Craft breweries have exciting opportunities to create new hybrid categories that combine wine and beer. This is especially good news for New York farm breweries and wineries, a unique category that allows these farm producers to sell both farm beers and farm wines. A strategic alliance can reach the market of both the winery and the brewery’s customer case, increases sales opportunities for these micro businesses that traditionally operate on a shoe-string budget. Dogfish Head brewery introduced a beer-wine hybrid Sixty-One, which adds Syrah grape must from California to Dogfish’s 60 Minute IPA. The 6.5%-abv brew, which launched in January 2013, has steadily increasing sales and the brewery reports is “bringing a whole new consumer to craft beer.”

Another benefit is to satisfy that creative urge for microbrewers. Most enter this business for the pure love of the art – experimentation is what it is all about. With hybrids taking on market strength, this opens a new category for craft brewers to create unique, one of a kind products.