08/20/2026
A few years ago, Diablo was almost delisted.
It wasn't the beer. The beer was always good.
Our messaging made a refreshing Mexican-style lager sound like a spicy dare. The artwork (designed by the remarkably talented artist Kyle Bridgett) was beautiful. But our messaging direction was all wrong. Big, bold colours. A big sweaty devil. A skull with a blade through it.
This did not scream, "Refreshing."
Plus, it had a name nobody could pronounce (it was originally called, "El Espinazo del Diablo"). One guest called it, "ESPN Beer."
At the bar, it was a top-five seller. In stores, it sank for a full year.
So we did the least glamorous thing in marketing. We listened. We stood in liquor stores and asked people why they walked past it. The answer was almost always the same: "I haven't tried it, I don't like spicy foods."
Meanwhile, every review from people who actually drank it said the opposite. Not spicy. Refreshing. Just a little zippy.
So we changed the things that were scaring people off. We renamed it to what folks were already calling it ("Diablo"). We softened the look. We changed the message from "intense" to "zippy, not spicy."
It worked, but not on messaging alone. Getting Diablo from almost delisted to our best-selling beer of all time took a company wide effort. A relentless sales team, better pricing, smarter promotions, wider distribution, new taprooms to pour it in, and a lot of people who refused to give up on it.
To everyone who was curious enough to try the weird spicy beer: thank you. Turns out it isn't that spicy. Just zippy.
Available at your local NSLC. No waiver required. 🤖 🍻
