The Double Cola Co. is releasing its latest Brewski, Blood Orange Shandy, to retailers around the country starting this week.
The shandy, which is a beer mixed with a nonalcoholic drink, is a blend of Kölsch style ale paired with the manufacturer’s popular SKI soft drink. It’s the latest in the line of alcoholic drinks offered by Double Cola which released Citrus Shandy in 2021.
A good brand name can come with certain expectations, and according to Chief Operating Officer Gina Dhanani, the blend is the result of listening to customers about what they wanted, or expected, from the Brewski line in 2018.
She said that when the Chattanooga company launched three now-discontinued types of Brewski in 2019, “It was a traditional craft-style beer, a Pilsner pale ale, and it did well in Chattanooga, and the feedback was good [elsewhere], but it was not what people expected. They assumed it had SKI in it.”
SKI is Double Cola’s leading soft drink brand, and Dhanani said the company listened to the feedback and reworked the entire line.
“We’re not always right,” she said, “but we are not this huge company with all kinds of layers. We were able to adjust, and it worked out better for us. We are constantly evolving, and at end of the day, we want a product that people want.”
The switch seems to have appealed to consumer tastes as Brand Marketing Director Katrina Farmer said sales of Citrus Shandy have increased about 58% over sales of the three previous products combined with Double Cola selling nearly 30,000 cases of the citrus Brewski in the past year.
The Blood Orange Shandy has notes of tart cherry, raspberry and tangy grapefruit. Farmer said Double Cola has plans to launch a strawberry lemonade shandy in the spring and a tropical-flavored Brewski in the summer.
“The flavors are based on consumer wants,” she said.
Dhanani said Double Cola is 100 years old this year and produces concentrates which it then sells to bottlers around the country. Those independent bottlers sell a variety of brands and products including Coca-Cola, RC Cola, Dr Pepper and Miller and Budweiser beer products and Double Cola got into the beer business after distributors asked for more product options, she said.
“Our distributors had a need,” she said.
Dhanani said research showed that when consumers aren’t drinking their current products, they are drinking water, tea or alcohol. Adding a fermented drink to its menu seemed logical, she said, but it is not as easy as rededicating part of an existing factory from SKI to Brewski, she said.
“The machinery is different, it’s done in different facilities,” she said. “There was a lot of learning. The timing is different. We can make soda in a day. With beer, you have to plan. There are longer lead times. It takes a month to make beer, and we have an extra step in ours since it’s not straight beer. We have another blending process.”
Dhanani said the Brewski line represents a dramatic shift for the century-old company and is also in part the result of adjusting to evolving customer tastes.
“People still very much enjoy our [soda] products, but as demographics change toward a more healthier lifestyle, the market is changing,” Dhanani said.
Farmer said Double Cola may also be launching a new artisan water product featuring spring water from the Mark Twain National Park in Missouri in the coming year.
Double Cola was founded in Huntsville, Alabama, and moved to Chattanooga the same year it was created.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Follow him on Twitter @BarryJC.