How the Kelce Brothers’ Garage Beer Became a Craft Beer Success Story
From struggling taprooms to slumping big-brand lagers, there aren’t a lot of success stories in the beer business of late. Overall production and imports fell 1 percent last year, while craft sales dropped around 4 percent by volume, according to a report from the Brewers Association. Many small brewers say they expect this year to be just as tough.
But in all the darkness, one bright spot stands out: Garage Beer. The formerly Midwest-only light beer grew sales by 252 percent in 2023, making headlines as the fastest-growing beer brand in the country. Earlier this year, Garage Beer “finally” became available in all 50 states, less than two and a half years after it was relaunched as a standalone brand in and around Ohio. If you’re looking for a modern-day winner in the beer world, Garage is it.
Sure, celebrity ownership is part of the equation. But Garage Beer’s quick route to success offers insight into how small brands can make things work today — and hints at where the beer industry might be heading.
Ohio by Way of Kentucky
The most obvious reason for Garage’s sudden success is just good, old-fashioned fame. Two of the brand’s owners are the brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, both of whom are widely thought to be future NFL Hall of Famers, with the latter dating international mega-star Taylor Swift. The Kelce brothers have a huge amount of celebrity status on their own, especially in Ohio. But while that’s enough to draw plenty of attention, it wasn’t what launched the brand, according to former Cincinnati Enquirer beer columnist Matt Koesters.
“The thing is, Garage Beer didn’t start as its own company,” he says. “It started as a brand of Braxton Brewing Company, which is located in Covington, Ky., which is in the Cincinnati suburbs.”
As one of Braxton’s most popular packaged beers, the original Garage had a slightly different recipe.
“I think that most people would say that the older recipe was the superior one,” he says. “I can say for sure that I feel that way. It used to be a go-to for me.”
If you’re aiming for mass-market success, maybe that’s the kind of change you need to make. When Garage was relaunched in early 2023, the new version was tweaked to showcase decidedly less Magnum hop character, with the phrase “no bitterness” appearing in promotional materials aimed at distributors. It also got slick new branding, which removed the “Braxton Brewing Co.” name and any reference to it being brewed and packaged in Kentucky. But it still didn’t have a big celebrity push to help sales — the Kelce brothers, both former football players for the University of Cincinnati, didn’t buy into Garage until mid-2024.
Instead, what the beer had going for it was a much larger target audience. Rather than the phrase “premium lager” on the original packaging, the new version proudly called itself a “light beer.”
“It’s a macro stand-in,” Koesters says. “Bud Light, Miller Light, that kind of thing. They’re not trying to get craft beer fans to get on board.”
“American light lager still wins the day. Just take a look at the heavy growth of Michelob Ultra and the Busch Light phenom.”
More importantly, the beer’s branding highlights its 95-calorie count. Just a slight step down from the earlier recipe, that number places Garage Beer in the same space as leading brand Michelob Ultra and up-and-comer Busch Light, both of which have 95 calories per 12-ounce serving. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal called Michelob Ultra “the one bright spot in a gloomy beer market,” overlooking the growth stories of both Busch Light and the newcomer from the Midwest.
A Craft Beer Champion
While light beer might not be wildly popular with connoisseurs and Untappd users, it does have far more fans than most craft styles, as Kimberly Clements, managing partner at beverage industry consultancy Pints LLC, points out.
“American light lager still wins the day,” she says. “Just take a look at the heavy growth of Michelob Ultra and the Busch Light phenom.” The category is still growing, she notes, even after more than 40 years. “Consumers are still interested. It’s not going away, and it’s duplicated over and over again.”
Despite that familiarity, Garage Beer CEO Andy Sauer thinks that much of the brand’s success comes from attracting — and connecting with — a new kind of light beer drinker.
“They saw it, and they got it,” he says. “They were like, ‘You know what, I’ve got kids, I’ve still got to coach T-ball tomorrow, and I don’t want to deal with a craft beer hangover. I want a quality beer, but I want it to be lighter.’”
Credit: Garage Beer
Though most people don’t consider light lagers a “craft” style, Garage Beer will likely rank as a top 20 craft brewery this year, according to the definition used by the Brewers Association (BA), which counts Garage Beer as a member. Much of its leadership and sales staff previously worked at craft brands, including New Belgium and Platform Beer Co., as well as big names like Pabst.
The craft background appears to inform the brand’s fun, shareable marketing efforts — like sponsoring a golf tournament on a municipal course in Chicago with influencer Paige Spiranac, or capitalizing on (or possibly even planting?) a viral local TV news story about a long-bomb, shore-to-ship Garage Beer can toss in Cleveland. Since the Kelce brothers’ 2024 majority buy-in, the focus on headline-grabbing “earned media” seems to have accelerated: Garage Beer has taken an ownership stake in Missouri’s St. Joseph Goats indoor football team, pumped out video clips starring Jason Kelce with millions of views on Instagram, and even launched a giveaway for a Garage-branded bed with its own built-in kegerator.
For Sauer, unorthodox marketing tactics align perfectly with the “radical idea” of a small brand taking on light beer — a category dominated by giant international brewers and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns.
“I wanted people who were willing to take risks, people who were willing to do something different,” he says. “That’s one of the more monolithic categories in all of grocery. You need people who are comfortable with the idea of very different thinking.”
In Cincinnati and around the Midwest, the message seems to be landing.
“You do see Garage Beer absolutely everywhere,” Koesters says. “It’s ubiquitous.”
Both Challenges and Opportunities
As Garage Beer grows, triple-digit gains may be harder to sustain, though there’s clearly plenty of upside. Clements notes that several other craft brewers have successfully spun off standalone brands, like Firestone Walker with its 805 Beer.
“I think that once a brewery has a clear winner in its portfolio, or has something completely different from the ethos of the brewery, it can spin the brand,” she says. “Braxton saw that Garage Beer had an opportunity to do more than what Braxton was doing on its own.”
Though Braxton still holds a minority ownership stake in Garage Beer, Sauer says the Kentucky outfit no longer brews the stuff. Instead, production has shifted to various partners, including Founders Brewing Co., as the brand scales up.
Trip Kloser, a consultant for beer distributors and travel guide, says maintaining early momentum can be difficult for smaller brands.
“First of all, the biggest challenge you’re going to have is called ‘next year,’” he says. “They get the original rollout. They get the buzz. They get that shelf space. And then, next year, what are they going to follow that up with?”
“We’re a lean team. As an independent light beer company, that’s a David and Goliath story that plays out on the shelf.”
Other questions, he says, involve the Kelce brothers and how long their star power will last.
“How long are the Kelces going to be cool? I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe if Travis marries Taylor Swift, that might give it some juice, but I don’t see Swifties and their mothers all drinking beer.”
Another potential issue, he says, is the already established Garage Brewing Co. in Murrieta, Calif. — to say nothing of 3 Car Garage Brewing Co. in Florida, Garage Band Brewing in Illinois, or The Garage Brewery in Virginia.
“Quite honestly, I thought this was the Garage in California,” he says. “After looking at it online, I said, ‘Uh-oh.’ That’s why God gave us lawyers.”
Sauer says that Garage Beer has “a good relationship” with Garage Brewing Co. in California. (Garage Brewing Co. declined to comment for this story.) The real challenges, he says, are playing out in supermarkets and liquor stores.
“At the end of the day, we’re still competing in light beer,” he says. “We’re a lean team. As an independent light beer company, that’s a David and Goliath story that plays out on the shelf.”
How that story ends is anyone’s guess. The total U.S. beer market in 2024 comprised 170,896,608 barrels, according to the Brewers Association. Michelob Ultra, — now the second-largest brand on the market behind Modelo Especial — held an 8.2 percent share by volume, AB InBev reported at the start this year, meaning well over 14 million barrels.
Garage Beer, Sauer says, should end the year around 300,000.
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