• 🍶 A Round With Shōjō Brewing Founders
• 🤑 KC Drinkers Buying Tito’s, SF Chooses Modelo
• 📉 BI: 2023 Beer Shipments Decline -6.5%
• 🏃‍♂️ Athletic Brewing COO Departs
• 🍎 People Moves: Schilling, Incline and Athletic
• 🙂 Beer Mail: Celebrating Art (And Shotgunning?)

Welcome to Brewbound’s A Round With, a weekly feature that grabs a round with beer industry leaders to discuss business challenges, wins and more. 

Our second installment features Haidar Hachem and Marilyn “Mari” Orozco, a husband-and-wife duo and the founders of Miami-based Shōjō Brewing. They launched Shōjō in 2021 as a Japanese-inspired beverage company, mixed with influences from the couple’s Lebanese and Nicaraguan heritages. 

Shōjō has mainly created collaborative beers so far, and this year began brewing sake, coinciding with the opening of Shōjō’s Dojo, their sake and craft beer bar.

Shōjō also made it to the semi-finals of the 2022 Brewbound Pitch Slam, and Hachem was a speaker at the same year’s Brewbound Live business conference, where he spoke about the importance of crafting a strong brand identity, sharing the stage with Talea Beer and Funkytown Brewery. 

Have you had any recent wins that have surprised you?

Haidar: A big one for me was obviously the opening of our taproom. But beyond that, I applied and was selected by the Sake Sommeliers Association to take part in their Master of Sake program. I will be interning in Japan at Nishiyama Shuzo for two months learning how this well-established brewery brews sake so I can bring that information back with me to better my sake and scale production.

Mari: For me it was becoming a Sake Sommelier alongside Haidar. I never thought I would meet someone as enthusiastic about beverages as I am. We love to drink, not to get tipsy, but to socially educate people and become further attuned to what our community wants and needs from local companies like ours. Once we opened up our taproom, it all felt full circle as to why I became educated in everything that I have (even though I did it for fun, mostly). Now I get to have fun in my own taproom and teach others while enjoying delicious beverages.

What is the biggest challenge your business is facing right now?

Haidar: Keeping the doors open and making money. Beyond that, I would say having the space to scale our sake production as well as beer production. We've been wanting to contract brew, but haven't had the luck of finding a brewery that we can work with so we can get our beers out there again. Our sake production is going to be small, limited-edition batches that we will release frequently. We are currently fermenting our third batch, which should be out early March!

Mari: The biggest challenge for me is coming up with events to keep our taproom full at all times. We successfully put on amazing events where we have tons of people show up. It just becomes exhausting to always be thinking of what’s next. For me, it feels like throwing a party at your house weekly. 

Insiders can read more, including Haidar and Mari’s comments on how they got into bev-alc, how they find inspiration, and how they create a successful employee culture.

Total Wine & More shared pre-Super Bowl shopper data today revealing the alcoholic beverage preferences of fans in Kansas City and San Francisco. 

The data, which covers February 5-8, showed that Tito’s Handmade Vodka is No. 1 in Kansas City, while Constellation Brands’ Modelo Especial was the drink of choice in San Francisco. 

Beer claimed three of the top five spots in San Francisco, with the rest of the top five (in order):

• Molson Coors’ Coors Light;
• Tito’s;
• Jameson Irish Whiskey;
• And Constellation’s Corona Extra.

Only one beer brand made the top five in Kansas City, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Michelob Ultra, at No. 3. Other brands on KC’s list include Wycliff Brut (No. 2), Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (No. 4), and Kendall Jackson Chardonnay (No. 5).

Look for more Total Wine Super Bowl shopper data on Monday.

Domestic tax paid shipments declined by more than 10.59 million barrels in 2023, according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

More than 151.49 million barrels of beer were shipped in 2023, a decline of -6.5% versus 2022, according to the BI. Those numbers could shift slightly in next month’s report, as the TTB could still adjust its December figures.

As they stand, the decline is an acceleration from the -5.6% decline recorded in 2022 (-9.48 million barrels). Original 2022 estimates had the year down -4.6% versus 2021. 

State shipments ended 2023 down -3.5%, to 192.25 million barrels, marking a loss of more than 7 million barrels. All 50 states had less shipment volume in 2023 than 2022. However, BI chief economist Andrew Heritage noted that “state shipments data is subject to revision,” as brewers and state governments continue to submit full-year data. 

Heritage also noted that some “large beer states” were able to combat overall trends, including Texas (-1% vs. 2022), North Carolina (-1.6%) and Washington (-1.8%). 

California, which Texas surpassed in 2022 as the No. 1 beer market by state shipment volume, ended 2023 down -5.6%, marking a loss of more than 1 million barrels. Texas is now ahead of California by around 1.5 million barrels, through December 2023. 

Beer imports ended 2023 down -1%, a loss of nearly 400,000 barrels versus 2022. The decline is a stark change from the +2.9% increase in import volume recorded in 2022 (+1.15 million barrels). 

Mexican imports now account for 81.5% of total imported beer volume, after increasing volume +1.9% in 2023 (+4.24 million gallons or +137,000 barrels), to more than 1.01 billion gallons (approximately 32.58 million barrels).

Insiders can read more, including December tax paids, state shipments and imports, as well as Heritage’s predictions for 2024.

Jamie Lissette is leaving Athletic Brewing Company after nearly five years with the fast-growing non-alcoholic beer maker. Lissette served as chief financial officer for the last four years; he started as director of strategy and operations. He joined the company in 2019 and participated in the company's Series A (2019) and Series B (2020) funding rounds.

Athletic co-founder Bill Shufelt penned a glowing tribute to Lissette on LinkedIn, calling him “a key contributor and collaborator” on Athletic's “daily momentum” that grew the operation from 10 people to 250 with “world class facilities” and bicoastal distribution.

Shufelt wrote: “Reflecting on the last 5 years fondly, having Jamie walk in the door is an entrepreneur's dream, and I would wish anyone to be so lucky. From sun up to sun down, Jamie brought creative energy, velocity, and insights every day. No topic was too random or far afield. No challenge too big to consider and put a pin in the roadmap down the road (most of which we got to). Always in contact, never anything sitting idle for long.”

In his own LinkedIn post, Lissette announced he would be joining an unnamed “new company as the CFO.” The company is described as a non-competitive CPG brand.

He added: “I've been a day-one investor there and, once again, will collaborate and build with an incredible entrepreneur and friend – more on this will come soon.”

Athletic has no immediate plans to backfill the COO role.

Schilling Hard Cider has promoted Ryan Aldridge to VP of national accounts. 

Aldridge has spent nearly four years with Schilling, where he last served as senior director of national accounts and director of national accounts. 

Aldridge joined Schilling after nearly two years at Bear Republic as a national account manager and sales manager. His experience includes VP of sales at Blue Mountain Brewery, and market manager for Coastal Brewing Company in the Baltimore area.

🍏 Meanwhile, Auburn, Washington-based Incline Cider has hired two key sales roles, adding Josh Richier as director of sales and Lindsey Meuser as Pacific Northwest key account manager. 

Richier brings 11 years of bev-alc experience, previously working for non-alcoholic beer maker Partake Brewing, Saint Archer Brewing, San Tan Brewing and Young’s Market.

Meuser brings a decade of brand management experience to Incline. She worked seven years at the Tillamook County Creamery Association in several roles, last serving as customer business planning manager. Her bev-alc industry experience includes working as an associate brand manager at Delicato Family Vineyards and as a brand ambassador for E. & J. Gallo Winery.

Incline was founded in 2015 by father-and-son Chris and Jordan Zehner. The company has grown into a $10 million hard cider brand.

Zoe tapping in for today’s beer mail: This week, I received a package from Open Brewing, the new Los Angeles-based lager brand, backed by New Belgium Brewing.

News broke late last month that New Belgium had made a minority investment in the brand, and would be consulting the brewery’s team, along with offering “shared resources.” 

While the three cans pictured above all look different, they’re the same “light-bodied, crisp pilsner-style lager,” coming in at 4.4% (Thank youuuu). Each can is designed by a “rotating cast of artists.”

I sampled the beer during her most recent viewing of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Not pictured: The diagram on the back of the can showing where you can poke a hole for the perfect shotgun (which I did not partake in, as it was a Wednesday night). You’ll have to follow me on Instagram (@BeersWithZoe) to get details like shotgun diagrams.