“If the market wants it, we take a look at it,” says Evan Morris, cofounder of Phase Three Brewing. Hard seltzer was an early market-driven offering from the two-year-old brewing business in suburban Chicago.
“We weren’t sure what to make of seltzer at first, but we decided to jump in full steam and create a dedicated brand,” Morris says. That brand, Lulz, has already become an important facet of the parent brewery’s overall identity.
"We have based our company on the whole idea of pivoting,” says Shaun Berns, co-owner and head brewer. He’s using a verb that gained currency in 2020—Phase Three’s first full year of existing as a company—when breweries had to shift their business models to adapt to the pandemic. “The consumer loves new products, and we are well prepared to move as fast as the consumer to meet their ever-changing expectations and requests.”