Cedar Ridge Distillery’s bourbon has gone pro. Pro football, that is. For the second consecutive year, the Swisher distillery and winery has worked with co-packers to provide the bourbon used in team-branded spirits for NFL teams. Last year, Cedar Ridge’s bourbon was bottled as “Bird Gang,” a limited-edition release for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. And […]
Want to Read More?
Get immediate, unlimited access to all subscriber content and much more.
Learn more in our subscriber FAQ.
- Unparalleled business coverage of the Iowa City / Cedar Rapids corridor.
- Immediate access to subscriber-only content on our website.
- 26 issues per year delivered digitally, in print or both.
- Support locally owned and operated journalism.
Do you want to read and share this article without a paywall?
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass linkCedar Ridge Distillery’s bourbon has gone pro.
Pro football, that is.
For the second consecutive year, the Swisher distillery and winery has worked with co-packers to provide the bourbon used in team-branded spirits for NFL teams.
Last year, Cedar Ridge’s bourbon was bottled as “Bird Gang,” a limited-edition release for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. And this year, Cedar Ridge bourbon was bottled as “Grit City”-branded bourbon for the Detroit Lions.
Cedar Ridge president and general manager Jamie Siefken said the new ventures present an exciting new opportunity for the Corridor-based company.
“We're obviously sports fans around here, but at the end of the day, it allows us to add some credibility to our brand. Hopefully Detroit Lions fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans see this and learn about it, enjoy the whiskey and learn about Cedar Ridge that way," Mr. Siefken said.
Latest phase of ongoing relationship with distributor
Mr. Siefken said Cedar Ridge, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025, has developed a relationship in recent years with a Pennsylvania company called Tier One and its retail division, BOTLD.
The relationship began with a visit by Tier One representatives to Cedar Ridge’s facility in Swisher, Mr. Siefken said, and has allowed Cedar Ridge products to be sold in Pennsylvania, which has some of the nation’s strictest licensing regulations regarding in-state bottled liquor sales from smaller, out-of-state distillers. Since Prohibition, the system has been controlled by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and its network of 600 state-owned liquor stores.
Mr. Siefken said BOTLD has found a way around the Pennsylvania regulations by partnering with craft distilleries like Cedar Ridge, under a co-packing agreement, to source, blend, and bottle their products at a former post office distribution and production facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. BOTLD buys liquid spirits in bulk directly from the distilleries, then re-bottles and labels them with the distilleries’ branding before selling them directly to Pennsylvania consumers at Philadelphia-area retail stores.
“If you go to one of their shops in Philadelphia, you're going to see a bottle of Cedar Ridge bourbon on their shelf,” Mr. Siefken said. “They didn't make it, but they bottled our liquid in our bottles. So that’s a stipulation around the Pennsylvania liquor laws.”
BOTLD developed a collaboration with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles last year to bottle Cedar Ridge bourbon as the “Kelly Green Limited Edition Bird Gang American Straight Bourbon Whiskey – an easy drinking, no B.S. tribute to a gritty, hard-nosed era of Philadelphia Eagles football that authentically embodies the city’s blue-collar attitude.”
“When (BOTLD) had this opportunity, they checked with us to see if we had inventory and if we wanted to do it,” Mr. Siefken said. “We said yes, absolutely.”
And this September, under a separate collaboration with Imperial Beverage of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cedar Ridge bourbon was used in “Grit City Straight Bourbon Whiskey,” “paying tribute to the grit, loyalty, and camaraderie that come with being a Detroit Lions football fan.”
“Bird Gang” has sold well, especially in its first year of distribution, and “Grit City” has proven successful in its first few weeks. Both are billed as “limited edition” releases.
Distribution methods vary by state
Both bourbons are sold primarily at liquor stores in their home states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, respectively, and are also offered in single servings at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles, and at Ford Field, where the Lions play.
The distribution methods for the bottled spirits themselves, however, vary widely by state.
“It's an ongoing learning process,” Mr. Siefken said. “We always joke that there’s one federal law on alcohol but 50 different real laws, because every state is different. But thankfully, when it comes to these two products, our part of the relationship is simply making great quality whiskey.”
The source of the bourbon is identified differently on each product – the “Bird Gang” bottle only indicates that its contents are “distilled in Iowa, blended in PA,” while the “Grit City” bottle specifically identifies “Cedar Ridge, Swisher, Iowa” as the distilling source.
Either way, Cedar Ridge is gaining visibility far outside its standard Upper Midwest distribution network, Mr. Siefken said.
“At the end of the day, our vision is to make Iowa known for exceptional whiskey, so we're going to focus on that, mainly through our brand, but also with fun projects like this,” he said. “Being the number one bourbon in Iowa has really given us a lot of local, national and regional PR that I think has really helped with our brand recognition across the country.”
Is the bourbon specially formulated?
There are slightly different blends for the “Bird Gang” and “Grit City” bourbons, Mr. Siefken said, but in essence, Cedar Ridge bourbon is a singularly iconic product.
“We have one mash bill when it comes to our bourbons – 74% corn, 14% rye and 12% malted barley,” he said. “That’s how we make all of our bourbon. 100% of that corn is grown here in Iowa, and 100% of that product is milled, mashed, distilled and aged on site. We’re not outsourcing anything.
“So it wasn't really about a unique and special product for them,” he added. “It was more that our quality speaks for itself. They wanted to use Cedar Ridge bourbon to work with these organizations to find a product they could sell to their fan bases. It’s something that I hope lasts for a long time, but it's also one of those unique products that are kind of a novelty. And I think if you're a whiskey fan and a Lions fan, or an Eagles fan, you’re probably going to buy a few bottles, because it’s different from a traditionally branded product.”
Expanding the Cedar Ridge brand
The partnership with BOTLD is a way for Cedar Ridge to introduce their flavor profiles to a larger audience, Mr. Siefken said, but they will serve primarily to complement the distillery’s core products.
“In the distilling industry, our house brand is what is most valuable to us,” he said. “That's what we have our heads down for. And we have a great marketing team and a master distiller that works hard making the best high-quality whiskey and telling the world about it. But obviously, as you get outside of Iowa, you know, we're not a local whiskey, so the competition and the whole game is different.”
Still, the projects have proven valuable, just as Cedar Ridge’s whiskey 2019 partnership with the Des Moines-based band Slipknot was a marketing boon for both parties.
“If we have the inventory and the quality whiskey, and it helps us get our name mentioned in a different way than just us promoting our brand directly, I think that's a benefit for our company and for the brand,” he said. “It’s credibility. Our scale is something that we talk about in production every day around here. What we make today, we’re not going to sell for another four, five, six years down the road, because whiskey has to age. We need space for that. We need barrel sheds for that. We need staff for that. We need capital for that. All those things are a necessity to lay down whiskey barrels. And when you start getting to the point where products are ready to harvest and put in a bottle, sometimes there's more than one way to sell them.”
Future partnerships?
In an era of athletic marketing that’s branched into the college realm with NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) branding and marketing collectives such as the Iowa Swarm, Mr. Siefken said there may be other opportunities for partnerships with other sports organizations in the future, if branding and licensing challenges can be overcome.
“We're always looking for unique ways to grow the brand,” he said. “Mainly what I do is make sure that we are being innovative, following the trends and talking to people that could potentially lead to opportunities. The whiskey market is a unique and interesting new area of opportunity. We’ve definitely talked to local universities before, so you never know. If the deal is right for both sides, it's something that could possibly happen. It just has to make sense for everyone.”
As far as NFL opportunities are concerned, however, Mr. Siefken jokingly admits he’s just a bit conflicted with Cedar Ridge’s first two projects, even though the Eagles and Lions have both seen substantial success in recent years.
“I'm not a Lions fan,” he said. “I'm a Bears fan, so it kind of hurts. But you know, maybe I’ll have to change.”
*Story updated Nov. 25, 2024.
