• 💪🏼 A-B Believes in the Strength of Total Portfolio
• 🍻 A Round With PR Expert Kevin York
• 📊 BI: October Beer Supply Nearly Flat
• ⛰️ Massachusett’s Redemption Rock to Close
• 💰 CinBev to Acquire Taft’s Brewing
• 🚛 Yuengling Adds Illinois
• 📈 Craft Gains Share of On-Premise Dollars
  

Brewbound Live 2024 is just 5 days away! Don’t miss the chance to dive into a packed agenda featuring industry leaders from top companies. Learn how Full Circle Brewing is building a house of brands, hear Holidaily Brewing’s insights on making beer accessible to underrepresented groups, explore shifting drinker demographics with Foresight Factory, and uncover Independence Brewing’s strategies for weathering craft’s challenges. Time is running out — register now. 

There are four “winds of change” impacting consumers’ bev-alc purchasing decisions, and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) believes it has the brands to speak to all four of those trends, according to A-B U.S. chief commercial officer Kyle Norrington.

Norrington spoke last month at Beer Marketer’s Insights’ annual fall seminar in New York City. The four trends he said A-B is watching and promoting its brands within include:

• Premiumization;
• A “balanced lifestyle;”
• Flavor and variety;
• And value.

Leading A-B’s premiumization and “balanced lifestyle” efforts is Michelob Ultra, A-B’s No. 1 beer brand by year-to-date (YTD) off-premise dollar sales. YTD through November 3, the brand has increased dollar sales +4.2% and volume, measured in case sales, +3.8% in Circana-tracked off-premise channels. 

Meanwhile, A-B’s next two largest brands have been in decline: No. 2 Bud Light dollar sales -12.9%, volume -14.3%; No. 3 Budweiser dollar sales -6.5%, volume -8.3%. 

Norrington said: “Michelob Ultra is one of those brands, go back to 2002, that broke the mold of what a premium light beer could do, a superior light beer could do. And it has continued to grow along that path.” 

A-B is also expanding Michelob Ultra with Michelob Ultra Zero in 2025. The non-alcoholic (NA) extension will have the “same ultra smooth taste” as Michelob Ultra, but with 29 calories, adding “a new dimension to the non-alcoholic beer category,” Norrington said. 

He added: “We are a leader in non-alcoholic beer. So the onus is on us to help grow the category, [and] to continue to lead the category.” 

🏈 Stella Artois to Make Big Game Appearance

A-B is continuing to increase its media spend in 2024, including investing in a Super Bowl spot for Stella Artois, Norrington announced. 

Stella Artois has an “immense amount of equity,” but the company hasn’t tapped into that equity as much as it could have, Norrington acknowledged. The company plans to “unlock” volume growth for the brand in 2025, doubling down on its investment in the brand. 

Norrington said: “It's a brand that sometimes we think of as a brand for special occasions. We want that brand to make more occasions special, and it has all the equity in the world to do that.”

Stella Artois is A-B’s seventh largest brand by YTD dollar sales in Circana-tracked channels. Dollar sales have declined -3.9% and volume -5.7% YTD. 

Insiders can read more, including A-B’s strategy for other Michelob Ultra extensions and what major sports partnerships the company is focused on.

When is a marketing strategy not a marketing strategy? Can social media alone sustain a brewery? What makes public relations different from other tactics in the marketing toolkit? Kevin York, founder of the eponymous craft beer-centric communications agency, tells it all after a decade in business.

In the latest edition of A Round With – a recurring Q&A series with industry leaders exclusively for Brewbound Insiders – York shares how he built his business, why storytelling matters more than ever and the craft beer origin story that’s sure to bore drinkers. 

Here is a snippet of our conversation with Kevin:

What do breweries stand to gain from getting their story out there?

Kevin: Your story is your differentiation. It’s how you stand out from the competition. 

The beer industry has grown significantly over the past 10 years and has become much more competitive. You’re competing with so many breweries to get that visit or purchase. You need to show how you’re different.

The brewery stories I’ve seen tend to be pretty similar: A person or group of friends liked craft beer, started homebrewing, and eventually decided to go to the next level and open a brewery. That’s boring. It was boring 10 years ago, but it’s become especially stale now. It doesn’t stand out and it doesn’t make people want to form any kind of loyal relationship with you.

Your story has to go deeper than that and contain elements that are specific only to you. That’s what makes it interesting. What makes your brewery unique? What’s your founder’s life experience? Or maybe the founder(s) isn’t your story. Maybe it’s your location or the styles you make. Your story could be a lot of things, but it needs to be unique and interesting.

To borrow an old meme, it’s much more complicated than Step 1. Open brewery, Step 2. Tell story on social media, Step 3. ????, Step 4. Profit. What do breweries sometimes not realize about the infamous third step?

Kevin: You mean besides that there actually is a Step 3?

Step 3 is massive, arguably the largest step. I feel like only recently has the mindset in craft beer shifted where people are realizing that Field of Dreams isn’t reality. “If you build it they will come” doesn’t work. It takes a lot of effort in sales and marketing. And similarly, “if you brew it they will come” doesn’t work either. 

The industry was able to sort of coast for a while, knowing that the consumers’ chase for new could really help a brewery sustain revenue. That’s disappeared. 

We’re now much more similar to most other industries in the world, where you need solid sales and marketing operations and you need sales and marketing strategies. If you don’t have those and you’re relying pretty exclusively on that step 2 – social media – to fulfill those sales and marketing functions for you, you’re in trouble.

Insiders can read more from Kevin about the nuances of marketing tactics, how brewers can tell their story from every corner of their business, and the beer-and-birding camping event that never came to fruition due to the pandemic. 

Total U.S. beer supply was nearly flat in October, after state shipments and domestic tax paids rebounded and increased volume versus October 2023, according to the Beer Institute (BI) in the trade group’s latest round of economic reports. 

Total supply declined -0.6% year-over-year (YoY), a decrease “much smaller relative to recent months,” indicating “inventories have right-sized and stronger months are ahead,” BI chief economist Andrew Heritage wrote. 

The slight decline follows a -6.7% YoY decline in September and -4.4% decline in October. Year-to-date (YTD) total supply has declined -1.4% versus the same 10-month period in 2023.

Heritage wrote: “As 2024 comes to a close, the beer industry is on a strong foundation heading into the new year. Although some month-to-month trends have been roller coaster-like in 2024, the overall trend is both improving and flattening for the beer industry in the closing months of the year.”

Heritage also noted that beer depletions trends for October and November have been outpacing total industry trends, with beer depletions declining -1% in the last eight weeks “due to a strong October and November” as well as a Thanksgiving boost. 

Despite the positivity, total supply remained in the red due to imports recording a second consecutive month of YoY declines. 

Beer imports decreased -6.3% in October, according to data from the Department of Commerce. The decline follows a -0.1% YoY decline in September that broke a five-month growth trend. 

Insiders can read more, including October and YTD figures for top import countries, domestic tax paids and state shipments. 

Redemption Rock Brewing will close its doors at the end of the month, the Worcester, Massachusetts-based craft brewery announced earlier this week. 

The company wrote: “Despite our best efforts, we simply haven’t been able to grow the business enough to remain open. And we’ve run out of time.”

The six-year-old brewery will have its last day on Sunday December 29. 

Redemption Rock opened in January 2019, with the mission to be a community-focused taproom, and became a certified B Corp in late 2020. The brewery produced about 200 barrels of beer in 2023, according to the Brewers Association (BA).

Cincinnati Beverage Company (CinBev) is acquiring fellow Cincy beer company Taft’s Brewing Company, the brewery announced earlier this week. 

The nearly decade-old craft brewery joins several other legacy beer brands in CinBev’s portfolio, including Christian Moerlein, Hudepohl and Little Kings.

With the acquisition, Taft’s will close its Cincinnati Brewpourium, with its final day of operation on December 29. 

Taft’s wrote in its announcement on social media: “We truly love Taft’s. It has been an incredible labor of love for over a decade. We’re beyond thrilled to keep Taft’s beers alive via Cincinnati Beverage and ensure these brews continue to be available to you throughout the city.”

The news comes two months after Taft’s closed its Brewpourium in downtown Columbus. In 2023, Taft’s closed its Over-The-Rhine Alehouse, the brewery’s first physical location. 

The Over-The-Rhine space, housed in a renovated church, was recently rebranded and reopened to the public by its new tenants, Mellotone Beer Project, CityBeat reported. 

Taft’s produced 7,491 barrels of beer in 2023, with nearly flat production growth versus 2022, according to the BA.

D. G. Yuengling & Son will expand distribution to Illinois in early 2025. 

Yuengling will be available on draft by the end of January with packaged product hitting store shelves shortly after. Flagship offerings Yuengling Traditional lager, Golden Pilsner, Black and Tan and Flight will be available in the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois is the 28th state where Yuengling’s beer is sold. It’s also the latest to open via The Yuengling Company, Yuengling’s joint venture with Molson Coors. 

Understanding the beer category’s often conflicting 2024 trends will be among the keys to winning in 2025 and beyond.

Kaleigh Theriault, director of thought leadership for NIQ’s beverage-alcohol vertical, and Mary Mills, a consultant for 3 Tier Beverages, will guide attendees of the 2024 Brewbound Live business conference through the category’s highs and lows, from pricing and inflation, to higher ABV products and non-alcoholic beverages, to craft’s roller coaster by style, region and brand.

They’ll also offer a look into beyond beer offerings, including the ultimate high of THC/cannabis beverages, which are challenging beer for shelf space and captivating consumers.

Brewbound Live takes place December 11 and 12 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in California.

Leaders from all three tiers will gather for business-focused conversations on driving the bev-alc industry forward, data presentations, networking and brand building.

Check out the 2024 Brewbound Live speaker roster.

Tickets are available now.

The Brewbound team returns from Thanksgiving breaks to discuss the pre-turkey day news dump, including Molson Coors’ agreement to purchase the intellectual property of Cruz Blanca and why the Mexican-inspired, Chicago-produced brand is now on the clock.

Jess, Zoe and Justin also break down the results of the Brewers Association’s board election and why this one was a bit out of the ordinary. 

The conversation then turns to Olde Mecklenburg’s recent global collaboration, Americans’ dream of brewery ownership (at least in five states), Rogue’s new Pacific Northwest IPA and Krampus’ reappearance in Jess’ spooky town. 

Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

How is craft performing in the on-premise channel? The segment gained +0.6 share points so far of on-premise dollars, up to 18.5% share in 2024 compared to 17.9% in 2023, according to Fintech’s Eric Kiser and the NBWA’s Lester Jones during a webinar earlier this week.

Craft gained the most share within the $9.9 billion on-premise business and is the third largest segment in the channel, trailing just premium plus lights (41.4% share) and imports (23.8%). Notably, premium plus lights was the biggest share donor (-0.9 share points), followed by beyond beer (-0.3 share points).

Other share gainers included imports (+0.1 share points), below premium lights (+0.3) and non-alcoholic beer (+0.3).