Bonus: Raising the bar in the alcoholic beverage category with G’s Dry Hard Ginger Beer

The Startup CPG Podcast · 7 Feb 2023 · 25m

What this episode covers

Donna Katz, founder of G’s Dry Hard Ginger Beer, explains how she reinvented the ginger beer category by fermenting it dry to eliminate added sugars, resulting in a 4.5% ABV, 87-calorie ready-to-drink beverage. She details the 17-month R&D process, including early failures like bottle explosions and the non-linear scaling of ingredients, and discusses the complex three-tier regulatory system for alcohol distribution in the US. Katz also describes her go-to-market strategy, focusing on saturating California’s independent retail before expanding into major chains like Target and Safeway.

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