• 📉 More Craft Drinkers are Drinking Less Craft
• 🎸 Asbury Park Brewery Founder Bob McLynn
• 🤝 Silver Eagle Beverages Appoints New Execs
• 💰 Visitor Beer Locks In New Investment
• 💸 CPI For Beer At Home Holds at +3.1% in June
• 🎙️ A July 4 Darty Report
• 🍺 Allagash Makes a Hazy IPA But …

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The number of craft beer drinkers who are drinking less craft beer than they were a year ago has surpassed the number of those who are drinking more for the first time since the Brewers Association (BA) started asking this question in its annual poll in 2015.

BA chief economic and VP of strategy Bart Watson and staff economist Matt Gacioch shared the findings of the BA’s ninth annual Harris Poll during a Thursday webinar. Nearly 2,100 legal-drinking-age Americans were surveyed about their drinking habits.

Watson said: “In 2015, people were leaning in, they were moving more centrally into the category. In 2024 there's more of a balance between people leaning out – and we're going to talk about all the other stuff they're drinking in a second – and people who are still leaning in.”

This year, 26% of respondents said they were drinking less craft beer in 2024 than they were in 2023, compared to 25% who said they were drinking more. Last year, these groups were in equilibrium for the first time. 

The percentage of craft beer drinkers – those who drink craft beer “several times a year” – who consume craft beer monthly has declined to 77%, down from a 2020 peak of 85%. Those who drink craft beer weekly has declined to 44%, down from 50% in 2021. 

Some craft drinkers may be drinking less, but there are now more of them than in previous surveys. Nearly half (48%) of Harris Poll respondents drink craft beer “several times a year or more often,” and 9.1% of respondents in a 2022-2023 Scarborough USA survey said they have drunk craft beer in the last 30 days. 

Watson said: “Even as craft growth has stalled in recent years, the percentage of people who say they’re purchasing craft in the last 30 days, or drinking craft at least several times a year, is still going up. So that slowdown isn't necessarily driven by the size of the total pie. It's going to be driven by other things.”

Here are highlights from the jam-packed, data-heavy webinar:

🍹 Craft Drinkers are More Omnibibulous than Most Bev-Alc Consumers

People who drink craft beer also drink across beverage-alcohol, according to a frequency correlation chart Watson and Gacioch shared. On a scale of 0.0-1, craft beer has its closest correlation with imports (0.7) and domestic beer (0.61), followed by hard cider (0.56), ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails (0.55), hard seltzer (0.54). 

Craft is less closely correlated to flavored malt beverages (FMB) with a rating of 0.5, spirits (0.46) and wine (0.41). 

🧔🏻‍♂️ Craft More White and Male than Other Bev-Alc Segments

Demographic divides in craft beer along both race and gender lines are starker than in other bev-alc categories. 

Craft beer drinkers are 70% male and 30% female, compared to overall beer, which is closer to a 60/40 split, according to Scarborough data. Liquor leans slightly more male, while wine is slightly more female. Cider is close to 50/50. 

Nearly 80% of craft drinkers are white, and slightly more than 20% are not white. Overall beer, liquor, wine and cider are all roughly 70/30, while American adults are about 60/40. 

🚫 Non-Craft Drinkers Say They ‘Don’t Like the Flavor’

Of the 29% of the population who drink alcohol but not craft beer, more than 50% said they avoid craft beer because they “don’t like the flavor,” which far surpassed other reasons. This dislike of the flavor of craft beer is more highly concentrated among drinkers aged 21-34, who are 13% more likely to dislike the flavor of craft than drinkers 35 or older, according to the survey.

The city of Asbury Park is inextricably linked to its musical history (if you like Bruce Springsteen, you should thank it), and its eponymous brewery is no different. Asbury Park Brewery founder Bob McLynn first encountered beer culture while touring Germany with his band, and founded Crush Management, which represents artists such as Green Day, Lorde, Miley Cyrus and Fall Out Boy.

The walls of Asbury Park Brewery’s recently opened taproom are plastered with posters from significant musical performances in the city’s history and artists who have played there. 

The brewery’s previous taproom closed in 2020, and it reopened in a new space in June. Asbury Park Brewery produced 4,180 barrels of beer in 2023, according to data from the Brewers Association (BA). 

McLynn discusses getting into craft brewing, opening a new brewery and taproom, hosting Jon Stewart’s band and much more in the latest installment of Brewbound’s A Round With – a weekly Insider-exclusive Q&A series with industry leaders.

You were introduced to the notion of better beer while touring Europe with your band in the 1990s. What was it about Germany’s beer culture that inspired you most? 

Bob: We played in 14 cities and every one had their own brewery that the locals were super proud of. I thought that was really cool and it was something that wasn’t going on at home yet.

What similarities do you see between the music and beer industries? Is there anything craft brewers can learn from music? 

Bob: Making beer is kind of like writing a great song. It’s hard to find the right formula but when it hits, you know it. The process of creating a beer can be like writing a song in the studio where you have your initial song or recipe, then you go back to fine tune it.

Asbury Park just celebrated the grand opening of its new brewery. What are your goals for the new space? 

Bob: We are really excited to be reopened with a space to bring some of our new recipes to life and have the chance to interact with our customers, both new and old. Our goal is to continue to be creative with our beer and create a space for music lovers to discover new music and artists. Jon Stewart actually played his first show with his new band Church and State at our tasting room a few weeks ago. 

Insiders can read more from McLynn, including how the brewery has benefitted from New Jersey’s restrictive taproom laws being lifted, collaborating with Rutgers University and The Stone Pony and what’s keeping him up at night.

Sunkey Beverage Holdings has closed on its acquisition of Silver Eagle Beverages, an independent Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesaler in 13 counties in southwest Texas, including Bexar County (San Antonio).

The deal adds nearly 16 million cases annually to Sunkey’s business, with key suppliers including Anheuser-Busch, Constellation Brands and Mark Anthony Brands, as well as other domestic and import beers, craft offerings and non-alcoholic beverages and waters.

Additionally, Sunkey named Greg Mitchell as president and Tim Mitchell as CEO of Silver Eagle Beverages.

Silver Eagle employs more than 500 workers, with warehouses in San Antonio and Del Rio and a depot in Carrizo Springs.

Sunkey operates distributors in Florida, Arkansas and Texas.

Athletic Brewing is not the only non-alc beer brand bringing in new capital, albeit not quite as much.

Chicago-based NA brand Visitor Beer announced the closing of a $1 million equity financing round this week with a cheeky toast to the segment’s biggest name. 

Visitor co-founder David Gallagher said the round was led by “music industry veterans and beverage/CPG heavyweights.”

Gallagher met co-founder Rob Jensen while working together in sales at music publication Pitchfork. The two went on to open brand studio DBA Partners in 2016 before launching Visitor in 2022, which has leaned into the co-founders’ connections in music to focus distribution with on-premise accounts like live event venues.

Visitor makes a lightly hopped, gluten-reduced NA lager but is preparing to launch Visitor Extra, a non-alc IPA, later this month. The NA brand is available in eight states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, California, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) in retailers such as Target, Whole Foods, Total Wine & More and Binny’s.

Earlier this week, Athletic Brewing announced it had closed on a $50 million equity financing round, with the proceeds going to purchasing and upgrading a former Ballast Point facility in San Diego and expanding to international markets.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for beer at home remained unchanged in June at +3.1% year-over-year (YoY), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

Beer at home outpaced the CPI for alcoholic beverages overall (+1.8%), alcoholic beverages at home (+1.7%), distilled spirits (+0.8%) and wine (+1%) at home before seasonal adjustment. Alcoholic beverages overall and alcoholic beverages at home each increased +0.2% month-over-month (MoM), while spirits at home increased +0.6% MoM. However, wine at home declined -0.1% MoM after seasonal adjustment.

The CPI for beer at home also slightly outpaced the CPI for all items, which stood at +3% before seasonal adjustment. The CPI for all items in June fell -0.1% MoM on a seasonally adjusted basis, after remaining static in May. 

The CPI for beer away from home increased +2.9% YTD in June, increasing +0.2% MoM after recording a -0.1% decline from April to May. The CPI for beer away from home outpaced overall alcoholic beverages in the on-premise (+2.1%), wine away from home (+2.4%) and spirits away from home (+1.9%). However, spirits away from home increased +0.5% MoM with seasonal adjustment. 

Insiders can go deeper into price increases at off-premise retailers, including which two segments have taken more than $1 in increases. 

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.

Allagash Brewing Company offered a teaser for a different kind of hazy in its latest email blast. 

The Portland, Maine-headquartered craft brewery shared an image of its upcoming Allagash Hazy IPA (6.7% ABV) but there’s a catch. It’ll only be available at the brewery’s tasting room. 

“Like a vibrant Maine sunset, this hazy IPA’s panorama of juicy and tropical hop notes are brewed to help you take a moment, and take it all in.”

No details yet on a release date. Hazy IPA will join a growing number of tasting room exclusive offerings, including Allagash Hop Water, a non-alcoholic offering available in 6-packs, Wild Blueberry Wines and Dry Ciders.

Earlier this week, the Beer Institute (BI), the trade group that represents all brewers including the largest, announced Allagash joined its ranks.