Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, February 10, 2024.

Woohoo 🥳! I mean, at least we’re not crypto, right?

SPEAKING OF: Here are your other final ‘big game’ spots for tomorrow:

• BUD LIGHT returns to comedy with the BL Genie, which… I dunno, seems like it shoulda been funnier? But there’s certainly potential here for future spots. Woulda been funnier if someone wished to have the Dilly Dilly king at the bar.
• COORS LIGHT is going all KOOL-AID guy on us, crashing its LL Cool J-driven train through a house (I was half expecting a collab for home insurance by PROGRESSIVE – I mean, LL is prolific). 90-second online-version here.

AND: ATHLETIC Brewing minority owner JJ Watt was evidently out shilling NA beers with folks on the Vegas strip this week. Who needs $7 million ad buys? Especially when you’re already now the top-selling beer at WHOLE FOODS.

ALTHOUGH: The beer biz better be rooting for the NINERS tomorrow, as TOTAL WINE stores reported the following top-sellers in each market, according to sales from Feb. 5 to 8:

SF Bay Area top 5 – three beer brands:

• MODELO;
• COORS LIGHT;
• TITO’S;
• JAMESON;
• CORONA EXTRA.

Kansas City top 5 – one beer brand:

• TITO’S;
• WYCLIFF BRUT (🤷);
• MICH ULTRA;
• KIM CRAWFORD Sauv Blanc;
• KENDALL JACKSON Chardonnay.

OK, this is mainly in top position for the gif. Essentially the rub is Timothy, John, Christopher and Matthew Sheehan will acquire the business from “other Sheehan family members, who do not wish to continue in the business,” and I think Cousin Greg gets to drive a delivery route every other weekend.

The agreement is expected to become final sometime in Q2 🤞, and family patriarch Jerry Sheehan is expected to retire once the deal is done.

Of note – Craft Connecticut and Beer House of Kentucky are carved out of the deal, per Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Not entirely a surprise, given the shuttering of the MA location at the end of 2023, although this is for both that retail store and restaurant, and the retail franchise business.

Justin has your full breakdown here of how much folks are owed and the mounting debts that were involved … but if you’re a beer distributor, craft brewery or food supplier who is owed cash, it doesn’t sound like you’re going to see it.

MA’s NIGHT SHIFT is freshening up their drip (Justin told me that’s what the kids say these days, and yeah, come to think of it, I probably should have asked Zoe).

They’re also giving their Boston roots more prominence on the packaging, and Zoe told me, each time you crack open a can, it’ll sound like someone whispering “wicked” (at least in Zoe’s mind).

JIANT HARD TEA

National Accounts Manager, West - LA or San Diego, CA, but not mandatory

TONEWOOD BREWING

Quality Director - Barrington, NJ

FIVE BOROUGHS-FINESTKIND BREWING

Field Sales Rep - NYC, NY

🤝 GOT A JOB

SIERRA NEVADA set a new CEO – former BEAM SUNTORY president Pryce Greenow will be joining the company February 26. Ken Grossman will return to his founder, owner and chairman of the board roles.

The BA made Dr. J Jackson-Beckham their new full-time director of social impact. Dr. J’s CRAFTED FOR ALL consultancy is mostly closing down, but will transition back to a blog focused on “culture and craft beverage.”

The BA also hired someone for Bart’s team, adding Matt Gacoich as staff economist. Really hope his sock game is strong … although he already knows the BA well, having been a BA sustainability ambassador for the past five years.

😢 LEFT A JOB

ATHLETIC Brewing COO Jamie Lissette is leaving the company after an almost five-year run #punintended. There are no plans to fill the role.

🙋 NEEDS A JOB

UBER is going to lay off 168 Boston-based DRIZLY employees, sometime between April 1 and September 1.

U.S. share of bev-alc dollars in 2023, according to a new DISCUS report:

• Liquor: 42.2%
• Beer: 41.8%
• Wine: 16.1%

AND: Here are your top three best-selling spirits:

• Vodka sales nearly flat, totaling $7.2 billion;
• Tequila/Mezcal sales up +7.9%, to $6.5 billion (+$476 million);
• American Whiskey sales up +3.8%, to $5.3 billion (+$192 million).

One of these days, my bet on the Everclear market will pay off.

Jess, Justin & Zoe have a sit down with Deacon Nauslar, the beer division VP for BREAKTHRU BEVERAGE Nevada about what it’s like to get ready for the year’s biggest event in sports (and pretty much any other event genre, save for bachelor party season and it sounds like St. Pat’s Day & March Madness, interestingly enough). 

Plus, the BREWBOUND trio talk about how bad the Patriots are (Zoe’s going to a club in another state to watch the big game this year as a result – sorry, cookie making is only for winners), and they discuss the latest in the Sheehan family saga, soda’s threat to shelf space and the BOSTON BEER non-compete lawsuits.

Oh, and Justin tries to choke down a can of liquid hot wings … so if you hear me on next week’s podcast, you know what happened.

Listen Here!

• PourMyBeer self-serve draft business increased taphandles by +13.5% in 2023, up to 12,600. An average of 48 oz. was poured per customer per visit, +41% YoY.
• The BI reported that 2023 tax paid domestic beer shipments were -6.5% in 2023, down nearly 10.6 million BBL, although figures could still shift slightly in next month’s report.
• DOWNEAST Cider was +10% in volume, +17% in sales for 2023, and Jess has full details on what’s afoot there in 2024, including a new 8% ABV line.
• YUENGLING finished 2023 +16% in shipments, up nearly +400k BBL, GUINNESS was +2% in volume and +5% in U.S. sales for DIAGEO last year, and KONA was +100k BBL to hit circa 330k BBL, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. See – there was good news in 2023!
• BOSTON BEER is now facing two lawsuits from former employees  challenging their non-compete employment contract clause. One’s in MA, the other’s in WA.
• ULTRA RIGHT Beer got an F from the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU for getting 128 complaints from customers who paid for beer orders … but did not get the beer. But I mean, where else can you get a sixer for $37.26?
• The group of former ANCHOR employees looking for a way to buy the brewery decided not to submit a bid, but hope to work somehow with whomever wins the auction … whenever that’s announced. The winning bid was supposed to be selected by Jan. 31, but no word so far.

This week’s beer is going out to the drunk state of New Hampshire! Come for the, uh, I dunno, Dartmouth visit (🤷), stay for the tax-free alcohol sales! Or at least it sounds like that’s what a lotta folks do before they go back to their own neighboring states with a large beer haul.

Either that, or NH is quite the underground party state … as they had the largest amount of per capita alcohol consumption in 2023, at 1.87 gallons of ethanol per person (although I think the Greek system at the aforementioned Dartmouth contributes a hefty skew).

But – a win’s a win, and better luck next year Vermont & Montana, which came in at #2 and #3, respectively. As you might imagine, Utah brought up the rear at #51 🙄 – although a surprising #50: Maryland. Huh. Maybe GUINNESS Blonde picked the wrong homestate afterall.

Slainté!  

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)