really well in the modern, healthy lifestyle. It's just a product that wasn't there properly, the branding wasn't there.”
“And we wanted to make it something that was very positive, aspirational, and exciting. And the word ‘athletic’ definitely takes it out of that penalty box and makes it something great. For me, I just wanted a beer that kept up with my life. I had a busy day job, I loved spending time with friends, family, coworkers, everything. I was out to three to four work dinners a week, barbecues, weddings, restaurants, everything on weekends. But I had to wake up early. I wanted to get my workouts in and I wanted to be sharp all day at work in my financial career. And so there was nothing in the beverage world that let me have both the day and the night, so to say. There wasn't a beer that could keep up with me; I wanted everything that the beer world provided without the alcohol and all the side effects that come with alcohol and it just wasn't there. And so it drove me absolutely crazy. I had no intention of ever being an entrepreneur, but it was just an idea I couldn't shake. And I kept working on it and working on it and working on it. And next thing I knew I was quitting my job.”
“It was about two years of business planning. And then I quit my job on January 1st, 2017. We launched in the middle of 2018, and now we've been commercial for about four years.”
They’ve been commercial, and a commercial success. You won’t be surprised by that when you taste an Athletic Brewing beer, many of which have won awards in beer competitions where there was no NA category. But with this brand, it goes deeper than just the product itself – there is a clear and palpable ethos informing the work, and that was the next thing I wanted to know more about.
How does the outdoors and the athletic, active lifestyle relate to the brand?
“Yeah, I mean, everything about Athletic is authentic to our lives,” Bill Shufelt answered. “It's not like we did 50 focus groups and took the average of everything and then created it. This? This is what we want. I basically built Athletic around my life. I love the outdoors. I love great beer. I love spending time with family and friends. And I think the outdoors are a core part of a healthy and active lifestyle, just getting outdoors, clearing your mind, making sure you have that access to the outdoors.”
“And so a lot of our branding and other concepts just pull directly from my life and I've always loved trail running, any sport I can play, any workout that I can do, whatever. So outdoors was kind of just in our DNA. As a company though, beyond just providing a great product that customers love, we wanted to have real impact in the world. And obviously if we could make moderation cool, that is an unbelievable impact on the country's health and happiness, really.”
“Alcohol does have a lot of problems in society for sure. There are 15 million people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, for example, in the US alone. So we knew we could have a positive impact with our products if we were successful, but we also wanted as a business to have a huge, positive impact. And in that, we have a huge environmental component to our company that we call Two For The Trails. We donate 2% of all sales to trail and park cleanups, maintenance, everything. And our Two For The Trails program grew to over a million dollars last year. We made about 70 donations across 30 states. And those are anything from helping build new trail constructions, to nature cleanups, to improvements and everything like that all across the country.”
Which is worth toasting, and with an NA beer. But as you and I and many know, many people still look down on this type of brew. I asked Bill Shufelt about that next.
What are some common misconceptions people have about NA beer?
“That you have to sacrifice at all!” he said with a grin. “We have done blind taste test panels with beer writers, beer judges, everything. We've won awards in alcoholic beer categories. So from a product and experience perspective, you do not have to sacrifice at all anymore to enjoy great non-alcoholic beer. Our beer will be equally as good, say, in a food pairing or occasion pairing as anything in the alcohol landscape out there. We're big believers in tasting is believing. We have a thing we call ‘first taste face,’ (and here I pantomimed taking a sip, looking at my imagined drink in wonder, then smiling, to which Bill nodded) “and we see it thousands of times out in the world. We do tons of samplings, especially at athletic events, putting beers in hands at finish lines, and time and time again it's just people being like: ‘Oh my goodness! Where can I get this?’”
“People have such low expectations because it's non-alcoholic beer and everyone has the image of the old non-alcoholic beer. Where we were, say, five years ago, there had been a quarter century of zero innovation in the non-alcoholic beer category. It was the only part of the grocery store that hadn't changed at all. Now people are generally aware that it's one of the hottest categories in beverage, that there are new offerings out there. Maybe they've heard of it from friends. So there's not the shock when we meet people anymore. But that being said, it's just starting. But the trends of health and wellness are not going anywhere. Many people, these days, have fitness wearables, from an iWatch to a WHOOP to an Oura Ring, and people are more in tune with what helps them perform better and feel better than ever before. And I don't think now that we've started the wellness trend it's ever going to go backwards. So I think the tide is coming in on these movements for decades.”
“It's also showing up in younger consumers too,” Shufelt went on. “We've seen over the past five years, 22% of people under the age of 18 would have done some sort of underage drinking. That's down to 14% now. And there are all sorts of stats around Gen Z and millennials reducing their alcohol intake. So it's also a generational shift in that the younger generations just don't drink nearly as much as other generations did.”
What are the best beers to drink after exercise, what are the best beers to drink at the campsite, and what are the best beers to enjoy outside in general?
“So, I think after exercise, you probably want something that's full of electrolytes and super refreshing. And I tend to think a nice light, Golden Ale, something like that. All of our beers have a lot of electrolytes and potassium and good stuff like that. So pretty much all of them are good after exercise. It might just be flavor pairing to something that's clean and crisp, like the Life or the Golden Ale for campsite, depending on the temperature. It might be great to go with one of our stouts. We have a beer called Lodge Life that has a lot of like wintery spices in it. All our stout though is a great dark stout beer. And then with everyday drinking, one of our IPAs is probably an incredible food pair, probably. Like Run Wild IPA, is maybe our best food pair out there, I would say.”
Our chat next moved away from beer and to matters of family and, more to the point, keeping the adventure going once you have kids, a realm which Shufelt had entered just last year.
Why is it important to get kids out into nature?
“Our world is so technology focused these days. Nature is creative, it's mindful, it's an escape from just the craziness of the world. And I think it's just so healthy to be out in nature.”
What are some of your best tips for making an outdoor adventure a success? And what are some of the most successful types of outings you have had so far, be it the day trip, be it hiking, be it paddling?
“I would say making a plan is [my main tip],” Shuflelt said. “I'm a big believer in things that are human powered, so I love a good baby carrier, but when you’re going out for [an adventure with a kid] it’s having a sun plan; a hydration plan; it’s having the baby carrier and an umbrella – those are two incredible pieces of gear, because being able to create your own shade can extend any hike or journey much longer, and the same with water, being sure to bring that water. And bring the food. I'm a big fan of just day trips, maybe planned using an app, like AllTrails, and looking within 20 miles of where you live. There's almost always something amazing that you had no idea was there on AllTrails.”
“I love finding an hour or two hour hike that we had no idea was there and going to check it out. Just make sure to bring plenty of water and an umbrella and maybe a couple Athletic beers. But yeah, day trips that involve food and hiking are usually big wins and fun weekend activities. We're also big believers of just good beach walks and stuff too – just getting out on the beach, being around the ocean, dipping our feet in the water, are all big wins. We also love camping, too. In any area of the country, there's a surprising number of national parks for people to check out. And it's super easy to get out in the parks, bring a tent and set up for a weekend.”
Which naturally led me to ask about camping and outdoor gear.
What are a few pieces of outdoor gear that you can't live without?
“It depends,” Bill said. “So I guess if I'm thinking of a trail run, obviously my Athletic beers for after, having those in a great cooler, but overall I'm pretty human powered. I love Rhone active gear. They have great hooded sweatshirts for hiking and active wear. Then just a vest for hydration and the carrier, it’s a BABYBJÖRN, those are essentials for long miles.”
And finally, what's next for the brewery?
“Yeah. So we're about to open our new, big east coast brewery, which is about 50 times the size of our original Connecticut brewery. So we're super excited about that. We're just getting to 50 states of distribution in the US. We've launched into about six international countries. Our million dollar Two For The Trails grant was still open this year. But yeah, Two For The Trails being bigger than a million dollars is super exciting. And we're really excited to make those grants in the second half of the year. Yeah, those are some things I'm super excited about.”