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A Utah brewery is doing some creative marketing to survive the coronavirus outbreak.
Salt Lake City’s Shades Brewing has created a 24-pack “quarantine kit” with a mix of limited brews and beer styles. The kit give people a taste of everything the brewery has to offer for about $2 a can.
The kit is a way to keep revenue flowing so that the company can continue to pay its employees and keep its brand active during the pandemic, said brewery founder Trent Fargher.
The food and beverage industry is taking a hit after the announcement that dine-in options statewide are suspended.
“When the announcement came out that the county was shutting down the bars and restaurants in Salt Lake, it really impacted our revenue,” Fargher said. “As we sat down and tried to figure out creative ways to replace those funds, one thing that was suggested was these quarantine kits.”
According to Fargher, these kits are part of a larger effort to get their products to people while social distancing is in place. Shades Brewing is currently selling to Utahns directly from its warehouse, which is allowed under state law.
It has set up tents outside the loading dock. Patrons drive up, select what they want and the brewery staff gets it.
State alcohol officials have set up guidelines for bars and restaurants to operate under the new limited conditions. The big rule is no curbside selling of alcohol or alcoholic beverages and no booze delivery by a third party service like Uber Eats.
Other restrictions include:
Restaurants:
• May only sell food that is packaged to go. Depending on your county, some may only sell curbside.
• Since only those who are eating on the restaurant premises may order alcohol, there are no alcohol sales allowed. No alcohol may be sold to go.
Bars and taverns:
• May only sell food that is packaged to go, depending on their county’s health order.
• If allowed to offer food sales to go, they may also sell sealed containers of regular beer (5% or less alcohol by volume).
• No liquor, wine, heavy beer, or flavored malt beverages may be sold to go.
• All beer must be purchased at the regular listed menu price and not discounted in any way.