Artisanal Imports Adds Shmaltz Brewing Company to Brand Management Portfolio

From Artisanal Imports & Shmaltz:

Austin, TX (April 16, 2018) – Artisanal Imports is excited to announce that the acclaimed Shmaltz Brewing Company of Clifton Park, New York has joined Artisanal’s exclusive brand management portfolio.

Founded as “a Jewish celebration craft beer” in 1996 by proprietor Jeremy Cowan, Shmaltz is beloved for its award-winning brews and quality shtick. The brewery currently offers a variety of year-round, seasonal, barrel-aged and specialty beers, including singular brands such as He’brew — The Chosen Beer® and Star Trek commemorative beers exclusively licensed through CBS Studios.

“We are excited to partner up with Shmaltz,” says Artisanal Imports President Sean Knoll. “I have known Jeremy Cowan since the beginning and have always admired his work ethic and his drive to create and maintain He’brew Beer. Nobody does it like Shmaltz! We share a great many distributor and retail customers already, so this partnership will allow both of us to strengthen those relationships.”

Artisanal Imports will enhance nationwide sales support for Shmaltz’s craft beer portfolio by providing a team of 14 highly experienced representatives working in tandem with the brewery’s in-house sales team ‒ more than doubling Shmaltz’s current sales staff.

Additionally, Artisanal’s comprehensive support with distribution, logistics, fulfillment, point of sale, marketing, chain store management, street representation and other services will expand Shmaltz’s distribution footprint beyond its existing 30-state network to bring exceptional seasonal and year-round releases to new markets nationwide. The retail presence and draft availability of Shmaltz’s releases will be elevated through existing and new accounts at select stores, restaurants and bars.

“How exciting to hook up with a world-class organization selling world-class beer” says Jeremy Cowan, founder and owner of Shmaltz Brewing. “Their experienced regional sales force of 14 in addition to our dynamic Shmaltz sales and marketing crew gives us new blood to be able to bring beer to our existing markets as well as new markets across the country in the upcoming months. This partnership allows us to continue my unorthodox business model of wide, wide, wide…and a little deep at home too. We’ll have new staff to hit the streets and the beer will be more available to the tribe nationwide. What more could we want?!"

About Shmaltz Brewing Company: Founder and owner Jeremy Cowan established Shmaltz Brewing in San Francisco in 1996. The first 100 cases of He’brew Beer® were hand-bottled and delivered throughout the Bay Area from the back of his Grandmother’s Volvo. Shmaltz Brewing now sells He’brew Beer across 30 states, through 40 wholesalers and in nearly 5,000 retailers.

After 17 years of being an outspoken cheerleader for contract brewing, Cowan and staff opened their own New York State production brewery in 2013 in Clifton Park, 10 minutes north of Albany. Shmaltz’s home boasts a 50-barrel brewhouse with 30,000 barrels of annual capacity and packages a diverse and tasty variety of core and seasonal favorites in 12 and 22-ounce bottles and kegs. The Shmaltz Tasting Room is open five days a week (Wed-Sun) and offers tours, barrel-aged previews, beer-to-go, and special releases.

RateBeer.com ranked Shmaltz as one of the "Top 100 Brewers in the World" in 2013, and the brewery brought home 1 platinum, 10 gold and 6 silver medals from the World Beer Championships in the past several years. Learn more about the brewery at http://shmaltzbrewing.com/.