Only one beer can be a brewery’s bestseller, but others still play key roles in reaching new audiences.
More than a dozen years after its creation, Project Dank remains a cornerstone of La Cumbre Brewing Company’s identity, if not its sales ledger. The West Coast-style IPA isn’t the New Mexico brewery’s top seller, but according to President Jeff Erway, that was never the point.
Project Dank is described as an ever-changing project and La Cumbre’s hoppiest, most experimental IPA.
Born in the heyday of the so-called IBU wars, when hop arms races dominated the craft beer landscape, Project Dank began as a pointed response to the success of La Cumbre’s Elevated IPA. That beer, Erway said, had gained acclaim for being “unusually well-balanced.” His answer: a rotating, aggressively hopped IPA built not for mass-market appeal, but for those who craved intensity.
“I’ll show you ‘well-balanced,’” Erway told Brewer, recalling the tongue-in-cheek attitude behind Project Dank’s origin. It debuted as a draft-only beer brewed with whatever hop varieties excited him most at the time, becoming a perpetual experiment rather than a fixed product.
Despite its longevity, Project Dank never saw the sales surge some might expect of a 12-year-old IPA with critical and cult appeal. From the start, its high hop content made it costly to produce. Erway estimates the beer uses over eight pounds of hops per barrel, which kept its price point high long before the modern era of $25 four-packs of hazy DIPAs.
“There is a niche clientele that loves this beer,” Erway said. “But those that love it are pretty fanatical.”
Over time, Project Dank has matured from a rotating, draft-only offering into a quarterly canned release, now packaged in 16-ounce four-packs. Each release features its own unique branding and artwork, a shift from its origins in 22-ounce bottles. Visual intrigue has been part of its appeal, Erway said, especially through collaborations with artist Chris McAfee, whose evolving graphics reflect the beer’s experimental nature.
While Project Dank’s marijuana-friendly name and aesthetic were ahead of their time, Erway questions how much that element has driven commercial traction. Still, it likely helped position the brand as adventurous and countercultural, which are traits that resonate with a certain kind of IPA drinker.
Internally, the brewery measures Project Dank’s success not in volume but in passion.
“That is pretty strictly hedonistic for us,” Erway said about the brand and others like it that have a certain following if not mass commercial sales. “If we love it, we’re happy.”
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For La Cumbre, the beer plays a strategic role as a high-end offering for IPA purists. Its continued release allows the team to explore aggressive hopping techniques and showcase their brewing prowess, even if it doesn’t drive the bottom line.
“Commercial success pays the bills,” Erway admits. “While we love brewing and promoting this beer, there is nothing we can do to make such a beer economical to produce.”
As a result, Project Dank remains in the shadow of flagship Elevated IPA, which has a broader appeal and stronger financial contribution to the brewery’s operations. But Project Dank’s niche popularity and consistent quality have helped build La Cumbre’s reputation among hop lovers across the Southwest.
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