Westbrook Brewing Company Pops the Top on Nonalcoholic Production With Ceebo

This month, the pilsner-style nonalcoholic beer brand Ceebo Brew Co. finds a homecoming of sorts in Charleston through a new partnership with Westbrook Brewing Company. Though no stranger to regional restaurants, bars, and retail shelves, Ceebo’s production and distribution from the Mount Pleasant-based brewery marks a big step for the boutique brand and Charleston’s nonalcoholic drink industry.

“The Southeast doesn’t really have a regional NA beer,” Ceebo founder Kyle Alligood says. “It’s much more saturated to be in the alcoholic space right now, and Ceebo is early to market,” noting the product’s tagline as a nonalcoholic beer is “born and brewed in the Carolinas.”

The tagline is a quippy summation of Ceebo’s backstory: Alligood lives in Charleston, but he’s spent the past couple of years burning up a fearless number of hours along I-95, commuting to his hometown of Tarboro in rural eastern North Carolina to oversee the development, distribution, and marketing of his product out of the local Tarboro Brewing Company.

Personal connections with the partners at Tarboro Brewing Company allowed Alligood to launch production there — Inez Ribustello, the owner of On the Square and Alligood’s first-ever boss, was a partner there when Alligood first approached her with his idea for the brand. [MOU1] However, the challenges of commuting four-and-a-half hours to get to the brewery (on top of his day job in software sales) and the cost of transporting the product to Charleston (where most of Ceebo’s accounts are based) meant finding a home base in the Holy City was imminent.

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“Everyone is fiercely loyal to local breweries in Charleston,” Alligood says, acknowledging that he’s received a lot of feedback that beer is easier to sell when bartenders, waitstaff, and distributors can say “it’s brewed here,” meaning in Charleston. Ceebo also fills a niche within the local drink space: When he was first developing the idea, Alligood says, “nonalcoholic [production] hadn’t shown up [in Charleston],” and he saw a niche to fill within the growing demand for nonalcoholic drinks among sober and sober-curious consumers. “A lot of breweries cater to traditional consumers, and I wanted to make something that people would want to drink, something that would satisfy the craft beer drinkers and the Bud Light drinkers.”

A friend introduced Alligood to Edward Westbrook, who expressed interest in producing Ceebo as a contract brewer, meaning that Alligood rents the space at the brewery and provides his recipe and canning supplies, and the brewery handles the production, bottling, and warehousing of the product. “The partnership with Ceebo offers a unique opportunity for Westbrook to tap into the growing NA category,” Westbrook says. “[Alligood] is very passionate about the NA beer category, and I look forward to helping him execute his vision.”

Beyond interest alone in the product, Westbrook’s brewery is uniquely equipped to produce it. Ceebo beers are made using a specialized strain of yeast and brewing method that mimics the fermentation process while ensuring that the ABV content never exceeds 0.5% alcohol. Westbrook’s brewery has a pasteurization chamber, which enables it to make the beer without starting the actual fermentation process. This sets Ceebo apart from other nonalcoholic beers (and wines, for that matter), which traditionally involve a dealcoholizing process that “removes alcohol from water and gives them that weird plastic taste,” Alligood explains. “That’s why you find so many nonalcoholic beers that taste out of balance.”

Ceebo’s Classic drinks like a pilsner with a crisp mouthfeel and refreshingly bitter flavor by brewing the product like a beer. “I wanted to make a pilsner because it’s harder to make than other beers,” Alligood says, explaining that the style’s clean profile means brewers can’t mask poor-quality beer with flavors and other distracting elements. However, now that production will happen closer to home, Alligood plans to introduce more recipes into Ceebo’s portfolio, such as a hoppy fall-inspired beer coming in late 2024.

In addition to expanding Ceebo’s offerings, Alligood hopes the new partnership and home at Westbrook will let him dive deeper into the sales and marketing side of the brand. Alligood currently serves more than 190 accounts in South and North Carolina, everywhere from Hilton Head to Asheville. Alligood hopes to soon expand into other states’ markets as he works to transition the “Beer of the Carolinas” tagline into “the South’s Favorite NA.”