Stoneyard’s new hard seltzer dares you to be naughty

Beelzebubbles, which features five cheeky flavors, is available at bars and restaurants around Rochester.

If you’ve ever crossed paths with Jeff “Oz” Osborne, you know how much he likes to have fun. During his time as tenure as owner/brewer at Brockport’s Stoneyard Brewing, he has released a steady stream of weird and outlandish beers.

There’s the sour German wheat beer (a gose) made with corned beef brine. And who can forget the imperial red ale featuring gallons of maple syrup, pounds of smoked ham, and some ham stock just to round it out? For the most recent Rochester Real Beer Expo, Oz crafted a coconut shrimp cream ale. (And honestly, once you got past the fishy smell, it was pretty good).

His latest idea was conceived in an unexpected spot – a sweaty punk rock show at the Bug Jar. Or as he put it, “I think everybody has heard this story at this point. But people were screaming these anti-establishment lyrics in one room and sipping High Noons in the other room. I am not hating on any of that. It was a decision, if I was going to see these products succeeding and taking part of the market share of craft beer, why can’t I play this game?” It was an equation that didn’t quite add up, he thought.

That spark became Beelzebubbles, a nightlife-inspired hard seltzer brand with a creepy fallen angel on the can and the slogan, “It’s fun to do bad things.” Osborne didn’t want to market his latest creation to boaters and other sunshine-obsessed folks. Instead, he thought his lineup would pair nicely with nights out at local bars.

“I wanted to market seltzer to people who don’t normally drink seltzer,” Osborne said. “I am aiming at a different market segment. The rest of the seltzers are about boat life, etc., etc. Personally, I thought there was a hole in the market for nightlife. Why not enjoy alcoholic beverages where they’re meant to be enjoyed, at bars and at night?”

Beelzebubbles launched in June with four flavors – Strawberry Peach, Lemon Moscado, Limeade, and Blood Orange Punch – and has expanded recently months to include Unbillievable Blue, a bomb pop-flavored bright blue seltzer that should go well with the Bills stomping out Daboll and the Giants Sunday night. Each one features an incredibly vibrant taste that never crosses over that overbearingly sweet threshold.

“It allowed me to do something different that isn’t being done in Rochester. My initial thought was to do a straight up copy of High Noon or White Claw, just flavored, fizzy, alcoholic water,” Osborne said. “But the more I got into it, the more I realized that market is fully saturated and declining as we speak. I want this to be an on-premise product. I want this to be at bars. If I’m aiming it like that, who is spending time and money at bars?”

(Aside: I immediately giggled like a giddy little kid as Oz popped open a can of Unbillievable Blue and poured the liquid that kinda resembles windshield wiper fluid into a glass earlier this week. It should be illegal to have this much fun with a hard seltzer.)

For now, Beelzebubbles is available at Rochester bars like Joey’s, the first spot to feature the drink, The Playhouse/Swillburger, Owl House, L&M Lanes, and Ziggy’s. Four packs are only available at the Sager-Stoneyard Pub, 46 Sager Dr. Suite E, however.

What’s in a name?

Osborne found himself sitting around a campfire earlier this spring and “was just shooting the shit about other random beer names and Beelzebub came up. I was looking for beer names that leaned a little darker. Beelzebub, the word, came up. And I was like, ‘Wait, Beelzebubbles?!’ It’s a terrible name for a beer or a brewery or whatever. But I mentioned it to a buddy as a seltzer name and he loved it.”

Osborne needed to figure out a larger brand identity. He surmised that younger consumers were moving away from beer, embracing cocktails, and looking for something with a lot of flavor (probably with a little bit of sweetness and in fun colors) at a potentially lower alcohol content.

Insert the now iconic Steve Buscemi meme (“How do you do, fellow kids?”).

Give yourself a good little bit of time to digest this quote and tell me that Osborne isn’t spot on.

“Being innovative in a market that’s full of innovation at all times to a point where nobody is being innovative, because everyone is being innovative all time, it’s weird,” Osborne said. “Being innovative isn’t being innovative. Doing something new every week is what most breweries do all the time now. So making a new beer every week is not exciting. Making something that is getting to a different market segment is exciting to me.”

Translation: It’s really hard to be innovative in beer right now and it’s even harder to get someone’s attention. That’s why Osborne is fully embracing playing in a new space. He’s pretty jazzed up.

Hail seltzer!

An event for SLOBs? Yes!

The Seneca Lake beer trail is booming. And those breweries, more than 20 of them, will come together for the Fall Beer Fest from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Grist Iron Brewing, Burdett, Schuyler County.

They’ve branded themselves as the Seneca Lake Order of Brewers. (That’s right, they’re known as SLOBs.) According to Derek Edinger, co-founder and head brewer at Brewery Ardenne in Geneva, Ontario County, all of the Seneca Lake breweries are participating.

The event will feature a ton of beers made just for the festival. More information can be found on the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1371983097010297.