Food & Drinks
How Puerto Rico’s Biggest Brewery Adapted After Hurricane Maria
- Island products get a beachhead in Florida as markets move
- ‘Hurricane Maria was a catalyst that opened doors for us’
Medalla Light beer on sale at Sedano's supermarket in Orlando.
Photographer: Zack Wittman/Bloomberg
Puerto Rico’s biggest brewery had a problem: Beer demand was plummeting, the population was shrinking and Hurricane Maria had shut at least 1,000 retailers and bars that poured its product.
So in March, the maker of Medalla hired a distributor and started selling its cheap and ubiquitous lager on the mainland. Now, the family-owned company says the experiment is going so well that it can’t keep up with demand. It’s upgrading its plant.