Pabst Blue Ribbon was once so popular with in the in-crowd that it was called “the nectar of the hipster gods.”
But hipsters’ tastes are legendarily capricious, and Pabst’s price increases a few years ago left an opening for another brand to swoop in and gain a larger share of this very price-conscious crowd.
Rhode Island-based Narragansett has seized the opportunity, according to a report in Bloomberg News. Bloomberg cites data from GuestMetrics, which showed that Narragansett — “gansets” for short — was the cheapest of the top four fastest-growing beers in Brooklyn in the past year.
Brooklynites, and price-conscious consumers across the country, are taking notice.
According to Bloomberg:
Narragansett produced 78,034 barrels in 2014, according to the company, and pulled in $12 million in revenue, up from just $100,000 in 2005. In 2013, it cracked the Brewers Association’s top 50 breweries in the U.S., based on beer sales by volume, for the first time ever. It jumped another 12 spots last year, to No. 37.
