Bella Snow co-founder Sean Boisson, who grew up in Sonoma and is the JV baseball coach at Sonoma Valley High School, came up with the idea for his new business after helping his younger sister wash her car one afternoon. A good 80 pounds lighter than Sean, his sister declined a second beer that day because she knew she had to drive home. “It got me thinking about leveling the playing field of people’s tolerances and coming up with a beer that was fully beer but had less alcohol,” says Boisson.
Boisson and co-founder Mathew Rohrs, college friends from Sonoma State University, worked with consulting brewmaster Peter Stearns to develop the recipe for Bella Snow, which comes in at 2.4% ABV (alcohol by volume). The low-calorie Scottish-style “soft ale” — made with Cascade hops and infused with grapefruit flavors — is also unique in that all the gluten is removed from the beer and it contains no sugar.
Boisson and Rohrs realize that competition is fierce in the beer arena. They plan to self-distribute for as long as possible to keep the per-can price low. Their goal is for Bella Snow to be available
coast to coast within the next two years. “We want women and smaller people – people of all tolerance levels – to be able to keep drinking with their friends if they want to,” says Boisson.