If a beer fairy delivering craft brews to your doorstep every week sounds too good to be true, it’s not. While many local breweries pivoted to delivery during the pandemic, the beer fairy is now here to stay thanks to new service Brewker.
Hailing itself as the “milkman of local breweries,” Brewker is a craft beer delivery subscription service. Users create an account and select how many beers they want delivered every week (six, 12 or 18), as well their type of beer – which can be a Brewker-recommended pick or sipper of their own choosing. Imbibers must be home at the time of delivery for a quick ID check and then it’s off to enjoying a hand-delivered, local craft beer.
Brewker recently launched in Central Ohio, serving Columbus and its surrounding suburbs with a lineup that includes nearly a dozen local breweries and 50 plus beers.
For all the things Brewker is, there are a few things it’s not. Brewker is not a reseller and doesn’t store beer.
“We facilitate a transaction between a consumer and a brewery,” says Founder & CEO Blake Gleaves.
And it’s all in the name of helping fans drink and support local.
Based in Atlanta, Gleaves got the idea for Brewker thanks to his other startup, The Dinner Club. He launched the meal delivery subscription service just over a year ago and used the same software for the backbone of Brewker. If there could be a hyper-local subscription delivery service for meals, why not beer? Gleaves was also influenced by finding another way to get beer from his favorite local brewery, which doesn’t distribute to grocers, than having to go to their taproom.
Brewker got its Columbus connection via Vice President Daniel Green, a longtime friend of Gleaves. Green had experience building a subscription-based startup as well, and both were big fans of craft beer. Green was initially just a sounding board, but decided to jump into the deep end of the barrel.
Columbus also proved a better location to build the startup, with more brewery-friendly laws that allow deliveries directly from beer makers.
So why opt for Brewker instead of visiting a brewery’s taproom or picking up a six-pack at the nearest grocery store? Gleaves and Green see several benefits to their delivery solution. The platform will offer a mix of beers – some standards and others that are more limited releases. Speaking from his own experience, Green says moving out to the suburbs and having kids means driving to a brewery and back just to grab a special release six-pack isn’t always an option. Brewker can get it straight to his doorstep.
As for stores, with a few exceptions, a retailer might only carry two or three varieties of any given brewery’s beers – compared to the dozens of beers they might actually make. Brewker will dive into some of those unique selections that aren’t distributed through traditional retailers. Gleaves says Brekwer can also expand a brewery’s reach, introducing craft beer fans to breweries that may not be close to or distribute near them.
As their main goal is to facilitate a transaction between consumer and brewery, Brewker gives beer makers a lot of autonomy on the platform. Breweries set their own prices and Brewker charges a $5 delivery fee. Green says many times breweries set the same price as they would in-store or at their taproom. Breweries can also set weekly maximums and make beers active or inactive.
Brewker is currently working with Seventh Son, North High Brewing, Derive, Land-Grant, Jackie O’s, Nocterra, Endeavor Spirits & Brewing and Olentangy River Brewing Company with more partners soon to join. Green and Gleaves are excited for the service to open up the distribution network of breweries like Endeavor, or oncoming partner, Holy Trinity Brewing Company which currently doesn’t distribute and is only available at its Downtown taproom. They hope the service will put even more local breweries on the map.
That’s part of what Green loves about Brewker.
“There’s so many parts of Columbus that are awesome and unique that I don’t get to experience as much as I’d like to,” he says. But with Brewker, he can at least experience their beer.
Green and Gleaves are in a sprint to build the Brewker audience in Columbus, and would like to scale the service to other craft brew loving markets like Cleveland or Charlotte.
For more information, visit brewker.com.
