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🔐 What You're Missing |
| | Maine Beer Co. is taking on a significant expansion project that will increase its annual capacity to 130,000 barrels. The move is thanks to continued demand for its flagship IPA Lunch. Brewbound managing editor Jess Infante chatted with the Freeport, ME-based craft brewery’s leadership about the move and Maine Beer’s consistent growth, and shares the details in Today’s Top Story. In today’s Brewbound Insider Newsletter and on Brewbound.com, Insiders are also reading about: RTD Yacht Water’s intentional growth strategy; Another “reset week” in Circana off-premise scans; Continued inflation in April’s Consumer Price Index; The number-of-brands sweet spot, according to Molson Coors; And a malt-based bev-alc extension from Fresca.
Insiders also have access to the Brewbound Newsletter Archive, including previous newsletter-exclusive Insider content. Become a Brewbound Insider today! Or, be in the know on all food and beverage news from Brewbound, BevNET and NOSH with Insider All Access. |
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| | Sponsored message from Briess Malt and Ingredients Co. | Destihl Brewery Founder & CEO Matt Potts said “We’ve been able to brew award-winning beers with Briess Malt year after year”. When a brewery wins two golds and a bronze in the same year, you know the malt behind it matters. Click to hear the rest of the Destihl story.
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📰 Today's Top Story |
| | | Maine Beer Co. is dining out on lunch. Not the meal, but its flagship IPA (7% ABV), which isn’t named for an eating occasion at all, but rather an injured whale spotted off the Maine coast in 1982. Today, Lunch accounts for “90-plus percent” of Freeport-based Maine Beer Co.’s volume, chief operating officer Colleen Croteau told Brewbound. To keep Lunch flowing to its 31-state footprint, Maine Beer Co. is “squeezing out every efficiency possible,” but the company is about to undertake a significant expansion project to boost annual capacity to 130,000 barrels. Keep reading |
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📝 Brewbound Headlines |
| | | When Monday Night Brewing aggressively expanded to stay in the black, brewmaster Peter Kiley took notes. Now, building a tequila RTD brand with rapper Lil Yachty, the founders of Yacht Water are doing the opposite – waiting for demand to pull the brand outward. Read more |
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📊 Data Dive |
| | | Bev-alc recorded another “reset week” to kick off May, according to the latest weekly off-premise report from market research firm Circana. Total bev-alc dollar sales improved 0.4% compared to the prior week. However, sales remained in the red YoY, declining 2.3%, to nearly $1.392 billion, while volume declined 4.2%. The latest YoY losses mark an acceleration compared to the prior week, but an improvement compared to bev-alc’s performance over the L4W. Dive deeper |
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| | | For the 2nd consecutive month, beer recorded the largest YoY price increases across all bev-alc categories in April, according to today’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. The CPI for beer away from home was the highest, at +3.6% YoY, increasing 0.5% month-over-month (MoM). At home, beer’s April CPI increased 2.2% YoY. Keep reading |
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👀 ICYMI |
| | | Nearly 4 out of every 10 craft brands recorded growth in the off-premise through mid-April, according to the latest monthly update from Bump Williams Consulting (BWC). Approximately 36% of craft brand families recorded growth in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels YTD, improving compared to 33% during the same period in 2025, BWC reported. Craft’s “success rate” is even higher when dividing brand families by rank, and is the highest among the top 101 to 250 families by YTD dollar sales (42% growing). Keep reading |
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💼 Now Hiring |
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👋 That's all for today's Brewbound Newsletter |
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