E-Malt.com News article: USA, MI: Perrin Brewing Company to begin distribution in bottles

Since opening in last fall in Comstock Park, Perrin Brewing Company has made waves in the Grand Rapids brewing community. It’s already the second largest in the city behind Founders Brewing Co., grbj.com reported on February, 18.

Despite being found in 125 restaurants and bars across West Michigan, Perrin beers have been absent in stores. But soon, Perrin will be added to the already crowded store shelves.

Perrin Brewing co-founder Jarred Sper said the beers are “sessionable” — meaning a person can drink several in one sitting — and the containers will entice people to try the easy-to-drink craft beers.

The company will begin distributing in bottles, but a flat-top can that requires a church key to open eventually will follow.

Perrin will be only the second brewery in the world to use the cans.

“There is a wall filled with beer. What will make you pick it up?” Sper said. “It’s about having a certain aesthetic that grabs a consumer. Lure them in with cool packaging and back it up with great product. What else do you need?”

Although less enticing to pick up, bottles will help Perrin enter the consumer market with more access to stores.

And while the company will distribute beers that craft beer fans will enjoy, it will also release lighter, easy-to-drink beers, such as Perrin Golden Ale, that will help transition macro beer drinkers from the likes of Budweiser and Miller, Sper said.

The retail distribution channels have yet to open, but Perrin has made customers happy on-site with its hospitality, Sper said.

Between the easy-drinking beer and the hospitality, Perrin has seen its name and business grow in its first months of operation. The growth spurt wasn’t exactly planned, Sper said.

“It wasn’t a deliberate choice right away. It just happened organically,” Sper said. “It happened that way, because we had seen all the breweries around growing at such an exponential rate, and it took them so much time, effort and resources to rip down and expand.”


20 February, 2013