Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, May 31, 2025.

So, June is the month beer sales turn around … right? Asking for a friend.

But hey – maybe the beer biz just needs an energy boost to change its fortunes! Thankfully A-B has ya covered with its new drink line called PHORM ENERGY, created in partnership with UFC CEO Dana White.

We’ve got 4 SKUs to choose from, including Grape Smash, Orange Fury, Blue Blitz … and one called Screamin’ Freedom – and while I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to taste like, I sure know what it smells like.

THEN: The 3 TIER BEVERAGES folks have a new edition of 3 Up, 3 Down diving into sales trends to know in sectors including:

• High ABV beers 👎
• On-prem NA beer 👍
• Craft beer pricing 👎

And much more … including a BREWBOUND pod to go alongside it with Justin and the 3 TIER crew!

PLUS: Renown nerds Justin & Zoe discuss:

• Their excitement over the BA’s annual sales data dump 🤓, and their key findings to note in the 2024 numbers.
• Creative ways to get Zoe to the Monaco F1 race next year on the BREWBOUND dime (or at least that’s what was going on in Zoe’s head).
• Who has a problem keeping their clothes on, and it’s not who you think.

GUINNESS brand volume was +23% in the U.S. last year, and +32% in the on-prem, according to company execs at an investor day on May 20.

60% of all GUINNESS sales are in the U.S., U.K. and IRE alone.

Looking at 6.75M BBL for #BigBeer craft in 2024, a loss of about 450k BBL YoY, with NEW BELGIUM BREWING overtaking A-B’s craft portfolio for the No. 2 slot. 

The -4% rate of decline matched that of BA-defined craft breweries in 2024 – although production there was about 42% bigger in ‘24, at 11.6M BBL total.

MOLSON COORS is still tops thanks to BLUE MOON, but the difference between MC and NBB was a scant 83k BBL in 2024. 

1. MC: 1.947M BBL (-8% YoY)
2. NBB: 1.864M BBL (+1% YoY)
3. A-B: 1.79M BBL (-3% YoY)

MC of course sold off brands last year to TILRAY, but still has:

• BLUE MOON: 1.52M BBL (-5% YoY)
• LEINIE’S: 431k BBL (-9%)

Both brands peaked in 2015 (2.22M and 1M, respectively).

As for NBB:

• NEW BELGIUM: 1.41M BBL (+2% YoY)
• BELL’S: 456k BBL (-2% YoY)

Over at A-B:

• GOOSE ISLAND: 508k BBL (-3%);
• KONA (volume outside of Hawaii) and CISCO: 386k BBL (+2%);
• ELYSIAN: 262k BBL (-8%);
• GOLDEN ROAD: 204k BBL (+5%);
• FOUR PEAKS: 132k BBL (+1%);
• WICKED WEED: 126k BBL (+5%);
• KARBACH: 116k BBL (-14%);
• DEVILS BACKBONE: 50k BBL (-23%);
• PLATFORM: 6k BBL (-60%).

ELSEWHERE IN #BIGBEER CRAFT

HEINEKEN

• LAGUNITAS: 706k BBL (-8%), the peak was 1M BBL in 2019.

MAHOU SAN MIGUEL

• FOUNDERS: 400k BBL (2%), the peak was 592k BBL in 2020.
• AVERY was 37k BBL (-17%)

SAPPORO-STONE

• No numbers reported

FIFCO USA

• MAGIC HAT: 6k BBL
• PYRAMID: 2k BBL (this brand is being discontinued)

28 of the Top 50 breweries in 2024 saw production gains, with 9 of the 24 outside of the Top 10 hitting double-digit growth:

• No. 18 CRAFT ‘OHANA (MAUI and MODERN TIMES): 115.6k BBL (+10%);
• No. 24 FIDDLEHEAD: 108k BBL (+20%);
• No. 30 ABITA: 89k BBL (+13%)
• No. 31 BREWDOG: 89k BBL (+26%);
• No. 32 CREATURE COMFORTS: 86k BBL (+11%);
• No. 41 PFRIEM: 49k BBL (+22%);
• No. 42 FREMONT: 48k BBL (+11%);
• No. 43 THE FLORIDA BREWERY: 48k BBL (+20%);
• No. 47 NEW TRAIL: 47k BBL (+19%).

OK, I’m officially outta Cs … so I’m gonna need to steal one from Jess’ name here, as CT’s TWO ROADS and PA’s YARDS and BALD BIRDS have teamed up to form a multi-facility contract brewing platform called B3 BEVERAGE COMPANY.

Each company’s respective leaders will remain in place, although BALD BIRDS’ Joe Feerrar will lead B3 as CEO.

Jessia Infante (I’ll get you back that c real soon, Jess) has all the particulars here on the partnership, which will collectively have capacity for up to 15 million CEs in 2026.

57%

The percentage of 121 BA-defined regional craft breweries (15k BBL+ per year) outside of the Top 50 whose production declined in 2024. The previous share numbers:

• 2023: 44%
• 2022: 47%

Zoe has your full dive into who was down and up in 2024 in the regional set.

HI-WIRE BREWING

Sr. Packaging Operator – Asheville, NC 

DESTIHL BREWING

Regional Sales Manager – Illinois

MOUNTAINS WALKING BREWERY

Goes out to craft beer legend Oscar Wong, founder of HIGHLAND BREWING in Asheville, NC, who died at the age of 84 last weekend. Justin has a nice remembrance and recounting of his achievements here. #goodread

• WALMART is significantly discounting MICH ULTRA all summer long, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, pricing a case under $20 in states where such discounting is allowed (incl. TX, NY and FL). The average case price in NIQ data is just under $30.
• BROWN-FORMAN is exiting RNDC in more states, after announcing that it was leaving the distributor in CA last month. It’ll leave RNDC for other distributors in 13 markets (all open states) as of August 1. 😳 BREAKTHRU BEVERAGE will now be BROWN-FORMAN’s largest distributor partner (14 states).
• CBC 2026 will be in Philly from April 20-23, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
• GREAT DIVIDE is closing its 2 Denver taprooms, although its 4 locations outside of Denver will remain open, and WILDING BRANDS, the new steward of the GREAT DIVIDE brand is planning on opening a new GREAT DIVIDE retail location in Denver, TBA.

It’s another twofer week! Man, maybe WALMART should start sponsoring this podcast.

FIRST UP: National Black Brewers Association (NB2A) executive director Kevin Asato joins to talk about:

• Mounting obstacles for the NB2A’s members;
• The key role that equipment donations have made for its efforts;
• Why some retailers are doubling-down on diverse brands.

THEN: YONDER CIDER founder Caitlin Braam joins to discuss the positive results YONDER is seeing from experimenting with taproom events.

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 the arrival of BBQ season! And if it’s BBQ season – it’s time for my annual LITE BUNS crusade.

Yes, it seems the folks at MOLSON COORS (who refuse to return my theoretical phone calls) once again chose to go with uh, charcoal briquettes made with MILLER LITE 🤷‍♂️ as its big summer product, produced once again in conjunction with the folks at KINGSFORD.

All while the LITE BUNS idea still sits here for the taking! 🙄 I’m not sure what’s so hard here ML marketing execs:

• Call up the folks at WONDER BREAD
• Drop off a bunch of grains at the WONDER hot dog bun bakery (and maybe a few 30 packs – don’t be stingy)
• And you have a product name that is guaranteed to move a ton of units all summer long! 🤑🌭

Don’t even get me started on the branding merch opportunities – much less what kind of mascot could be created with a name like LITE BUNS.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to take my ideas to the craft beer folks (LAWSON’S FINEST BUNS, anyone?) where my genius will be appreciated. And by appreciated, I mean told to please leave.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)