The beer category may be collectively going through it right now, but several top vendors and brands saw positive momentum in Q3, according to the latest monthly report from market research firm Circana. 

In today’s Brewbound Insider Newsletter and on Brewbound.com, Insiders are diving into who is seeing brighter days – including Constellation and its 3rd largest brand family, Pacifico – and who is battling a rockier road.

Insiders are also reading about:

• Surfside parent company Stateside’s lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch InBev and its Skimmers RTDs;
• Rhinegeist’s entry into THC beverages with Fuzzy Bones;
• Ohza founder Ryan Ayotte’s latest bev-alc venture, featuring rapper Future;
• Heineken’s Q3 performance, with accelerated U.S. declines;
• And why we may have changed our minds about Spiked Ade.

Insiders also have access to the Brewbound Newsletter Archive, including previous newsletter-exclusive Insider content.

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Constellation Brands’ uncharacteristically slow year may be impacting its full-year projections, but the company continues to find growth in the off-premise where the overall beer industry has not, according to the latest monthly report from market research firm Circana (data ending October 6). 

In the L12W – roughly encapsulating the entirety of Q3 – Constellation’s portfolio of Mexican beer brands (Modelo, Corona, Pacifico and Victoria) recorded dollar sales (+4.1%) and volume (+2.7%) growth in off-premise channels compared to the same period in 2024. 

The company remains the 2nd-largest beer vendor, with 20.56% share of total beer dollar sales in the L12W, marking a 1.09 share point increase compared to the same period in 2024.

Insiders can dive deeper, including where Constellation took share from, other top vendor and beer brand family performances and pricing trends.

One thing Josh Penney noticed after moving to Brooklyn from Los Angeles late last fall – aside from markedly less sunny weather – was a broader diversity in beer styles across brewery taprooms.

Penney said: “It seemed to be a wider range of things that were really appealing to everybody. Because out on the West Coast, you might have a robust porter, but then you have, like, six different IPAs.”

Penney is the head brewer at Brooklyn-based Threes Brewing, a role he took on last year after leaving LA’s Highland Park Brewing. 

He joins this week’s Brewbound Podcast to share insights gleaned from his bicoastal brewing career. Before the interview, the Brewbound team breaks down Molson Coors’ latest corporate restructuring and dives into the scuttlebutt surrounding that ornery New York Times op-ed about one writer’s personal issues with craft beer.

Listen here or on your preferred podcasting platform.

If you thought Skimmers, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) entrant into the vodka-based tea segment, looked a bit too similar to the space’s lead brand Surfside, you’re not alone.

Philadelphia-based Stateside Brands LLC, the parent company of Surfside hard tea and lemonade, filed a complaint against A-B in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. In the lawsuit, Stateside alleges A-B violated the Lanham Act by committing trade dress infringement and using unfair competition.

Insiders can read more about the lawsuit, including Stateside’s request for relief and hard tea segment data. 

Step away from the day-to-day and reconnect with the craft beer community at Brewbound Live 2025. Join two days of industry insight, honest discussion, and opportunities to build real relationships that move your brand forward. Register by October 24 to save. Learn more

Global rap star Future and Ohza founder Ryan Ayotte want consumers to drink in style with Roué, a new brand of fine wines and RTDs launching this month.

Future co-founded Roué with Ayotte, who is serving as CEO, after noticing a “gap in the market” for quality wines without “the intimidating jargon of traditional wine culture.”

Insiders can read more here.

Amid murky times for THC beverages in its home state of OH, the state’s largest craft brewery, Rhinegeist, is wading into the intoxicating hemp beverage category with Fuzzy Bones.

Fuzzy Bones is a line of NA sparkling beverages made with real juice and infused with hemp-derived delta-9 THC. 

The line will begin with 3 flavors – Blood Orange + Tangerine; Lemon Blueberry; and Blackberry Hibiscus – each 5 mg of THC and sold in 12 oz. slim can 4-packs. Each offering also contains 10 mg of either CBG or CBN, depending on the flavor. 

Insiders can read more about Ohio’s moves to build a regulatory framework for hemp beverages, what it means for Rhinegeist’s business and where to get Fuzzy Bones.

At its simplest translation, the Hawaiian word aloha means both hello and goodbye – opposites in English. 

In a similar vein, the idea of market retrenchment in craft beer can sometimes indicate a brewery in decline. But for Maui Brewing (Kihei, HI), it’s the opposite. The brewery is preparing to slice its mainland footprint in half because the growth in western states far outweighs any possible upside in other markets. 

Maui president and COO Scott Metzger told Brewbound: “We're actually going to be discontinuing our mainland co-manufacturing arrangement at the end of this year, so we're winding that down.

“We're also going to be pulling out of a few markets where we're just really unable to support it in the way we'd like to, or maybe it didn’t even make a whole lot of sense for us to really be there to begin with.”

The move will take Maui’s footprint down to a fraction of its current 26 states, concentrating on the West Coast. 

Insiders can read more about the growth of Maui’s hard seltzer portfolio and see what may be next for its beer family in 2026. 

For brewery and beverage alcohol operators, 2025 has been a pressure test, from rising costs and supply chain swings to distributor shakeups and unpredictable demand. Even the most seasoned teams are attempting to adjust their plans.

Brewbound Live is where the industry stops guessing.

On December 10–11 in L.A., operators across beer and beverage-alcohol will gather to swap hard-earned insights, recalibrate for the future, and connect with partners who understand what’s at stake.

Register before the weekend and save $100.

Take a look at just a few of the experts we’ll have on stage this December:

• Leah Wong Ashburn, Owner, President & CEO, Highland Brewing Company
• Nick Firestone, CEO, Firestone Walker
• Rosalie Kennedy, Director of Marketing, Athletic Brewing
• Mike LaRosa, Owner/Brewer, New Trail Brewing
• Jon Halper, Owner & CEO, Top Ten Liquors
• Sophia D’Angelo, Founder & CEO, Boston Experiential Group
• Andrew Hummel, Director Bev-Alc Vertical, CGA
• Kevin George, CMO, Garage Beer

There are also a number of options for additional education, networking and exposure, including 1:1 meetings, the Brewbound Live Pitch Slam, and various sampling opportunities throughout the event.

Register before the weekend to save >>

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Interested in other beverage coverage? 👀 Check out the BevNET Daily Briefing covering the broader beverage industry, including energy drinks, cannabis and other non-alcoholic beverages. Want to stick to the hard stuff? Subscribe to our Spirits Newsletter (published every 2 weeks). 

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