Creelman: Complex real-ingredient recipes create defensible moats against beverage copycats
Bill Creelman · Advice Line with Bill Creelman of Spindrift · Nov 27, 2025 · at 13:55
Spindrift founder Bill Creelman advises Donna's Pickle Beer founder Josh Jankiewicz on whether to use real brine versus cheaper natural flavor extracts.
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“What is hard right now for you is going to be your point of difference later, you know, so trying to figure out, you know, how to make this brine, you know, using all of the ingredients that are called out on the label will only bear fruit down the road. Someone's going to come out with another Similar product. It's a real copycat category. And you need something that you can defend ultimately when, you know, bars or retailers eventually are making a choice between your brand and something else. In essence, it'll be very easy to add. If you come up with a brine that's uniquely your recipe, it's going to be, you know, make it much, much harder for someone to repeat it down the road.”
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