Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, March 22, 2025.

Let’s of course start with a happy March Madness 🏀 to you all, with lo and behold – some nice support for the beer biz so far! 

B-DUBS is of course out in full force (even though the weird big buffalo at the bar ads still don’t do it for me), and COORS LIGHT, MODELO, CORONA, MICH ULTRA and STELLA have been spending as well already. 👏

AND: COKE’s RED TREE Beverages division is launching a 5% ABV MINUTE MAID Spiked Vodka Lemonade, with a pink lemonade varietal as well – because you can totally taste the difference when drinking both in the aluminum can packaging.

THEN: BROWERIJ HUYGHE is having an impromptu inaugural DELIRIUM TREMENS container regatta ⛵️ thanks to the continually shifting Trump administration tariff situation, sending 20 containers on their way across the pond to the U.S. in hopes that they get here before any 200% tariff situation becomes the law of the land.

That’s about a 6-month supply of beer for the U.S. market, with company leadership saying that if the tariff goes into effect – its beer will essentially become unsellable in America.

If you slice off c-store sales, New England craft beer sales were +1.4% in the off-prem in 2024, according to NIQ data cited by BWC. Total craft was -1.6% in that same data subset.

The New England region also has the highest share of craft beer sales of any region nationally, at 32.1% of total beer.

Zoe has more insights from the New England Craft Brew Summit.

BUT … 

The BA puts the 2024 volume decline at -4% for packaged beer sales of BA-defined craft breweries, a smidge lower than the -4.2% craft beer decline noted by NIQ, which includes non-BA brands like GOOSE ISLAND and NEW BELGIUM. 

Total beer volume was -3.1% in the off-prem, according to NIQ.

Sales were -2.4% for BA-defined craft in 2024

BA-defined craft volume in the off-prem is -18% from 2021 to 2024, although some breweries have also left the BA in that period too (STONE, etc). Avg. price per case of BA-defined craft beer in that period was +2.5%.

KANE BREWING

Packaging Operator – Ocean, NJ

WILDING BRANDS

Sales Representative – Colorado

SUNBOY Spiked Coconut Water

Regional Sales Manager, TN/GA/AL – Nashville, TN

The BA’s lead lobbyist/senior director of federal affairs Katie Marisic is leaving to join DIAGEO as director of trade and tax, federal government relations.

Her first day at the home of GUINNESS was St. Patrick’s Day, which likely means that her first real day of work was March 18.

CONSTELLATION’s chief customer officer Bill Renspie has left the company, per Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Heading to CBC in Indy at the end of April? Come by booth #512!

Just be warned that Zoe is going to be using a lot of car racing analogies in her conversations … as she’s totally skipping out on the flannel’d beer folk of CBC early to go hang with her bougie, Prada’d folks at the Miami Grand Prix.

The latest BEERBOARD data shows that a Monday St. Patrick’s Day delivered … pretty much what one would expect: a sales decline.

Draft revenue was -12.6% for 2025’s Sat. to Mon. holiday weekend, vs. 2024’s Fri. to Sun. period. Volume had roughly the same decline (-12.7%).

2024 had a -20% decline vs. 2023, when it fell on a much more favorable Friday on the calendar. Ugh, the calendar is the worst. 🙄

But Splitting the G did its best, with stout/porter sales share up to No. 7 from No. 10 last year, and GUINNESS itself moving up from No. 13 to No. 9 on the brands list. 

Next year, I say we ship special St. Patrick’s Day pint glasses where the GUINNESS logo is lower on the pint glass so we can uh, move a little more product, eh?

AS FOR FEBRUARY:

Here’s your February 2025 snapshot of draft sales, according to BEERBOARD data cited by Beer Marketer’s Insights:

#BigBeer lagers:

•  VOLUME: 49.9% share
•  SALES: 43.7% share 

Craft beer

• VOLUME: 30.2% share 
• SALES: 32.2% share

• TX’s ALAMO BEER CO. has attracted 2 potential buyers (now in a “due diligence” phase) who would maintain the brewery’s operations, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The brewery declared bankruptcy in early February, citing $24.8M in liabilities.
• ATHLETIC’s 2024 sales crossed $130M, according to a new Fast Company profile, with the company’s overall value in the $800M range.
• MADE BY THE WATER’s CATAWBA Brewing is closing its final location in Asheville, NC, but is expected to re-open in a new home later this spring.
• GREAT LAKES Brewing did 115K BBL in 2024, down low-single digits, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.
• OR’s 2 TOWNS CIDERHOUSE is now the 2nd best-selling cider in the grocery channel nationally. 2024 sales were +5.4% and volume +6% in overall NIQ data cited by 3 TIER BEVERAGES. 
• No Beer Camp and Oktoberfest celebration for SIERRA NEVADA – the company cited “rising production costs, declining ticket sales, and unpredictable weather” as factoring into making the call. Yeah, that’ll do it.

ALLAGASH founder Rob Tod joins the pod this week to dive into:

• How long it took before ALLAGASH sales really started to show progress;
• What the brewery is looking for in distributor partners;
• How much capacity his brewery has left for expansion; 
• Why the brewery pulled back in the early 2000s and more.

 PLUS: The BREWBOUND gang dives into:

• More personnel changes at the BA;
• More non-alc beverage extensions into alcohol;
• Jess’ relatives’ penchant for brightly colored drinks and more.

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 Willie Nelson, who somehow is just now getting into the THC beverage space.

This is thanks to the folks at JUNESHINE, who are making Willie’s Remedy+ beverage, and if you have to ask what the + is for … you probably shouldn’t be drinking it.

The “social tonic” has 5mg of THC, 200mg of L-Theanine, 2mg of CBD and 2mg of something called CBG per serving … which I’m pretty sure is just Willie f’ing with us, but I’m told it’s a “non-psychoactive cannabinoid.”

The bottles can be shipped to 35 states, or I guess just follow Willie’s tour bus, with 10mg THC per serving bottles on the horizon (aka go Big Willie Style), as well as 5mg and 10mg seltzers as part of a push into retail this May.

So, while Willie may not know exactly what’s ailing ya – he’s pretty sure his Remedy will help.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)