Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, August 23, 2025.

Well, summer’s over kids. Or at least it is for the nerds in the Western part of the country who go back to school before Labor Day (us East Coast cool kids always go back in September).

Either way – time to get your teenager looking sharp! And what better way to say “cool parent” than supplying them with some fresh COORS BANQUET x WRANGLER duds! The best part is it’ll only cost you $80 to make Johnny the talk of the lunchroom:

THEN: 3 TIER BEVERAGES just dropped a new data insights report for y’all, looking at key trends to note in the Q2 numbers across beer, wine, spirits, NA and RTDs, based on NIQ data through July 12.

BUT: Not great news from NIQ’s CGA arm in the on-prem, as beer’s dollar share took a small hit in L52W ending June 14, mainly from RTDs:

• Spirits: 46.6% share (+0.1%)
• Beer: 39.5% (-0.3%)
• Wine: 12.7% (-0.1%)
• RTDs: 1.3% (+0.4%)

As for the segments within beer – now, you may be surprised to hear this … but craft isn’t doing too well in dollar share either, despite still being the top dog. 😱

• Craft: 27.8% share (-1.4%, the largest decline of any segment)
• Domestic premium: 24.8%
• Imports: 23.3% (+1.3%)
• Domestic super premium: 9.9% (+0.6%)
• Below premium: 5.6% (+0.2%)

COLLECTIVE ARTS

Field Sales Rep – New Jersey

MELVIN BREWING

Cellar Manager – Alpine, WY

ENDLESS WEST

REVOLUTION BREWING hired Kimberly Vavrick as its new director of comms, coming over from mini-golf chain PUTTSHACK. 

BREWDOG co-founder Martin Dickie abruptly left the company this week. He also founded a medicinal cannabis company WATERSIDE PHARMACEUTICALS last year, although no real specifics were given for the exit. Dickie is the 3rd largest shareholder of BREWDOG listed in a FT piece last month (21%)

• Fellow co-founder James Watt (who was listed as having a 22% stake) left his BREWDOG CEO position in May 2024.
• PE firm TSG is the biggest individual entity owner at 23%, with “other” listed as 29%, presumed to be the “Equity for Punks” shares and other folks.
• The company hasn’t turned a pre-tax profit since 2019, according to CityAM.

TOTAL WINE CEO Tony Rice is leaving the company after a little under 4 years, citing an undisclosed new opportunity he’s opting for.

Get the T-shirts ready folks – the ANA market is at $925M in sales for the L52W period ending August 2 in off-prem data from NIQ, +21.9% YoY.

Beer of course still rules NA dollar share:

• Beer: 83.1% (+19.4% YoY)
• Wine: 11.2% (+23%)
• Spirits: 5.7% (+70.5%)

AND: These buyers are almost all folks who also buy booze’d up bevs – 92% of ANA shoppers buy alcohol-containing products as well, according to NIQ.

In terms of the effect of NA beer’s new entrants on the numbers, here’s the shift of share that the top 10 NA beer brands had of total NA beer sales:

• 2022: 83%
• L52W in 2025: 73%

The company is selling its New York wholly owned distributor (WOD) business to SOUTHERN GLAZER’S in a transaction expected to close later this year, which covers 4 of NYC’s 5 boroughs (sorry, Brooklyn).

The new outfit will be called SOUTHERN GLAZER’S BEVERAGE COMPANY OF NEW YORK and will offer A-B’s full product lineup (and maybe even a few cases of BUD LIGHT Next they found in a back corner). 

A-B vet Devyn Dugger will be SVP and lead the outfit, coming over from the recently sold OHIO EAGLE DISTRIBUTION company. No price tag was given for the deal. 

A-B sold its WODs in MA and OH last year, and has shed such businesses in several other states over the past 5 years. Around 10 branches still exist. 

• SPINDRIFT is exiting the booze business and shutting down its SPINDRIFT SPIKED brand … choosing to just stick with its, uh, “regular” seltzer.
• TILRAY requested an extension from the NASDAQ to get its stock price above $1 a share for at least 10 consecutive days and avoid de-listing from the exchange. The current deadline is September 21.
• Sorry aluminum can ends and lids – the party’s over. The Trump admin has added them to the tariff list. Eh, lids just get in the way anyway! 
• MONDAY NIGHT BREWING is opening a new indoor/outdoor taproom in Atlanta, and converting its original location into a private events space. It now operates taprooms in 5 states.
• SURFSIDE’s parent company STATESIDE BRANDS took over the branding from COMCAST’s XFINITY at the entertainment hub (to be called STATESIDE LIVE!) in Philly’s Sports Complex, where the EAGLES, PHILLIES, FLYERS and SIXERS play.
• A-B announced a new $15M investment in its St. Louis facility this week, as part of its overall $300M spending commitment at its U.S. facilities.

Lotta newsletters to go until December, so I’m saving my “best” material to incentivize ticket sales in this section for a few more weeks.

Hence – please book your hotel room now here and save $100 with early registration! You can use the savings to buy that COORS denim vest!

RUPEE BEER founders Van and Sumit Sharma join the pod this week to dive into expanding the beer now into 18 states, their strategy for engaging consumers and gaining their attention in retail stores, as well as their approach to building their growing distribution network.

PLUS: The BREWBOUND trio dive into all of the cider recipe legal insights that you’ll need this year, the methodology of polling and more, including:

• Jess’ big sea adventures.
• Justin shirking his journalistic duties by not drinking at 10 a.m.
• Zoe’s latest darty drinking report … although I’m honestly not sure if they were drinking alcohol or Capri Sun’s from the description.

Then they all express their baffling fondness for Chunky Pabst. 🤢 I think it may be time for me to return to the pod for a guest appearance.

LISTEN HERE! Or just search “Brewbound” on your podcast listening platform of choice. And leave a review and rating, would ya? (Good ones only, plz)

This week’s beer goes out to BIG TEN college football fans, as that’s really the only free thing they’ll be getting this season.

According to this new Axios roundup, BIG TEN stadiums have the highest price for 2 beers out of any college football division. I mean, when you win 2 CFP championships in a row … it’s time to start gouging! Especially as the BIG TEN only won 1 championship in the 20 years prior to that.

Uhh … but, yeah! Back to prices! 2 beers and 2 hot dogs will apparently cost you $38 at your average BIG TEN game this year (with NEBRASKA joining the beer sales fun this year for the first time), so maybe make the most of that tailgate.

Especially NORTHWESTERN football fans – the school installed a new beer garden at its temporary football stadium this season, with a whopping capacity of … 150 people. 

Eh, I’m sure the other roughly 11,850 folks that the temporary stadium can hold will be fine waiting their turn.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)