The explosion of micro-breweries and craft production facilities across Connecticut in the past few years has been hard to miss. Warehouse and industrial space across Fairfield county have been converted to breweries and taprooms, and a number of brands with national profiles have emerged such as Stratford’s Two Roads Brewing.
However, an upstart just across the county line in Milford was named one of the most influential companies of 2024 by Time Magazine. What sets Athletic Brewing apart is that it only produces non-alcoholic beer, which helped it kick off a nationwide boom of brews without booze.
“We’ve been hearing ‘That will never work’ since before we launched,” founder Bill Shufelt told Time. He explained that to get past that skepticism they not only optimized their products but developed a bulletproof marketing plan “to create a movement rather than simply put a single SKU on the shelf.”
The strategy worked, they’re now one of the top selling beers in the country, outpacing many alcoholic competitors.
