BuyATribe recently sat down with Shmaltz Brewing Company founder Jeremy Cowan. As local beer lovers know, Shmaltz makes He’Brew kosher craft beer, a refreshment mainstay at Jewish events, and – if you’re lucky – on tap at your local bar. Launched as a Hanukah experiment in 1996, Shmaltz now offers over a dozen distinct brews under two brands, and its beers are available at more than 1,500 retail and specialty shops. All the while Cowan has unwittingly found himself on the forefront of a craft beer revolution: “No one is even close to making the diverse number of excellent craft beers that the US is making right now,” says Cowan. And Shmaltz is very much a part of that movement – to the tune of about $2 million in annual sales. Cowan talked to us about the challenges – and opportunities – involved in making a Jewish-themed gourmet brew. BuyATribe: Tell us a bit about your educational and/or business background, and how you came to be head of Shmaltz.
Jeremy Cowan: Prior to founding Shmaltz, I worked at a bunch of arts organizations, all unrelated to the beer buisness. As a beer lover and a Jew, I started He’Brew as a fun project – and it grew. [More on the history of the company, including an archive of their press releases, can be found here]
How did you raise the money to launch the venture?
Well I was an English major; I had no business background to speak of. Basically, I took two grand out of my savings, which was enough for the labels and the first hundred cases of beer. I then set about raising cash from friends, family and angel-ish investors. I lost all of it – the money I raised, plus my own. So I ended up going out of business for a year and half, during which time I set about reinvigorating the company: I introduced six packs, moved production to a more cost-effective facility on the East coast. I also wrote a credit card check for 50 grand, took out several more personal loans from friends, and a co-worker at one point even took out a home equity line of credit. Since then we’ve been able to run the company entirely on profits.
What do you view as your target market? How do you go about building a viable business based on a brand that is so specifically Jewish-oriented?
Shmaltz has two brands: He’Brew and Coney Island Craft Lagers. Coney Island is focused more in NYC, and has predictably developed a New York following. As for He’Brew, I think we offer something to self-identified Jews who aren’t affiliated. Ours is a fun, high-quality product, but with references to Jewish holidays and the Torah. It’s basically a tiny little nugget of something Jewish in the lives of people who may not otherwise have that.
And while He’Brew may originally have had a Jewish target market, the consumer base is certainly growing. Sure there is a focus on marketing toward the Jewish community, but given the recipes and complexity of the beer, it’s actually been most successful with the beer connoisseurs. Our original business “model” – to the extent that we had one – was to sell a little bit of beer in each of the big US Jewish communities. So we focused on the 25 cities with the biggest Jewish communities. But as the craft beer thing has exploded, a funny thing happened: the markets have completely overlapped; the top markets for beer connoisseurs and the top Jewish markets in the US are actually the same.
Are you competing head-to-head with the big beers? What goes on in a consumer’s head when they reach for a He’Brew instead of Coors at Safeway?
I have no idea what’s going on in the consumers head because we have never done any market research. We almost never ask why someone buys He’Brew; we just push and push and put our thoughts and passion and creativity into the beer and hope that people like it.
I’m not naïve; I know a lot of people think a Jewish beer is a gimmick. And many view craft beer generally as a gimmick. But people are starting to realize that it’s actually not a gimmick, that it’s actually a positive thing to have good beer in your life – and to support small businesses like ours who make good beer. Buying from a company like ours or engaging in the small business community generally is so much more meaningful, so much better for your soul. And it’s better for our country to have 1,500 small businesses rather than 2-3 giant companies making mediocre, totally interchangeable examples of each others’ products. Its fun to be small.Is a shrinking American Jewish population a concern?
Personally we don’t worry about that. The institutionalized Jewish community is having trouble “managing” the interfaith marriages in this country; they don’t know what to do with them. For instance, so many of my Jewish friends are involved with non-Jews. And yet they all want to be Jewish! They aren’t celebrating Christmas or getting enthused about Easter. But they’d love to come to a seder or a Jewish event. So there’s a huge number of interfaith couples and families out there who are worth addressing.
Look, if you take the 2% of the population that is Jewish, and then the miniscule number of people who are into craft beer, our market doesn’t even exist on paper! And yet we will do $1M in He’Brew and $1M in Coney Island Lager this year. So there you go.
Do you find any fans in other religious groups, like Christians who like religious beer?
[Laughs.] There’s lots of Judeophiles out there that get a kick out of it. I’m amazed at how often I hear “the Jewish neighbor/college roommate/girlfriend story” from a non-Jew. Basically that there was at some point in their life a Jewish friend that made a huge impact on them and created a lifelong Jewish connection or interest for them.
How do retailers usually respond to your sales people? Any surprises on the retail front?
Everything’s a surprise because we’ve never done it before! We saw a polarizing effect at first. People who were into the Jewish angle were really into it. But people who didn’t understand it stayed away; they really didn’t want to have an opinion on the product because they didn’t want to offend anyone. Nevermind that I created the concept product so it’s “OK” to buy this product from me – you’re not going to offend anyone! I’m telling these people, “look I know it's a little weird…but it tastes great… and you should try it!”What’s the future for He’Brew?
I’d like to see even the smallest neighborhood bars have a selection of fine craft beers on offer. There is simply no need to have a crummy, mediocre beer on your menu. Why? If you opened up a neighborhood café, would you bring in McDonald’s burgers and put them on the menu? You wouldn’t. So there’s no need to do it with beers.
Who’s your dream spokesperson?
Moses. A little stuttering beer lover; that would be great.
