Harpoon Brewery is taking its partnership with JetBlue to new heights, with plans to create a signature beer to serve to customers in-flight.
The partnership between the Boston-based craft brewery and the New York-based airline (Nasdaq: JBLU) has been ongoing for two years, starting two when Harpoon got its UFO White on board in the place of a major brand Belgian beer.
“It was one of the biggest things for us that year,” said Harpoon’s National Accounts Manager, Corey Johnson, who joked that he had 15 cases of beer delivered to JetBlue’s office to make it happen. “It was incredibly exciting for a small brewery in the New England area to get our beer on flights going to the Dominican Republic and West Coast.”
JetBlue has since approached Harpoon about co-brewing a specialty beer to serve on flights, and the groups have been partnering to test different recipes and styles to figure out which style will work well in cans and travel well.
The beer will likely run for two to six months. Beyond being available on flights, Johnson said it is largely up to the airline to determine wher else the beer might be available. Some possibilities include JetBlue Park in Florida for Spring Training or some destination locations such as Austin.
“We want to pair it together so that it’s a travel promotion,” Johnson said.
Harpoon is also discussing a possible partnership with its charitable arm and the JetBlue Foundation, possibly making the beer available in the brewery with part of the proceeds going to a common cause.
So far, the brewery has experimented with a Pina colada Hefeweizen and a huckleberry beer. Experiments are also ongoing with a session IPA and a golden ale. The goal is to make something with a lower alcohol content, which won’t dehydrate travelers as fast as some higher alcohol beers and would mitigate the effects altitude sometimes has on intoxication.
Making craft beer more widely available to other markets and creating drinkable beers lines up with one Harpoon has been promoting for years — that the craft beer market is approachable and looking for new customers.
“This is a partnership that made a lot of sense and is a lot of fun and drives awareness of craft beer,” Johnson said.