Follow along on your own string board: Hard MTN DEW is a 5% ABV, 100-calorie, non-caffeinated flavored malt beverage that begins with PepsiCo trucking Mountain Dew concentrate to The Boston Beer Company’s production facilities, where it is combined with a malt-derived alcohol base, packaged, and sold back to Pepsi for sale through the soft drink company’s distribution network.
Capiche?
Hard MTN DEW’s development, production, and distribution are convoluted. But in the 11 days since its Feb. 22 debut, one thing has become clear from retailer reports: Drinkers are more than ready to get all jacked up on boozy Mountain Dew.
“Unfortunately it sold out [in our store] before I could force myself to try it,” says Lauren Reardon, assistant store manager of a Kroger grocery store in La Verne, Tennessee. She says her Kroger sold out of its first delivery of 18 cases of Hard MTN DEW within four days. “That’s unusual.”
Announced in August, the flavored malt beverage (FMB) initially drew its share of “WTF” reactions. To start, the standard version of Mountain Dew is itself a flavor mystery. Were legal drinking age adults really asking for a spiked version? (Boston Beer says Mountain Dew soda was originally created as a mixer for spirits 80 years ago.) And how was Pepsi, which hadn’t until now distributed alcohol, planning to legally and logistically move into this highly regulated space? The latter, at least, has an answer: Pepsi created a new business division, Blue Cloud, to seek alcohol distribution licenses in Hard MTN DEW’s 17 proposed launch markets.
Currently available in three states—Iowa, Florida, and Tennessee—Hard MTN DEW has come out of the gates swinging. According to accounts from retailers in those states, drinkers are buying the four flavors of Hard MTN DEW (Original, Baja Blast, Black Cherry and Watermelon) at rates far beyond other recent hard seltzer and FMB launches.
Chain retail sales data for Hard MTN DEW will be available soon, but based on anecdotal accounts from grocery and liquor stores, the numbers should look promising.
“I would say it’s probably about 5-to-1 outselling other new products like seltzers,” says Carl (who declined to give his last name), the manager of Ulmerton Liquors in Largo, Florida. “Customers are very much into it, that’s for sure.”
This has echoes of Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer, which debuted to gangbusters demand that outpaced supply in early weeks. Cacti became a top-5 seltzer brands in its first week and bested competitors including Truly Hard Seltzer Lemonade and Vizzy variety packs. Within nine months, however, that demand had softened, official brand partner Travis Scott found himself in legal trouble following a deadly accident during his AstroWorld performance, and Anheuser-Busch InBev had pulled the plug on the seltzer brand. The task ahead of Hard MTN DEW will be to maintain early momentum for the longer haul.
Carl couldn’t say exactly what’s behind its e popularity, and he hasn’t tried the product himself. He says the customers purchasing it span demographics and that it’s “a good mix” of people making Hard MTN DEW purchases. He speculates that brand affinity for regular Mountain Dew, coupled with what he describes as enticing packaging, is a large part of customers’ desire to try Hard MTN DEW.
“It’s just the name, probably,” he says.
Ulmerton Liquors carries Hard MTN DEW in 12-packs, which retail there for $18.99. Other retailers who spoke to Good Beer Hunting also priced the 12-packs at $18.99, though a Walmart in Chattanooga, Tennessee appears to price them at $15.98. (Twelve-packs of Truly Hard Seltzer Citrus and Twisted Tea Hard Iced cost $16.99 at a Target in Largo, Florida.) Hard MTN DEW is also available in single-serve, 24oz cans as well as six-packs of 12oz cans.
“As a new product, it’s doing really well. I think there’s a lot of interest, just that curiosity factor,” says Bret Gilroy, liquor manager of a Fareway grocery store in North Liberty, Iowa. “Right now is kind of a down time [for beer sales] but it’s done really well for a new product, for sure.”
Gilroy says that within the last week, his store has seen good momentum for the product after setting up a floor display for the 12-packs.
“I just heard by word of mouth that people are really liking the taste of it. I personally haven’t tried it yet,” he says. “But it’s different and new and that’s what people are looking for.”
Boston Beer and Pepsi promise to launch Hard MTN DEW into more states this year, and Blue Cloud has reportedly secured alcohol wholesaler permits in 17 states. Until then, Hard MTN DEW will use initial scarcity to its marketing advantage.
The brand has launched a contest called “How Far Would You Go?” inviting fans to proclaim their rabid affinity for Hard MTN DEW in the hopes of winning a trip to Nashville, Tennessee for a “one-of-a-kind Hard MTN DEW experience.”
Responses on Twitter thus far include:
To be clear, for every three tweets demanding Hard MTN DEW this very instant, there is an equal and opposite tweet bemoaning the state of a society that allows it to exist. But if the initial popularity in these three markets holds, Boston Beer and Pepsi needn’t give the haters a thought.
At the Kroger in La Verge, Tennessee, reinforcements are already on the way to shore up depleted supplies, Reardon says.
“Oh we’re definitely ordering more.”
Words by Kate Bernot