For centuries, beer has been billed as the reward for a hard day’s work. That’s no less true for “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, whose job description has included chest stomping, back dropping, and applying a three-quarters facelock jawbreaker to WWE wrestling opponents.
In between such feats, beer became a prize for Austin’s in-ring persona and cheering fans who were greeted with another signature move: cracking two cans at a time and pouring the beer down his throat, the foamy liquid running down his face and chest as though he’s frothing at the mouth. But it wasn’t until 2015 that Austin tag teamed with California’s El Segundo Brewing on his own beer brand: Steve Austin’s Broken Skull IPA. Today, Broken Skull is El Segundo’s runaway hit, available in 30 states and accounting for about 40% of the brewery’s overall sales volume. In chain retail, it's as big as established brands like Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi IPA and Oskar Blues' Mama's Little Yella Pils.
The success of Broken Skull gave El Segundo, a relatively small brewery that produced 11,000 barrels of beer in 2020, national relevance. It also maxed out the brewery’s capacity, and the company began contracting with Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing Co. in 2019 to brew Broken Skull for sale on the East Coast, and Buellton, California’s Figueroa Mountain Brewery in 2021 to brew it for sale on the West Coast. In effect, Broken Skull has become a sub-brand with a life of its own, similar to New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger line or Sierra Nevada’s Little Thing family.
“We’re not turning into a wrestling brewery, although I know that’s the perception outside of California,” says Rob Croxall, El Segundo’s owner. “In the [craft] beer world people do know us, but as far as the lay person knowing the brand, Broken Skull is huge.”
Celebrity-endorsed beers are nothing new. Iron Maiden, Danny Trejo, Luke Bryan, Metallica, Kelsey Grammar, Tom Green, Hanson, and Hootie and the Blowfish have all lent their name and likeness to beers. Such projects generally yield mediocre results, both in terms of staying power and quality (a Men’s Health article from 2014 titled “10 Celebrity Beers That Surprisingly Don’t Suck” captures the general sentiment.) In this context, Broken Skull is remarkable: It continues to grow sales even six years after its launch, and this month spurred a line extension, Broken Skull American Lager.
For a small brewery, the success has bred existential questions: How much independence should El Segundo give its start-studded IPA? Could the Broken Skull brand maintain momentum without Austin’s regular appearances with the cans on WWE broadcasts? Ultimately, Croxall notes that such questions are good problems to have.
“He brings way the hell more people to us than we bring to him, but I like to pretend it’s mutual,” he says.
Broken Skull is Steve Austin. Croxall says the beer stands on its own merits as “a legit, serious West Coast IPA,” but it wouldn’t have seen the mainstream success it has without Austin’s enthusiastic endorsement—and without him drinking it live on WWE Monday Night Raw.
“When Steve gets his pops on TV, I walk in to 30 messages from distributors trying to find the beer,” Croxall says.
Austin frequently features Broken Skull on his Instagram (5.3 million followers), and WWE (12 million followers) has tweeted about it as well. El Segundo sometimes sends Austin photos or posts featuring the beer taken at the brewery, and he posts them directly to his account.
“It’s almost like he’s an extension of the brewery,” Croxall says.
The partnership was Austin’s idea, and one he’s remained committed to for eight years. In 2014, El Segundo heard word from a childhood friend of Croxall’s who used to work for the talent agency that represented Austin. The friend mentioned that the wrestler was a fan of El Segundo’s Mayberry IPA and wanted to stop by the brewery.
“I wanted to do an IPA initially and that’s what El Segundo’s known for,” Austin says.
After chatting generally with Croxall about beer, Austin suggested he and El Segundo brew a beer together. After hours tasting approximately 15 IPAs together, Croxall and Austin nailed down the wrestler’s preferences when it came to beer. (“I’ve been drinking beer my whole life but I don’t technically speak beer language,” Austin says.)
“What he ended up liking was some of the older-school West Coast IPAs with a lot of midpalate flavor, but the aromatics of newer-school IPAs, and not too much bitterness,” Croxall says. As a result, the beer leans on aspects of an IPA that have long held resonance in California, but with a modern flavor profile:
The 6.7% ABV of Broken Skull IPA is lower than fast-growing brands like New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA (9%) or Elysian Brewing’s Space Dust IPA (8.2%), but sits at the same level as Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing IPA, while backing off the perceived sweetness of a New England-style IPA.
Broken Skull’s focus on traditionally-used hops like Cascade and Chinook in its boil gives the beer a biting bitterness, but a big dry hop with Citra hops rounds out flavor with citrus fruit aromatics and flavors.
El Segundo was upfront with Austin about its capacity constraints. When they first met in 2014, Croxall says, the brewery was brewing about 300 BBLs a month and was self distributing in Southern California. Austin didn’t seem to care how much or how little the brewery produced. The contract, Croxall recalls, was simple to put together: “There are costs and there are sales. The money left over [after costs], we share.”
Austin is emphatic that the partnership was never about making money. Beer had long been a part of his life—both inside the ring and out—and it had been a goal of his for decades to have a brand of his own.
“If we get lucky and make a few bucks from this, that’s great. But I didn’t do this to make money,” Austin says. “I’ve always wanted to come out with a beer. I got tired of drinking everybody else’s.”
Today, Austin appears as committed as ever to the partnership. (Croxall says he receives texts from Austin’s wife, Kristin Feres, when she finds out-of-code Broken Skull on the shelf. That prompts a call to El Segundo’s sales manager who can work with distributors and accounts to “correct the problem.”) Cans of Broken Skull IPA have appeared in three recent WWE broadcasts, including Monday Night Raw, which averages approximately 1.7 million viewers weekly. Austin also endorsed the new Broken Skull Lager as “a good fucking beer” that he’s “proud of” in a recent Instagram post.
That matters not only to fans, but to distributors, who value Austin’s endorsement for the free marketing. As far back as 2016, Texas’ Flood Distributing had informal conversations with El Segundo about expanding the brewery’s distribution to the Lone Star State. But it wasn’t until 2020, when the brewery was contract brewing Broken Skull at a larger scale that Flood’s managing partner Kyle White jumped to carry the beer.
“They came to us already with something that had legs,” White says, adding that Texas happens to be Steve Austin’s home state. “It’s probably the product that had the most inquiries for it.”
The distributorship was getting so many messages on Instagram from drinkers about where they could find Broken Skull that, for a time, White added the Broken Skull locator map as the primary link in the company’s bio. Fans from Oklahoma messaged Flood, asking about Broken Skull’s most northern Texas points of distribution so they could drive south to find it. The H-E-B grocery store in Edna—a town of 5,660 people where Austin grew up—ordered 80 cases, and sold out of the almost 320 six-packs in about two weeks. Even after the initial frenzy plateaued, Broken Skull sales have continued to stay strong in Texas.
“We’re seeing the repeat business,” White says. “It developed a following on its merits as a beer as well as the branding.”
The success of Broken Skull IPA bred the March 2022 launch of Broken Skull American Lager, a 4.8% ABV beer hoping to expand the audience for the Broken Skull line beyond IPA drinkers. White sees a Lager as more approachable for some drinkers, not just stylistically, but in terms of price point: In Texas, the Broken Skull IPA is generally priced at $12.99-$13.99 per six-pack (in a recent price check of a Houston H-E-B, that pierce puts it on par with Sixpoint Resin IPA and Stone Tangerine Express IPA) while Broken Skull American Lager will be priced at $10.99-$11.99.
El Segundo now has a certified sub-brand on its hands. The Broken Skull line has its own website, its own Instagram page, and as of last year, its own dedicated, full-time national sales representative based in Austin, Texas. Outside of Southern California, El Segundo doesn’t distribute the rest of its portfolio to the states where it sells Broken Skull.
“We’ll do some special drops of special releases but we don’t have full-time beers out there. The velocity on Broken Skull is where it’s at,” Croxall says.
But drawing this distinction between Broken Skull and the rest of El Segundo is not without discomfort for Croxall. He wants to make clear that Broken Skull was and is a West Coast IPA that the brewery wanted in its portfolio, regardless of whether Steve Austin’s star power was attached to it.
“It’s its own animal, but I don't want to make a division between that beer and the El Segundo brewery,” he says. “I would never want somebody to think [Broken Skull] is some secondary, mass-produced thing.”
Fans of Broken Skull aren’t necessarily buying other El Segundo beers—in most states, they can’t. In Texas, where Flood Distributing carries both Broken Skull beers and others in El Segundo’s portfolio, the two are successful in different ways. Broken Skull drives volume sales in mainstream grocery stores, for example, while El Segundo’s other beers tend to do well in more niche, craft-centric bottle shops or specialty retailers, White says.
And they’re drawn to the brand because of its celebrity tie. This is quite a bit of power to put in the hands of a public figure who, while committed to the partnership, ultimately is distinct from the brewery itself. Other celebrity-endorsed beers have gradually faded as the celebrity’s interest in the project wanes, or as they become less popular public figures. For the past six years, however, Broken Skull has defied that trajectory.
Austin’s mere absence from the WWE stage could prove detrimental to sales of Broken Skull; Croxall says beer sales “go up and down with Steve’s activity, as far as how visible he is in public.” (El Segundo will no doubt have an eye on Austin’s role in WrestleMania 38, scheduled for April 2-3.) But Austin also stays connected to fans through his social media posts, which frequently also feature Broken Skull beer. His Instagram posts that highlight the beer tend to receive the same level of engagement as his non-beer posts—except for chair-smashing wrestling photos, which are hard to top when it comes to fan “likes.”
So far, the Broken Skull partnership has brought El Segundo nothing but new fans. In the huge beer-drinking market of Texas, for example, Austin has broad appeal beyond wrestling.
“There are hardcore wrestling fans, but he’s also this ubiquitous thing,” says White. “He’s been a part of the zeitgeist from the ’90s through today.”
Broken Skull just needs him to stay that way.
Words by Kate Bernot