Six years ago, Matt Cutter wrote the words “hop widget” on his office whiteboard. Last week, he made good on his vision when his startup BevBoost launched at Upslope Brewing in Boulder.
Cutter doled out a new type of beer to a crowded room, filling hands with a yellow can called Hop-Boosted IPA. They contained BevBoost’s widget, a multichamber plastic contraption that sits inside a canned beverage and delivers a shot of flavor when it’s opened.
“It’s like third-grade science,” said Cutter, who co-founded Upslope in 2008. “In the center chamber you’ll put your flavoring, and we’re just borrowing that (carbon dioxide) from the beverage to activate that widget when the can is cracked open.”
Cutter said the patent-pending device works like a widget Guinness uses to re-nitrogenize its stouts upon opening. But instead of adding nitrogen, beverage makers can add a concentrate — in Upslope’s case, it’s hops — to enhance the flavor of a drink.
BevBoost adds 60 days to the upslopbeer’s 120-day shelf life, according to Cutter. It’s the only “boosted” beverage on the market at this point, and can be found in liquor stores around the state.
And BevBoost isn’t limited to beer.
A grenadine-filled widget could explode in a fresh ginger ale, creating a makeshift Shirley Temple. Lime juice could burst into a canned margarita that’s been sitting in the back of the fridge for a month. CBD or THC could be added to a drink on demand.
“Maybe even seltzers,” co-founder Steve Savage said of another use. “Instead of making nine batches of 400 cases, now you can make one base, put (the widget) in the can and introduce the different flavors.”
BevBoost’s widgets can only be put in cans using the company’s proprietary canning system, which it intends to sell to other beverage companies. The price varies widely, from $22,000 to $900,000, according to the speed and capabilities of the machine. One version just drops the widget into the drink, while another model also fills and caps.
Founder Matt Cutter says the BevBoost plastic widget extends his IPA’s shelf life by 60 days. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)The plastic popper costs beverage businesses between 6 cents each, Savage said. Though BevBoost hasn’t sold to anybody except Upslope, the founders expect businesses to easily recoup the cost.
For the Hop-Boosted IPA, Savage said Cutter saved around 6 cents per can between extending the shelf life and saving on ingredients. That is the main reason Upslope can charge the same $12 per six-pack it does for its other brews.
“This checks all the boxes a business needs to be successful,” Savage said. “The customer experience is super positive, it improves taste, improves aroma, it improves shelf life and it’s not more expensive.”
Cutter and Savage also said they think the widget can prove valuable in boosting existing drinks. Savage said BevBoost is in various stages of negotiating with 10 beverage companies that each do over $10 billion in sales per year.
“A Cutwater Margarita kind of sucks, but we have boosted each and every one and the flavor’s been way better,” Savage said. “And that’s Inbev. That’s a $40 billion business, and they can’t figure out a way to make it delicious at consumption. There are customer retention savings that I don’t know how we’re going to put a number on.”
Savage, who founded Boulder-based Eco Products, met Cutter 15 years ago at a local entrepreneurs group called the Insomniacs. They became close over the years, and on a 2023 kiteboarding trip in the Florida Keys, Cutter told Savage what he had brewing in BevBoost.
“About a week later, I reached out and asked about getting involved,” Savage said. “And we went to Eldora a week or two later and talked more about it.”
Since then, they’ve raised $700,000 from 20 individual investors to make a projected 8 million multichamber widgets by the end of the year.
The two also are working on a single-chamber design, which is similar to Guinness’ contraption. Since the stout titan doesn’t sell to outside customers, Savage said BevBoost will have a lengthy list of orders.
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The two are also in the early stages of developing BevBoost for a bottle, but that likely will come toward the end of this year.
“It’s fun that people will actually see it working through the glass,” Cutter said. “It feels like we’re taking off.”
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