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Following the unexpected announcement Wednesday that Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bob Pease will retire in 2025, it’s clear that the trade group representing small and independent brewers is at a crossroads as it approaches 2025. 

Pease’s retirement, as well as the impending departure of SVP of meetings and events Nancy Johnson – who is slated to leave at the end of the year – leaves the BA’s board of directors capable of replacing not just its professional leadership, but also of altering the organization’s direction.  

BA watchers know how important events are to the organization as the trade group’s largest income source by far. But revenue declined 2% YoY in 2023, dipping to $13.886 million – on the heels of several canceled events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Event attendance, long a signal of an industry on the rise, has waned in the post-pandemic world. The trade group has eliminated SAVOR, its beer and food pairing event, put Homebrew Con on hiatus in favor of adding homebrewing elements to other events, and cut one session from the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), its biggest consumer-facing event. 

So the board will decide whether its new leadership will be tasked with reversing these trends, or taking a different tack to energize the organization. Membership is also in need of a boost: In 2023, the BA’s membership revenue, its second-largest revenue driver, also recorded a 2% decline YoY, to $4.268 million.

Pease exits with a significant number of accomplishments. He created and grew the Export Development Program to introduce American craft beer to markets overseas. He helped shepherd through the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act in 2017, cutting excise taxes for brewers, and then helping make those cuts permanent. 

The trade group’s presence grew as a lobbying entity in Washington, D.C. He also led the organization through its largest boom period in the 2010s, including peak years for most craft breweries, and steered it through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There are now nearly 10,000 craft breweries in operation across the U.S. Last year, craft held a 13% share of the beer industry’s volume and a 24% share of dollars. However, craft never reached the lofty goal of a 20% share of volume by 2020. In fact, last year, craft recorded its first volume decline in a non-COVID year. 

For all of the gains the industry made during his tenure, Pease also exits with craft brewing’s next steps unclear. Many small craft breweries are struggling. Consumer demand has waned. Craft retail sales are in the red. Draft – where craft overindexes – hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Distributors and retailers are looking beyond craft to fill their trucks and shelves.

A new CEO will inherit an organization with many issues, as well as a big-tent-party membership whose size and needs vary greatly – and some teetering on the brink of an existential crisis. 

Craft’s core drinker base – Gen X and millennial white men – is aging. The industry hasn’t done enough to welcome women and people of color. And industry ownership and leadership remains vastly white and male, giving potential new drinkers almost no self-reflection to attract them.

Insiders can read more about the BA’s next steps and speculation on internal names to watch. 

Although beer has started to get a summer boost, producer and brand performances within the category were mixed in the last four weeks, according to the latest off-premise scans report from market research firm Circana. 

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B), the No. 1 beer vendor despite a tumultuous 15+ months, still recorded one of the largest dollar sales declines (-7.3%) in Circana-tracked channels year-to-date (YTD), through June 16. However, dollar sales trends have been steadily improving against last year’s double-digit declines and were nearly flat in the last four weeks (-0.8%), slightly below trends for total beer in the period (dollar sales -0.5%). 

Bud Light, the No. 2 beer brand in multi-outlet plus convenience stores, improved dollar sales declines from -8.6% in the previous four-week period (ending May 19), to -6.1% in the L4W. Its sibling brand, No. 3 Michelob Ultra, also continued to record YoY increases, with dollar sales +6.8% and volume +6.2% in the L4W. 

No. 2 beer vendor Constellation Brands has continued to build on the growth it recorded in 2023, following the conservative-led boycott of Bud Light and other A-B-owned brands, with dollar sales increasing +7.4% and volume +6.4% year-over-year (YoY) in the L4W. 

Constellation’s Modelo Especial remains the No. 1 beer brand in YTD dollar sales. The brand improved its YoY growth from the previous four-week period, with dollar sales increasing +10.4% YoY and volume +10.1% (dollar sales +9.6% and volume +9% in the previous period). Its sibling brand, No. 6 Corona Extra, also improved trends and returned to the black, with dollar sales increasing +1.7% in the L4W (previously -0.6%). 

While Constellation has been able to maintain growth, No. 3 beer vendor Molson Coors has not, despite also benefiting from A-B’s initial declines. Dollar sales for the beer giant declined -6.4% YoY in the L4W, while volume declined -7.7%. However, trends improved slightly from the previous four-week period (dollar sales -7.1%, volume -8.3%).

Molson Coors’ Coors Light, the fourth largest brand by dollar sales in Circana-tracked channels, recorded a -8% YoY decline in dollar sales and -9% in volume in the L4W, an acceleration in declines versus the previous four-week period (dollar sales -7.5%, volume -8.8%). No. 5 Miller Lite remained in the red (dollar sales -5.2%, volume -6.9%), but improved over previous four-week numbers (dollar sales -7.4%, volume -8.9%). 

Among the other top 25 beer vendors, non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing recorded the largest gains with dollar sales increasing +76.6%, to nearly $7.96 million, in the four-week period, and +77.7% YTD, to $39.98 million. Athletic also passed Monster-owned CANarchy in YTD dollar sales, to become the No. 24 largest beer vendor. 

Insiders can read more, including how top 30 craft brands performed across off-premise channels. 

“Without any meaningful restrictions on the sale of non-alcoholic beverages to youths, the country is just one JUUL-like marketing push away from a potential public health crisis,” – Molly Bowdring (researcher, Stanford Prevention Research Center), Aaron S.B. Weiner (clinical psychologist) and Judith Prochaska (clinical psychologist, Stanford Health Care) in a June opinion piece published in Stat News. 

Non-alcoholic (NA) beverages have recorded rapid growth as beer, wine and spirits companies try to keep hold of consumers that are seeking to curb their bev-alc consumption. In beer, NA offerings have consistently posted the largest year-over-year growth in the category throughout the first half of 2024, and dollar sales have increased +29.2% year-to-date in Circana-tracked off-premise channels, through June 16.

With the rapid growth comes calls for heavier regulations, including several opinion pieces by Bowdring and her colleagues, the most recent of which was published this week in JAMA Pediatrics. 

The study raises concerns that the availability of NA adult beverages could “socialize users” – including consumers under the legal drinking age – “to alcohol-drinking experiences by exposing them to the taste, look, and even brands of alcoholic beverages.”

NPR highlighted the opinion piece Monday, as well as conversations with Bowdring, Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association CEO Marcos Salazar and NA beverage shop owner Darryl Collins. 

Talking to NPR, Bowdring noted: “If we leave the door open to there being a marketing push for nonalcoholic beverage use among kids, could that then lead to increased alcohol use among this generation? And we don't want to wait to find out if that's going to happen.”

Listen to the full NPR report here. 

Following a long July 4 holiday weekend, the Brewbound team shares how they celebrated Independence Day. 

Jess provides a Jersey Shore report, including whether there was enough Surfside supply. 

Zoe shares the results from her July 4 darty on how newer beverages such as Surfside, Sun Cruiser, The Beast Unleashed, and Happy Thursday performed with the under 30 crowd. She also notes the prevalence of High Noon in Boston’s party districts. 

Then the conversation turns to social media platform TikTok opening its platform to beverage-alcohol advertisements. Jess explains why now and what bev-alc companies should consider. 

The team also discusses non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing’s $50 million equity financing round and rumored valuation. 

Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform. And please like, rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and hit the notification bell to make sure fresh episodes keep hitting your feeds.

The Brewbound Live business conference returns December 11 and 12 in Marina del Rey, California.

Brewbound Live will feature beverage-alcohol industry leaders taking part in business-focused conversations, data presentations, networking and much more across two days at the Marina del Rey Marriott.

Speakers for this year’s conference include:

• Russian River co-owner Natalie Cilurzo;
• Deschutes Brewery CEO Peter Skrbek;
• National Beer Wholesalers Association chief economist and VP of analytics Lester Jones;
• Draftline Technologies founder and president Jennifer Hauke
• Gulf Distributing senior VP of legal and government affairs Rebecca Maisel
• 3 Tier Beverages consultant Mary Mills
• NIQ director of thought leadership for bev-alc Kaleigh Theriault
• Bump Williams Consulting VP of business development BK Krueger
• Full Circle Brewing owner Arthur Moye.

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Register for Brewbound Live 2024.

It was admittedly embarrassing for me (Zoe) to pick up this haul ahead of the July 4 holiday last week, trying to silently communicate to the checkout person at Total Wine that I am not someone who usually buys a 12-pack of Monster’s The Beast Unleashed, let alone paired with with spiked refreshers.

Side note: Someone please explain what makes something a refresher.