Why TailGate Roped All its Lagers Into a Collective Brand

Nashville’s TailGate Brewery has been making a variety of Lagers for years and making them to the best possible quality it can. Looking to further that quality, the brewery took a step in early 2020 by plunking down the money to invest in horizontal tanks for a better lagering experience along with a more nimble canning line to get smaller runs created.

Due to the pandemic and a longer wait time on getting those tanks, the brewery has recently announced its grouping all its Lagers under one brand name, the Lager Projekt.

“I think you know exactly what you’re getting. You kind of trust that name. It’s not something completely new,” said Marketing Manager Liz Tarry of the reasoning for the one-brand name/many types of beer in the brand strategy. “They will like the last Lager Projekt and they’re gonna like this next Lager Projekt.

“We did a Czech Pilsner, a German Pilsner, and we have a Helles on the way along with a Black Lager. They are all very different beers, but I really think there’s some element of beer culture where there is collectability to these sorts of releases. All the can designs are different. So it kind of inspires people to want to have them all collect them all.

“I think it’s about recognizing the name, making it fun, making it something that someone can expect, but still have it be out of the norm. They don’t know what’s coming next while we still like keeping it all within like a recognizable family.”

It runs in line with a few other branding projects the brewery has, like its Trees line for IPA and Shnack line for heavily fruited beers like kettle sours and pastry stouts. Now Lager Projekt will house new Lagers in each release. Being a small-batch release, the brewery puts the beers on draft and sells cans from the taproom which helps speed up the process of sales from canning day to release day. Also having an in-house artist gives each can a specific look while still having its own style within the brand.

Tarry believes Lager Projekt is probably one of the most exciting brand lines for the seven-year-old company because it comes with a lot of additional infrastructure and investment.

Along with horizontal lagering tanks, they are putting their centrifuge to good use as well as the canning line.

“On the serving side, we bought LUKR side-pull faucets in an effort to get back to a more clean, crisp, pure old-world Lager that we’re able to pump out and put under that Lager Projekt,” Tarry said. “It’s something we’ve been doing forever, but we’ve got new toys that are going to allow us to level it out even further and kind of put it all under that brand.”

It’s also given TailGate another touchpoint for educating consumers and creating unique marketing content. The brewery recently started a video series on YouTube to help people learn more about how the brewery functions along with insights into the new Lager Projekt ideas. Tarry said even sharing how the new side-pour serving faucet will enhance the lineup.

“For serving, it’s a different experience for the guest, it’s kind of introducing them to something new,” She said. “We’re one of only a couple people with these handles in Nashville, so we really are kind of educating our guests on you’re going to get a different mouthfeel, the foam is going to be completely different, the pour is going to be different. And kind of that’s been fun communicating that to people and being able to push out more content about that.

“It’s more educational and it’s just a little different experience and people who’ve gotten from us who’ve been coming for the past seven years.”

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