Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, December 23, 2023.

Apparently, uh, unless you live in the Western mountain ranges or the fine state of NORTH DAKOTA … basically no one in the U.S is having a white Christmas this year 😳.

But, good news – I finally know what Justin can get me this year! I mean, last year’s “BREWBOUND Live 2018” T-shirt and signed 8x10 were great and all, but …

Meet GUINNESS Foot Pints, which are snow boots with a heel designed to leave GUINNESS pint impressions in the snow when you walk on pavement 🤯. Justin, I’m a size 14.

AND: Folks may think NORTH KOREA is behind the times (among other thoughts about the country), but they’re finally joining the light beer revolution! What’s that? I can’t say the word revolution in NORTH KOREA? Ah, gotcha 🤫.  

Anyway – meet their first light beer, with the catchy name you won’t forget (because the government won’t allow you to), Taedonggang No. 8!

Some say less filling, others … also say less filling (there’s not a lot of room for dissent in those parts).

Which uh, wow … lotta A-B on here. Then again, when your flagship, best-selling beer in the U.S. drops over 1/4th of its business in said year, that kinda tracks.

But – also some big headlines from the world of craft in there too. You can check out the full Top 10 here. 

Or maybe it is for breakfast … depending how your CHRISTMAS holidays go this weekend. Meet MINUTE MAID Spiked from the COCA-COLA corporation (more specifically, their subsidiary RED TREE Beverages). 

The 13.9% ‘wine-cocktails’ will come in “book club meeting-friendly” 1.5L packaging starting spring 2024.

“Single-serves are about 70% of the unit movement and about 30% of the dollar share.”

– EXTRA MILE Convenience Stores category manager for alcoholic beverages Michelle Abdollah on the c-store sector in her BREWBOUND Live appearance this month. Watch the full panel discussion on the growing c-store space here.

CLOCKTOWN BREWING

Sales Rep/Sales Lead - Thomaston, CT

LORD HOBO BREWING

Production Data Analyst - Woburn, MA

SAINT ARNOLD BREWING

Packaging Line Lead-PM - Houston, TX

Come on December! 🙏 According to CIRCANA off-prem data through December 3:

• Sales: -0.9% (despite an avg. case price increase of +$1.55 to $42.56 this year)
• Volume: -4.5%

Essentially – big losses in grocery:

• Sales: -3.4%
• Volume: -6.6%

Are offsetting gains in c-stores:

• Sales: +4.5%
• Volume: +0.5%

ALSO: NBB’s top 2 VOODOO RANGER brands combined are outselling the main BLUE MOON Belgian White brand in off-prem:

• BLUE MOON Belgian White: $246 million
• VOODOO RANGER Imperial IPA: $157 million
• VOODOO RANGER Juice Force Hazy Imperial IPA: $116 million

Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA by itself is also $1 million ahead of BLUE MOON Belgian White in c-stores.

The percentage of respondents to GOLDMAN SACHS Equity Research’s recent Beverage Bytes survey who said they’ll be increasing space for CONSTELLATION products in the spring 2024 resets.

More details on the survey results here!

This week, AriZona Hard Tea VP of sales Lou Fabiano joins the pod to talk growth plans and success thus far, and why he believes the brand could eventually hold 20-25% share of the segment in the future. 

PLUS: I think the gang does shots of DORITOS (🤷), and dives into the latest insights form NIQ, and the BA’s year-end recap.

Listen Here!

• The TEAMSTERS have authorized a strike against A-B for over 5,000 union members if a new contract cannot be reached by their Feb. 29 deadline. Negotiations remain up in the air. 
• WEATHERED SOULS is selling its Charlotte taproom location, only about a year after opening it.
• Beverage importer TOTAL BEVERAGE SOLUTION has acquired a majority of the ST. KILLIAN’s brand portfolio from SHEEHAN Family Companies, including brands like BITBURGER, CARLSBERG and ROTHAUS, among many others.

At least according to NIQ data for the 52-week period ending July 29, cited by Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA) CEO Marcos Salazar:

• Beer: 81.1% (+31% YoY, mostly driven by grocery channel)
• Wine: 11.2%
• Spirits: 2.7% 

AND: The top reasons for folks abstaining from alcohol in January this year, according to a new CGA consumer survey:

• “To be healthier and looking to save money.”

44% of respondents said they were “likely/very likely” to participate in #DryJanuary this year.

This week’s beer does not go out to the WISCONSIN bar owner who was arrested for allegedly attempting to … burn his new bar to the ground.

Authorities became suspicious when he had “considerable burns to his hands, arms, back, legs and face” when they went to question him on the matter 🤔. The fact that he was also apparently telling his employees things along the lines of that he was going to, well, burn the bar down in the days leading up also didn’t help 🤝.

For the record, the gentleman said the burns were from a “grilling accident” at home, but he didn’t seem to have a comment as to how his bloody fingerprints were discovered near the gas canisters found on site 🤷. I’m also still not 100% positive this didn’t happen in FLORIDA. But hey, it’s the holidays … so we can’t go out on Dipshit McGee this week.

Instead, let’s give this final beer of 2023 🍺 to MAUI BREWING and its CEO Garrett Marrerro, who raised over $1.5 million for their Kōkua Project, helping those affected by the massive fires on Maui earlier this year. Definitely a fine choice to give the BREWBOUND Person of the Year award to in 2023.

And heck, I’ll also buy a round of beers for all of you readers too (uh, to be clear – figurative beers). I think I half-write this newsletter to entertain myself, but I appreciate the notes you’ve sent over the year to me on LinkedIn, which are greatly appreciated.  

I hope this provides some value for those who open it, as well as some humor for an industry we love. A safe and happy holiday season to you all, whether you go leaded or unleaded in your beverage choices (or a little bit of both, like yours truly). 

Now, here’s to Justin and I making it to at least 12:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve this year 🍻. Jess & Zoe, let us know what happens at 1 a.m. OK, fine, just Zoe.

Slainté!  

-Sean McNulty