• 🚰 BA: Onsite Brewery Sales -6% in Q1 2024
• 💰 Reyes’ DET Acquires 1.6M Cases from Cherokee
• 🗽 Brooklyn Names New VP of Sales
• 🗣️ Constellation Consumer Demographics
• 📣 Bart Watson: 'Wild' Hop Acreage Cuts
• 📸 Jon Stewart at Asbury Park Brewery

Seasonal trends for onsite brewery sales have remained relatively consistent since January 2021, but “in real terms” – i.e. accounting for inflation – onsite sales continue to decline, according to Brewers Association (BA) staff economist Matt Gacioch, citing data from Arryved.

Gacioch explored overall onsite sales, draft and various category sales share changes and tab size trends in the first of a three-part dive into Arryved point-of-sale data through March 2024. The series is an attempt to better understand trends for the more than 70% of BA members who sell more than 25% of their volume onsite. 

The data includes reported sales from 555 locations that had beer sales in every month from January 2021 to March 2024, to help “ensure that gross sales numbers aren’t impacted by locations that opened, closed or had inconsistent operations throughout those years,” Gacioch wrote. 

He also explored trends of “top performers,” defined as the locations that had at least $100,000 in sales per year and had the highest positive change in gross sales from the period of April 2022-March 2023, to the period of April 2023-March 2024, with top performers’ sales growth ranging from +15% to +97%. 

Onsite sales trends have remained consistent over the past three years, with sales rising month-over-month “from the trough of dreary (if not ‘dry’) January, up to a peak in July, before coasting downhill through the remainder of the year,” Gacioch wrote. However, gross sales when accounting for inflation continue to decline, going from +1% year-over-year (YoY) by the end of 2022, to -3% in 2023 and -6% through the first three months of 2024.

While gross sales are down, draft’s share of onsite sales is on the rise. Since January 2022, draft has maintained 90% or more share of onsite beer sales, and reached a peak of 94% in March 2024, with further gains possible. At top performer locations, draft share is even higher, averaging around 93% to 94% every month since January 2021. 

Note that draft sales can include all beer that is poured from the tap, not just beer that is consumed onsite, and sometimes includes crowler and growler fills, depending on the location. 

Gacioch also emphasized that “a higher share of draught sales does not also mean higher total draught sales, only that it’s better performing than retail.” YoY changes from draft and retail sales “have been mostly in negative territory over the past year.” 

Insiders can dive into the full report, including non-beer sales trends and average tabs and discounts.

Reyes Beverage Group subsidiary DET Beverages LLC has reached an agreement to acquire around 1.6 million cases from Cherokee Distributing Company in Tullahoma and Pulaski counties in Tennessee. The transaction is expected to close in mid-August. 

The deal is part of a territory swap that includes Ajax Distributing Company purchasing five counties in West Tennessee from DET.

The results of the transactions “strategically realigns territories to benefit all three distributors and ensures each has a contiguous footprint in order to better serve the Tennessee market,” according to a statement from Reyes.

In Tullahoma and Pulaski counties, DET will pick up the distribution rights to Molson Coors, Constellation Brands, Heineken USA, Diageo, Mark Anthony Brands and Boston Beer Company, once the transaction closes. DET will also add around 1,000 customers to its business in Cherokee’s southern middle territory.

The Brooklyn Brewery has appointed Robert Hodson as VP of sales of the New York craft brewery. He will be tasked with overseeing “all aspects of the company’s sales in the U.S.” and strengthening “the brand’s market presence.”

This marks Hodson’s return to Brooklyn after more than two decades. Hodson started his career at the brewery, running craft- and import-focused wholesaler Craft Brewers Guild (CBG). The distributor was sold in the early 2000s to Sheehan Family Companies. 

More recently, Hodson had served as Sheehan Family Companies’ director of corporate brand management since 2012.

In addition to Hodson’s appointment, Brooklyn Brewery announced a new masterbrand identity created by beverage branding firm Thirst. The new masterbrand identity is rolling out now across Brooklyn’s international footprint.  

Thirst previously created the brand designs for Pulp Art and Brooklyn Pilsner, and now other core offerings will be refreshed to create cohesion across the portfolio and level up its off-premise packaging. The masterbrand identity features the primary logo created in 1988 by Milton Glaser, who also created the “I Love NY” logo. 

Matt Burns, Thirst executive creative director and co-founder, said: “Achieving consistency while retaining the distinct soul of a brand is the challenge and delight with any new design iteration. 

“This was especially true for Brooklyn Brewery, where we feel a genuine connection with the brand. Our deep understanding of what Brooklyn Brewery stands for was a core strategic strength that helped us guide the client through the development of the masterbrand to its deployment across markets.” 

Jefferies analyst Kaumil Gajrawala shared the above stat in a breakdown of Constellation Brands’ consumer demographics, noting that the company has “one of the highest exposures to mid/low income households in the beer industry.” Gajrawala wrote that this should be a risk as consumers tighten their belts, but “it isn’t.”

An examination of Constellation Brands’ core demographic purchasing patterns found that 41% of its households are Hispanic, 63% of them earning under $80,000 annually per household but they are increasing their purchasing while cutting back elsewhere. 

Gajrawala wrote: “Hispanics are buying less beer, with buy rates down -9%. But they are not buying less of Constellation's beer, which is up +4%. This is proof of their loyalty and a rare advantage in today's environment.”

Constellation’s pricing strategy of taking +2% to +3% as opposed to mid-single-digit price increases “sets them up well for today’s consumer slowdown,” Gajrawala added.

“These cuts were largely expected, but still wild to see 15,000 acres out over the last two years.” -- Brewers Association chief economist and VP of strategy Bart Watson parsed hop acreage data on Twitter/X last week.

All major hop-growing states recorded year-over-year declines in acreage, with the steepest in Idaho (-31%), followed by Oregon (-18%) and Washington (-15%). With 32,982 acres strung for harvest in 2024, Washington is the largest producer by far compared to Idaho (5,970 acres) and Oregon (5,591 acres).

Five popular hop varieties account for 70% of the cuts (Citra, Mosaic, Cascade, Simcoe and Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus), Watson noted.

Brewbound is excited to announce three additional speakers for the Brewbound Live business conference December 11 and 12 in Marina del Rey, California. 

The two-day conference will bring together leaders from all three tiers for business-focused conversations on driving the bev-alc industry forward, data presentations, networking and brand building at the Marina del Rey Marriott. 

Joining the speaker roster are:

• Arthur Moye, owner and CEO of Full Circle Brewing;
• Kaleigh Theriault, director of thought leadership, beverage alcohol vertical, NIQ;
• Brian “BK” Krueger, VP of business development and portfolio strategies, Bump Williams Consulting.

They join previously announced speakers include: 

• Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner, Russian River Brewing;
• Peter Skrbek, CEO, Deschutes Brewery;
• Lester Jones, chief economist and VP of analytics, National Beer Wholesalers Association;
• Jennifer Hauke, founder and president, Draftline Technologies.

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. Interested in speaking? Follow this link to see our speaker guidelines. 

In addition to the mainstage programming and networking parties, Brewbound Live will feature opportunities for one-to-one conversations between brewers and bev-alc brands and retail buyers from chains such as Whole Foods Market. Registered attendees will be considered for meetings with buyers, as space is limited. Find out more details here.

Brewbound Live tickets are available now.

Burial Beer Company’s Doug Reiser discusses the culmination of a three-year project to open a rooftop wine bar for the company’s Visuals wine brand in Asheville, North Carolina. 

For Burial, it’s about creating “immersive experiences” at its venues, Reiser explains. He discusses reviving once-abandoned spaces, how the company got into beer and then moved into the wine space and how much overlap there is between the company’s beer drinkers and wine consumers.

But first, Jess, Zoe and Justin also discuss the news, including the key pieces Anchor Brewing is going to need in its resurrection. They also discuss the effectiveness of Brooklyn Brewery’s European ad campaign, and pour over Voodoo Ranger’s scans trends, with some brands in decline and others still on the ascent.

Listen here or on your podcast platform of choice.

Weeks after the grand opening of its new space, New Jersey’s Asbury Park Brewery hosted another debut: the first public performance of Church and State, comedian Jon Stewart’s new band. 

The show was part of the Asbury Underground music and art celebration, part of the larger, statewide North to Shore festival. In addition to Stewart, Asbury Park Brewery also hosted Brian Fallon, lead singer of the Gaslight Anthem, during its reopening celebration.