Revolution Brewing founder Josh Deth knows that even as one of the country’s largest independent breweries, the most important thing the Chicago-based business can do today is to lean harder into its local identity, not stretch itself thinner chasing distant markets.
“The theme the last four or five years is becoming even more local,” Deth told Brewer during his cover story interview (read it here). “We can no longer sustain regular distribution in a faraway market if it’s not a neighboring state.”
Roughly 95% of Revolution’s beer stays in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. While the brewery still sells small amounts in places like Iowa, Minnesota, or Michigan, Deth says those are “small amounts of beer in the big scheme of things,” and customer demands there tend to skew toward rarities and specialties, not flagships.
“Our flagship isn’t a flagship out in those areas,” Deth said. “The mix of what we sell changes. Every state is different. You’ve got to learn all the other rules, the tax rules. You’ve got to find a partner, a distributor. You’ve got to keep those people motivated over time, which is hard.”
Instead of spreading the brand too thin, Deth said Revolution is doubling down on saturating Chicagoland and being known as “Chicago’s brewery.” The strategy also means tightening the focus of their distribution portfolio — ensuring that what’s available on shelves complements each other, while still using their taproom and brewpubs as playgrounds for experimentation.
Deth pointed to the brewery’s ability to fine-tune offerings at the production facility taproom and their long-running barrel-aged beer program.
“It’s really important for us. People love it,” Deth said of their barrel-aging releases. “We get a lot of awards for it. It occupies key real estate in the brewery. It gives people that impression when they walk in — ‘Ooh, look at those barrels.’”
While barrel-aged beers represent only about 1% of total volume produced, they generate outsized engagement with the brewery’s most passionate fans, which provides a brand-building cachet.
Balancing the portfolio in-market is a deliberate exercise. Anti-Hero IPA remains the workhorse, but new additions like Cold Time Lager were created to complement it, not cannibalize it.
“A bar can have Cold Time and Anti-Hero on tap, and people are going to have one or the other,” Deth explained. “If you put Hazy Hero next to Anti-Hero, it’s two choices within your IPA drinker.
“You’re kind of cannibalizing yourself.”
That same philosophy guides how Revolution handles limited out-of-state sales. Small-batch releases, often through “pulse distribution” or platforms like Tavour, let Revolution get specialty beers into distant markets without the resource strain of maintaining year-round distribution. “You just send it out and they are happy you have it,” Deth said. “We don’t have to maintain a spot at a grocery store or liquor store, a shelf spot all the time and keep the beer fresh there.”
For Deth, the heart of the business remains in face-to-face, grassroots promotion — the kind of thing that built craft beer long before national distribution dreams took hold.
“The most basic thing in beer sales that you can do is crack beers and ask people if they would like to try it, and tell them about it,” he said. “If your beer is good, you stand up for your beer, you take pride in what you do.”
READ MORE: Why Revolution’s Deth Appreciates the Blend of Strategy & Influence that CSO Veliky Brings
In a crowded landscape where drinker preferences continue to shift — whether from growing legal cannabis availability, hemp-based beverages, or nonalcoholic trends — Deth believes breweries that stay tightly connected to their community will have the best shot at long-term success.
“It’s important for our business to have that flagship beer,” he said. “That good flagship beer allows us to experiment with other things. If we didn’t have the flagship beer, we wouldn’t have the rock of our business.”
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