A taste of California is popping up in airports across the country this month thanks to Golden Road Brewing.
The company partnered with travel dining operator HMSHost of Bethesda, Md., which first brought the company’s drinks into its Los Angeles International Airport locations, to create an exclusive canned craft beer called Carry on Citrus Ale. The specialty brew will be sold at more than 30 airports across the country by the end of this year.
The rollout at airports in cities such as Chicago and Salt Lake City also marks the first time a Golden Road brand will be available outside of California.
Meg Gill, co-founder of the brewery on L.A.’s eastern edge, said she didn’t have the capacity to handle a national expansion and so the opportunity to distribute through airports was an easier way to increase brand awareness.
“This will dip our toes into markets that we would not otherwise be entering,” she said. “Like we experiment with our beers, I would say these airports are like our experimenting ground with different territories.”
It took a year of development before the team settled on the citrus ale – a beer brewed with organic oranges with a hint of lemon.
Carry on Citrus Ale will be sold in a 16-ounce can for about $8 at restaurants, including select Starbucks and Border Grill, operated by HMSHost. Gill added that it will take two years for the brand to be carried at every airport in the United States.
Golden Road was co-founded in 2011 by Gill, a former national sales manager for a San Francisco craft brewery, and Tony Yanow, owner of Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank and Mohawk Bend in Echo Park. It has been selling three of its six canned beers inside LAX for the last two years.
The company, already producing at capacity, doesn’t have plans to expand further at the moment. Gill said for this deal it had to install a new canning line to be able to make enough beers.
“For now, Golden Road is pretty much at capacity,” she said. “To be able to produce this beer was a pretty tall task. … We’re getting to our maximum of what we can do at this building so we know in this facility we won’t be expanding the brand outside the airports.”
– Subrina Hudson
