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Following the official launch of George Clooney's Crazy Mountain NA beer, the brand is intentionally viewed as a "mainstream, easy-drinking" non-alc beer in that "NA import space" and price point as opposed to a "craft brand" with more styles and higher prices, CEO Steve Fechheimer shared with CBN in chat yesterday afternoon. "We believe there's a lot of category growth left" in non-alc beer and these are "ultimately the price points where consumers are going to be," said Steve. So Crazy Mountain will "meet consumers there," in a position that's "very predominant in NA but below craft." In scans, Athletic top brands and Heineken 0.0 are at similar avg price/case, between $38-39, while Corona NA is slightly above that, nearing $41/case and other top craft NAs higher yet, per Circana MULC. AB's top NAs are lower-priced with Mich Ultra Zero at $32/case, Bud Zero at $28/case, Busch NA at $23.50/case. Superpremium Tequila in 2012-13 was "Pretty Similarly Sized" to NA Beer with "Pretty Similar Growth Rates" This project is "very much their natural evolution&hellip;where they were going and the category they were interested in," Steve said of founders George Clooney, Rande Gerber and Mike Meldmen. If you "go back and look at the data" in 2012-2013, superpremium tequila space was "pretty similarly sized" with "pretty similar growth rates" as non-alc beer now. "As they were developing Crazy Mountain," they "were looking for someone with beer experience to help," and got put in touch with Steve, who was "on the sidelines at the time" after a strong run with New Belgium, he reminded. "I was super intrigued" and "believe in" their vision, workin' together on the project for just over 1 yr now, and happy to officially get out in the open. Editor's note: since leaving New Belgium, Steve also joined boards of upstart cos like Jiant, OPENbrewing, and Spring44 Distilling, and became an advisor to The Wonderful Company and Boston Consulting Group, per LinkedIn. He's now listed as CEO of Crazy Mountain since Mar 2025.In 25 States "Pretty Quickly"; Natl by 2027 Spring Resets; Ability to Scale Brand will "pretty quickly" get to "about 25 states," including big partners like Reyes, KEG1, Southern Glazer's, Andrews, Columbia and Crescent Crown, Steve rattled off. While that leans MC network, Steve stressed that the "focus" is to partner with distribs that "really believe in the brand," regardless of network. Co aims to be fully national by Dry Jan/spring resets in 2027. Working with New Belgium and Boulevard for production, "as we scale," Steve and co are confident its partners can "grow with us." And after building out a team full of experienced industry vets, "we'll continue to add people" as biz and territory grows.Building the Brand "Through the Founders" and Their "Ability to Tell the Story" & Traditional Beer Channels Asked about marketing plans for the upstart brand, Steve commented that "if you just jump on to Instagram, you'll see some of the things we're doing." At this very early stage, so far that includes just 12 posts and ~1,300 followers at presstime on the official Crazy Mountain page, but co-founder Rande Gerber has nearly 200K followers and also shared the main page's post and George Clooney's megastardom certainly will factor in. Several posts on Crazy Mountain's page feature the cowboy on horseback logo along with other outdoorsy, mountainous images, road bikes, and cliff jumps hinting at the brand's arrival. And since yesterday's announcement there are posts of the Crazy Mountain beer packaging and the 3 founders playing pool and hangin' at a bar drinkin' the product. Co's gonna "build the brand&hellip;through the founders" and their "ability to tell the story," primarily on social channels and thru "traditional beer building channels," getting "liquid to lips," Steve assured.

Crazy Mountain Aimin' Mainstream; NA Beer a "Natural Evolution" for Clooney & Co, Sez Fech; Similarities to Superpremium Tequila; Natl Next Yr

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