Birds Fly South celebrated its fifth anniversary this summer, which—according to cofounder Shawn Johnson—makes it “35 in beer years.” An avian analogy might be more apt than a canine one: After half a decade, Birds Fly South appears ready to spread its wings and take flight.
Shawn and the brewery’s other cofounder—his wife, Lindsay—have built a reputation for exquisite wood-aged farmhouse and mixed-fermentation beers. (Part of the brewery’s origin story is that Jolly Pumpkin’s Ron Jeffries appeared to Shawn in a dream.) However, over the past year, Birds Fly South started brewing IPAs and lagers, canning most of its beers instead of packaging them in its previously favored 750 ml green bottles.
Identity crisis? Not at all. The Johnsons think of their expanded focus as an evolution—a way to further the brewery’s mission of building community and drawing in new drinkers. This summer, the brewery’s two best sellers were an IPA and a Kölsch, and they were selling twice as much beer in cans out of their taproom as they had been in bottles.