Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, February 15, 2025.

With the aluminum & steel tariff situation due to the new Trump administration, it looks like it may be time for the beer biz to get creative.

Well, at least with packaging – gonna make the leap and say the brewing equipment market may have plenty of existing options. 

So, perhaps we follow the lead from our spirits brethren – have you considered … paper? Yes, it seems the crafty folks at DIAGEO have trialed paper bottle versions of JOHNNIE WALKER and BAILEY’S, which were 60% lighter than a normal glass bottle, and would reduce carbon emissions by 47%, so you save a few bucks there too.

Mind you – this was only done for mini-bottles essentially, and I’m not sure that toasting paper bottles with friends has quite the same ring to it. But tariff wars call for creative solutions … so it’s this, or encouraging people to install a lot more basement kegerators in their homes.

AND: Beer, I know times aren’t necessarily the greatest … but at least your cheap stuff is having a moment! Unlike wine, where Australia’s TREASURY WINE (home of the prestigious PENFOLDS winery) put 2 of its bargain wine brands up for sale, WOLF BLASS and BLOSSOM HILL, and got … zero suitable offers to consider, according to the WSJ. 😬

AH: If the C-suite at BOSTON BEER owes you money (I knew Travis wasn’t going to propose after the game 🙄), now is the time to do a check in. Here are the 2025 paydays for the BOSTON BEER big dogs:

• CEO Michael Spillane: $905K, +5% (with $981K 2024 bonus)
• CFO Diego Reynoso: $642K, +3% (with $382K bonus)
• CMO Lesya Lysyj: $561K, +3% (with $334K bonus)
• CPO Carolyn O’Boyle: $546K, +3% (with $325K bonus)
• CSO Michael Crowley: $450K, +8% (with $196K bonus)

Each exec also gets a range of RSU stock compensation. And a firm handshake.

PLUS: A 2024 sales snapshot from DUVEL on two of its U.S. brands, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights – both of whom were “flattish” in volume:  

• BOULEVARD: 152K bbls
• OMMEGANG: 15K bbls

I mean, you weren’t expecting a lot of “+” signs in the new calendar year were you? But at least the 5s have slimmed down to look more like 3s as 2025 begins. Man, that Ozempic really does work!

Craft beer CIRCANA off-prem data for the 4wk period ending Jan. 26:

• Sales: -3.1% YoY (vs. -5.1% for the Dec. 2024 period)
• Volume: -4.6% YoY (vs. -6.5% for the Dec. 2024 period)

Agan, this is only off-prem data … although January isn’t typically a season where things light up in the on-prem either.

3 of the top 30 brands saw their growth rates get bigger in the L4W vs. L52W:

• VOODOO RANGER Imperial IPA
• WICKED WEED Pernicious IPA
• RHINEGEIST Truth IPA

3 of the top 30 also went from negative to positive territory in that L4W vs. L52W:

• ELYSIAN Space Dust IPA
• BLUE MOON Light
• LEINENKUGEL’S Shandy

Now for something completely different – a couple of data sets here across NIQ and CIRCANA, but the gist is quite similar.

NA NIQ sales data for the 2025 period ending Feb. 1 cited by BWC:

• Sales: +23.5%
• Volume: +20.2%
• Share of grocery beer sales: 4.2%

Total NA beer sales in grocery are still relatively small yes, but nice growth here over the past 4 years:

• 2022: $14.4M (+24%)
• 2023: $19.9M (+38%)
• 2024: $27.7M (+36%)
• 2025: $34.2M (+23%)

ATHLETIC was the top supplier for the period, and Justin has your full breakdown of the NIQ data here.

Over at CIRCANA – NA beer sales data for the 4wk period ending Jan. 26 cited by Beer Marketer’s Insights:

• Total sales: +26% YoY (52wk number through that date is +28%)
• Share of total beer sales: 1.4% (+0.3 points)
• Share in grocery beer sales: 3.6% (+0.74 points) 

ATHLETIC set a 3-year deal with the country’s largest concert promoter and venue operator LIVE NATION to make its beer available at 117 venues and 4 festivals that the company runs in 2025.

The brand is already in around 300 venues across the U.S., so this is a sizable bump.

It’ll also do sampling at 100 of events this year, while having its beer in talent green rooms – and no, ATHLETIC can’t bring you backstage ... so stop asking! 

REVOLVER’s location in Granbury, TX will remain open as a taproom and do some small scale brewing for on-location consumption, but otherwise the beer will be brewed elsewhere in the TILRAY system.

TILRAY didn’t answer a question whether there would be layoffs resulting.

Or maybe stat of the year really – according to LAGUNITAS head of sales Peter Green:

• If we eliminated the bottom 50% of the 19K+ active craft SKUs, the craft beer sector would only see less than a 1% drop in volume. 😳
• This is based on 13wk NIQ data ending August 31, 2024. 

So yeah, “Focus” is a good word to keep at the top of the office white board at headquarters in 2025. #TheMoreYouKnow🌈

THREES BREWING

Field Sales Rep – NYC suburbs in NJ, NY, CT

BOTTLE LOGIC

Senior Director of Sales – Anaheim, CA

LAGUNITAS BREWING CO

Here are the brands that folks bought the most in KC and Philly at TOTAL WINE stores in the Feb. 6-9 weekend period:

Philly:

1. SURFSIDE
2. MICHELOB
3. CUTWATER
4. TITO’S
5. MILLER

KC:

1. BOULEVARD
2. MILLER
3. CUTWATER
4. CORONA
5. COORS

So, nice to see local brands in the top spot on both! #BuyLocal 

AND: The EAGLES beat the CHIEFS in GARAGE BEER sales as well, as sales were higher in Philly than KC for the brand.

BUT: A blowout game didn’t help beer sales, as BEERBOARD reported that Super Bowl day draft sales were -4.6% across the locations it tracks vs. last year’s nailbiter OT game. MICH ULTRA and BUD LIGHT were the top 2 beers.

As Justin consistently tells me – there’s always room for improvement, and MC took that ethos to heart in Q4. Granted, these numbers are still dominated by “-” signs. 

GLOBAL FY2024:

• Net sales: -0.6% to $11.7B
• Financial volumes (similar to shipments/sales to wholesalers): -5%
• Brand volumes (similar to depletions/sales to retailers): -2.5%

GLOBAL Q4:

• Net sales: -2% YoY
• Financial volumes: -6.4% YoY
• Brand volumes: -3.4% YoY

Zoe has MC’s outlook for 2025 here, which I’m told does not have a case of the Mondays. I’ll see myself out.

Ah, finally a number where beer is winning! Oh wait. 🤬

Beer away from home was +3.1%, a smidge above the overall +3% CPI. 

Beer at home was better at +1.8%, because Justin kept his basement fridge very well stocked for me last month. Thanks, boss. Though maybe we should start drinking wine – that was -0.2%. 

• MONSTER and the UFC renewed their agreement in a new multi-year deal to keep MONSTER as the Official Energy Drink of the UFC.
• PERNOD RICARD reported that H2 2024 sales were -6%, and said its full FY25 (which ends in June) would be negative to the tune of low single digits, despite previously anticipating growth. It’s also looking at roughly a $207M loss if Trump follows through on his Canadian, Mexican and EU tariff threats.
• Bankrupt St. Louis brewery URBAN CHESTNUT was sold for $2.55M this week to KEG HOLDINGS LLC. 
• YUENGLING is now available on draft in IL, and will be available in packages starting March 3. It’s the 8th expansion state for the MOLSON COORS JV.

LAWSON’S FINEST CEO Adeline Druart joins the pod this week to discuss:

• Plans to celebrate 10 years of Sip of Sunshine this year
• The brand’s recent expansion in NC and VA
• New additions at the company, the sweet AIRBNB at the brewery and much more

PLUS: The BREWBOUND gang talk about CIDERCON, Super Bowl bevvies, “American Lager” and more.

12% to 67%

That’s how much more the FTC is alleging that SOUTHERN GLAZER charged independent retailers for its products vs. big chain customers. Yikes. Have fun with the lawsuit, fellas.

This week’s beer is actually 2 beers, which is really the best kind of beer, and the first beer goes out to Saudi Arabia. Yeah, that one surprised me too. Not that they’ll drink an alcoholic beer of course … so I’ll just take that off your hands for ya. 😁

But they’re getting the beer because they’ve at least made a decision 9 years in advance that there will be no alcohol sales at its men’s FIFA World Cup in 2034 – a tournament that no other location in the world reportedly bid to have. 

So, at least we know the score well in advance, even if that score is 0 (although 9 years does leave a lot of time for lobbying 👀), unlike, say, Qatar’s approach … which decided to reverse its beer policy just days before its desert World Cup in 2022, after the beer had already been shipped to the country (did that freighter of BUD ever make it to Argentina by the way, or is that ship having a little trouble finding its way? 🥴). 

So folks, enjoy another BUD ZERO World Cup at whatever time of year they decide to hold an outdoor soccer tournament in the desert next decade.

But keep in mind – alcohol isn’t just banned in the stadiums … that’s no alcohol anywhere. You can just hear those flights being booked asap by German and British ⚽️ fans as we speak, can’t ya?

HOWEVER: We can’t go out on such a dry note on a Saturday though, so the second beer this week goes to former NY GIANTS RB … ok fine, PHILLY EAGLES Super Bowl winning RB Saquon Barkley for this fine shotgun of an OPEN LAGER (not quite sure how that SoCal based craft lager got all the way into a NOLA locker room … but good on ya!).

Well done on the tremendous year after 5 miserable years at METLIFE Stadium.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty