Hurray’s Girl Beer took the top honors in the 16th Pitch Slam at Brewbound Live. Insiders are reading more about the new, tongue-in-cheek brand and what this year’s judges had to say about the winner. 

Look for an interview with founder Ray Biebuyck in the coming weeks. 

Today, Insiders are also:

• Reading details on several lawsuits across the three-tier system;
• Getting a drink with Sovereign Brands founder Brett Berish;
• Diving into the November Consumer Price Index;
• And checking out a Parting Shot from Brewbound Live.

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

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Los Angeles-based Hurray’s Girl Beer won the 16th edition of the Brewbound Live Pitch Slam.

The female-focused “intentionally subversive, rebellious” brand bested five other finalists to claim the top spot. 

A panel of industry experts selected the finalists from a semifinal round on Wednesday, in which 11 entrepreneurs delivered two-minute pitches about their brands. Other finalists included Match Point Brewing, Meli, SoCal Vibes Co., Beer Girl and Starbase Brewing. 

In her four-minute final round pitch, Hurray’s Girl Beer founder Ray Biebuyck told the story of her brand’s mission to make a beer for female-identified drinkers that stands out from other pink-washed attempts in the industry.

Biebuyck said: “If beer were able to capture a net new female consumer that is opting for hard seltzer, hard kombucha and better-for-you beverages, it could represent over a $14 billion opportunity. So we’re aiming to solve just that.”

Insiders can read more about what the judges had to say, and Biebuyck’s prize. Plus, catch up on coverage of the semifinals, including semifinalists’ pitches.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits (SGWS), the nation’s largest alcohol distributor, over its pricing practices.

The complaint, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, invokes the little-used Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, which attempts to rein in larger suppliers from influencing prices in order to undercut smaller retailers. Reports that a lawsuit was in the works surfaced this summer.

The FTC alleged that by selling wine and spirits to small, independent ‘mom and pop’ businesses at prices that are “drastically higher than what Southern charges large chains – with dramatic price differences that provide insurmountable advantages that far exceed any real cost efficiencies for the same bottles of wine and spirits – Southern engaged in anticompetitive and unlawful price discrimination.”

An antitrust investigation into the distributor by the FTC began last year, after regulators from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided the company’s offices in Union City, California.

Insiders can go deeper, including industry reactions.

The Kroger-Albertsons deal has been blocked, but the news has not stopped.

Albertsons filed a lawsuit against Kroger Wednesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The grocer is accusing its counterpart of “willful breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” due to “Kroger’s failure to exercise ‘best efforts’ to take ‘any and all actions’ to secure regulatory approval” of the two companies merging, according to a press release. 

Albertsons claims Kroger impeded on the merger in “several key ways,” including:

• “Repeatedly refusing to divest assets necessary for antitrust approval;
• “Ignoring regulators’ feedback;
• “Rejecting stronger divestiture buyers;”
• And “failing to cooperate with Albertsons.”

Albertsons’ general counsel and chief policy officer Tom Moriarty said in the release: “Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators’ concerns. Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons’ shareholders, associates and consumers. We are disappointed that the opportunity to realize the significant benefits of the merger has been lost on account of Kroger’s willfully deficient approach to securing regulatory clearance.”

Albertsons is seeking “billions of dollars in damages,” including a $600 million termination fees, and additional relief “reflecting the multiple years and hundreds of millions of dollars it devoted to obtaining approval for the merger,” among other expenses, according to the release.

The lawsuit immediately followed news that a federal judge had temporarily blocked the $24.6 billion merger. The ruling was in favor of the Federal Trade Commission, which sued to block the deal earlier this year.

Insiders can catch up on the companies’ rocky path to an attempted merger here.

After one month on par with the increase in overall inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) for beer at home rose faster than inflation for all items year-over-year (YoY) in November 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The CPI for beer at home increased +2.7% last month, a greater increase than the CPI for all items (+2.7%) and total alcohol (+1.8%).

Insiders can read more about CPI increases by bev-alc category both YoY and month-over-month.

If brands can be founders’ children, then Brett Berish has taken a very hands-on approach to fatherhood becoming the focal point for his spirits company Sovereign Brands.

Berish’s own father worked for 45 years in the liquor industry, inspiring Berish to follow in his footsteps. Berish proved to have a knack for connecting hip hop culture to bev-alc brands, and is known for a successful exit from Armand de Brignac champagne (nicknamed Ace of Spades), which sold to music mogul Shawn “Jay Z” Carter in 2014.

At the time, Berish still maintained a somewhat reserved approach to brand-building. Over the next 10 years, he became the face of Sovereign Brands through his eccentric style and appetite to jump into a variety of categories. 

Brewbound’s sibling publication BevNET chatted with Berish about his dynamic approach to brand-building, Pernod-Ricard’s minority investment and why connecting with music has led to a global reach for his brands.

Insiders can read the full Q&A, edited slightly for clarity.