A new brew is replacing the line of Brewski beers introduced by Double Cola in 2019, after fans of the SKI soda that inspired the beer venture spoke up loud and clear.
"We thought we knew what they wanted, but we didn't, really," said Gina Dhanani, chief operations officer for Chattanooga-based Double Cola. "We definitely learned some lessons."
The new version of Brewski, which recently launched in Southern Illinois and will arrive this week in the Chattanooga market, has hit the spot, Dhanani said.
"When we got it right, now we cannot make enough product," she said. "We have only been able to launch in southern Illinois because we can't keep up with demand, but we really wanted to launch in Chattanooga."
The new Brewski is a shandy, mixing a kölsch beer with the citrus flavors popular with Double Cola's SKI consumers. The new brew is essentially a half-beer, half-SKI soda blend that responds directly to the feedback Double Cola got to their initial lineup of three beers when they entered the alcoholic beverage market in 2019, Dhanani said.
"SKI consumers are really fanatical - they look at the brand as an extension of themselves, which is kind of unusual with a consumable product," she said. "When they heard 'Brewski,' they expected SKI to be in the product."
SKI soda was first trademarked in 1956, and named by an employee who enjoyed water skiing on Chickamauga Lake, Dhanani said. Consumer nostalgia drives product loyalty, and the pivot to respond directly and quickly to what consumers told them after the initial rollout of Brewski is one of the benefits of being a small, family-owned operation, Dhanani added.
"Our consumers are very vocal - they call us, they send us emails, they're on social media," she said.
Double Cola began as the Good Grape Company in 1922 in Chattanooga, and became the Double Cola Co. in 1933 when it introduced 12-ounce bottles, which were twice the size of other sodas sold at the time. Double Cola runs its operations from its Market Street headquarters in downtown Chattanooga, though its production facilities are in other cities across the Eastern states.
"We could be anywhere, but we're in Chattanooga because we like it so much," Dhanani said.
Double Cola has a portfolio of beverages, but Brewski, distributed through the company's Cheers Beverages subsidiary, was its first foray into the alcoholic drink market. As it happened, the timing was not ideal, Dhanani said. The line of three Brewski beers officially launched Labor Day 2019, six months before COVID-19 pandemic shut down many U.S. businesses.
The pandemic delivered a big hit to the company's once-robust international sales while travel was severely limited, but it also prompted a boost to its grocery store business, where most Double Cola products are sold, Dhanani said.
"Our soft drinks are mostly sold in grocery and convenience stores, and not in restaurants," she said. "We gained a lot of sales in grocery stores."
Double Cola products are sold through about 40 distributors in the U.S., and the new Brewski should start turning up on Chattanooga-area grocery store shelves this week, she said.
The single brew has replaced the three beers that launched the Brewski line in 2019, and other new Brewskis will follow as consumer feedback rolls in.
"My vision for the company is to make it more of a full beverage company," Dhanani said.
Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.