Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, June 29, 2024.

Ok everyone, look classy and put on your nice flannels (and button them all the way up please, Donn) – Margot Robbie is entering our world.

Yes, Barbie herself is joining the celebrity spirits gold(schlager) rush with her new PAPA SALT gin brand. Although, as one of her quotes in the press release reveals:

“This feels a lot more straightforward (than the movie business), it’s easier to predict things.”

Perhaps she’s still in for a little bit of a learning curve on the nuances of the booze biz.

THEN: Enjoy a brand new edition of BREWBOUND’s A Round With, as YONDER CIDER and THE SOURCE’s Caitlin Braam joins for a chat.

AND: Come to the beach 🏖️ with BREWBOUND in mid-December! (Justin said he needs all of the umbrella space he can get, so BYO).

BREWBOUND Live is returning to Marina del Rey, CA, on Dec. 11 & 12 for 2 days of insightful conversations and analysis, plus top-notch industry networking opportunities. You can register now here to get the special early registration pricing! 

New speakers recently announced:

• Mary Mills, consultant for 3 Tier Beverages;
• Arthur Moye, owner and CEO of FULL CIRCLE Brewing;
• Kaleigh Theriault, director of thought leadership, beverage alcohol vertical at NIQ;
• Brian “BK” Krueger, VP of business development and portfolio strategies at BWC

Just a little snapshot from something I recently encountered on an NYC neighborhood walk – think the local A-B distributor “helped” this local drinking establishment with their draft system efforts? 🤔

Kudos to CATSKILL Brewing for sneaking in there on the canned beer options. 🙌

Well, at least ALLAGASH is doing so at the Maine brewery … as that’s the only place you’ll be able to buy its new hop water, called, well, Hop Water. Your author of the “Week in Beer” newsletter loves nothing less than a very direct name.

So, uh, is anybody buying this stuff? Eh, sorta – YTD sales for the hop water category through May 18 are $10.5M in the off-prem according to NIQ. But that is +33% YoY.

ALLAGASH has no immediate plans to put the product into distro, or explore any NA beer options for White, no matter how many letters the Brewbound team writes to the company.

Bit of news from various regions of our fine U.S. brewery community.

• IL’s SHORT FUSE brewpub, which currently has zero lagers on its menu, is the outfit that bought the brand rights to METROPOLITAN Brewing, a famously lager-only Chicago brand. 
• Florida’s BIG STORM shuttered its Orlando taproom at the KIA CENTER this month, leaving the former multi-outlet brand with just one location. It had signed the 10-year KIA CENTER location lease in 2020.
• D.C.’s ATLAS BREW WORKS opened its third location, across the river in Alexandria, VA. The brewery produced about 6,500 BBL in 2023 according to BA numbers.

THE BRONX BREWERY

Production Manager / Lead Brewer – Bronx, NY

BLACK TOOTH BREWING

QA Manager – Sheridan, WY

BEACHWOOD BREWING

Former JACK’S ABBY exec Rob Day has a new gig as the fractional CMO for SMUTTYNOSE Brewing, which of course also runs the WACHUSETT Brewing Co. 

This is all looking at the 52-week data through June 2, 2024.

Shelf-share among beer categories:

• Craft is still tops at a 20.2 share, but was -1.1 share points;
• Imports are up to 18, +1.1 share points;
• Hard seltzer lost the most in the period, -1.9 share points to 8.4 total;

Craft beer sales were -1.9% in the period, with the main opportunities in the sector being non-alc and single-serve according to CIRCANA, as price sensitivity continues to be a large factor with key craft demos, including Millennials, who buy 33% of craft in the off-prem.

• NEW BELGIUM (+17.6%) and SIERRA NEVADA (+2.6%) are the only two brands among the top 6 in the $35 a case range to show sales gains in the period.

The BREWBOUND trio run the show this week, talking all things:

• ALLAGASH Hop Water and Justin’s birthday
• New data on cannabis users and alcohol usage
• Boston, with Zoe smiling ear to ear talking about both the CELTICS and duck boats. Enjoy it while you can folks – football season starts in about two months (hi Zoe! 😁).

• Rabobank noted that there has been a +29% increase in overall costs for the main components of U.S. BBQs since 2019 (beer and beef are the biggest cost components). The cost of fresh-baked cookies from Jess was not figured in.
• Glass bottle manufacturer ARDAGH is closing its Houston plant, and 220 folks will be out of a job according to the Houston Chronicle. The company acquired the plant in 2021 from A-B, but certainly the continued growth of share for cans since, aided by the RTD boom (and NA beer assist) in that time is taking its toll.
• BUZZBALLZ filed a patent infringement lawsuit against BEVERAGE RANCH, for putting its SlamZees product in very similar spherical packaging. Judge for yourselves here 👇

This week’s beer is going out to good old fashioned … very blatant corporate sponsorship 🤝. Not to ruin the surprise, but yeah it’s from A-B.

The new video for Post Malone & Blake Shelton’s new opus to drinking and smoking called “Pour Me a Drink,” clearly got a very healthy budget assist from BUD LIGHT.

No word on how much the roughly … sixteen product shots in the 3-minute video cost, and granted – they’re a bit tough to discern, but hopefully you can spot it.

Slainté!  

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)