Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, May 17, 2025.

We may still have a week to go until Memorial Day weekend … but you know we’re getting close when you begin to smell the #bigbeer BBQ promotions rolling out!

Let’s start with A-B’s efforts this week, which is adding what I assume are American flag stars to the top of BUD and BUD LIGHT cans, like all official domestic American lagers do. Although be careful of that social media blowback from being about 40 stars short, fellas.

Next up – you can also enter an A-B contest to fulfill your childhood dreams of flying to Salt Lake City to grill hot dogs with Ken Griffey Jr. at the headquarters of a grill manufacturer. What? You had your childhood dreams, I had mine.

PLUS: Anyone up for a spritz? CAMPARI is joining the increasingly crowded non-alc train with Crodino, which is not an actual spritz for your skin #freeidea, but rather comes in drinkable format … which was probably the right call.

The Italian bitter soda spritz will hit shelves in the U.S. soon in 6 oz. bottle 4-packs.

1. A-B’s MICH ULTRA, BUSCH LIGHT and MICH ULTRA Zero accounted for 35% of all A-B off-prem volume thru April 20 in CIRCANA data, adding +2.6M cases YoY in that period, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.

• All other A-B brands added up to a -9M case loss in the same time period.

2. Just 5 of the top 25 beer vendors saw both sales and volume increases in the L4W in that CIRCANA data ending April 20 as well.

3. SAPPORO is +18.6% in grocery sales YTD thru April 20, according to CIRCANA. The brand also has plans to enter the non-alc market, although no timeline yet.

4. On-prem bev-alc sales were -7.3% YoY for the first weekend of May (Fri. May 2 thru Mon. May 5) aka Kentucky Derby weekend + Cinco de Mayo, according to BEERBOARD.

• Zoe has your breakdown by bev-alc category here.

Gotta love this U.S. Top 20 NA Beer Family chart from the Beer Marketer’s Insights conference this week. 

MICH ULTRA Zero’s had a great start and DESCHUTES’ growth is pretty 🤯 … although given the fanfare and marketing spend put on BUD Zero at launch and the big World Cup soccer branding, it’s notable to not see it in the Top 20.

It’s also notable how much the top 4 best-sellers dominate sales. 

FOOTHILLS BREWING

Key Account Sales Mgr – Winston-Salem, NC

COMMONHOUSE ALEWORKS

Head Brewer – Charleston, SC

TRAIL MAGIC / MINNEAPOLIS CIDER CO

Troy Aikman’s EIGHT is going with the MICH ULTRA-esque skinny can look in a new packaging effort … likely tied to a rather slimmed down sales narrative.

EIGHT off-prem sales YTD through April 19, according to NIQ:

• Sales: -47.5%
• Volume: -45.7%

• A-B and MC collectively lost 2.5M BBL in Q1 YoY, according to data presented at the Beer Marketer’s Insights conference. Justin has more of what stood out for him at the conference here.
• Colorado’s legislative changes to open up sales of beer and wine outside of liquor stores has significantly hurt sales at those locations. Since wine’s expansion into the grocery channel 2 years ago, sales declined 30% to 40% at some indie liquor store retailers, according to the comments from the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association to the Colorado Sun.
• A-B is moving CUTWATER and NÜTRL from RNDC (and some beer distribs, in the latter’s case) to SOUTHERN GLAZER’S in CA and elsewhere.
• Bev-alc’s inflation rate was flat MoM in April, and +1.8% YoY … better than the overall CPI of 2.3%. 

RIGHT PROPER Brewing co-owner and BA board chairwoman Leah Cheston and HI-WIRE Brewing co-owner Adam Charnack join the pod this week.

On the docket:

• RIGHT PROPER’s pay-it-forward Executive Order Me a Beer program, supporting federal employees as they navigate staffing struggles;
• Leah’s life as a brewery-owning parent;
• HI-WIRE’s recovery process in Asheville, NC and much more.

PLUS: Jess & Zoe totally dunk on their respective family’s drinking options (watch those expiration dates, grandpa Licata – little Zoe’s keeping a keen eye!), and dive into what stood out most in the recent #bigbeer Q1 earnings results.

This week’s beer goes out to the GOOSE ISLAND folks for finally reading the room when it comes to BCBS!

16.9 oz. bottle packaging of 14%-ish ABV Bourbon County Brand Stout are out, I’m afraid – although anyone finishing that serving probably wouldn’t remember the experience anyway.

But yes – time to welcome BCBS pony bottles! Or close enough, as the barrel-aged stout is being packaged in 4-packs of 10 oz. bottles this year in the usual Thanksgiving time frame. So – finally a bottle that Justin and I can finish! If we split it.

But, folks who look forward to a 560-calorie (or possibly more) 16.9 oz serving of 14%-ish ABV beer – don’t you worry, GOOSE ISLAND has you covered, even if your health insurance may not for much longer.

All BCBS variants will still come out in the larger 16.9 oz. format size … just please, for the love of your liver and next physical – share the drinking experience with someone!

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)