Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, January 20, 2024.

Remember when football and beer was a thing? Yeah, I don’t either. Anyone recall seeing any beer ads in the big NFL Super Wildcard weekend games? 

In keeping a pretty keen eye on the two Monday games this week (I missed a couple mins here and there, but saw the vast majority of both games), here was the tally I saw in both games combined:

• BUD LIGHT: two 15-second Peyton/Emmett ads;
• MILLER LITE: three 15-second c-store “96 Calories” ads;
• HEINEKEN: one 30-second “How do you say HEINEKEN around the world” ad.

Yes, that was the beer business’ entire representation during one big day of NFL football, and I wouldn’t say there was much more than that in games last Saturday or Sunday either. #Yikes

AND: Zoe has the very latest and greatest here from CIDERCON this week, for all of you … uh, apple heads out there (🤷). 

PLUS: Yes, DRIZLY will be no more as of the end of March, so sadly you’ll have to actually get out of your house in April. Well, or uh, use UBER EATS.

Uh, the good kind of bill … as Gov. Phil Murphy signed the long (long) in the works craft brewery reforms into law. So, now breweries can just opt to give tours of their facilities to the five people who want them instead of forcing everyone to take one.

Plus, they can show things on TVs in taprooms, sell snacks and non-alc beverage options, and no more only being able to drink lagers with your left hand – although I’m pretty sure Jess was just f’in with me on that one.

Also a bonus – the bill at least makes some small steps toward overall liquor license reform, requiring inactive licenses to be surrendered at a certain point and other steps in the right direction at least.

PLUS: NJ will now just have one state brewers guild, which … is probably for the best. They’re going with the Brewers Guild of NJ name, and Alexis Degan, who led the New Jersey Brewers Association, will assume the role of executive director. Eric Orlando will be their government affairs counsel.

They’re buying it from PE firm ORKILA Capital, based in NYC, who previously held a 49% stake in MIKKELLER per The Drinks Business, and will continue to maintain a position in the company going forward.

Brewery founder Mikkel Bjergsø is maintaining his controlling interest in the business as well, and CEO title/

BWC released its list of the top 25 craft growth brands for 2023 based on NIQ data, and here are the ledes:

• NEW BELGIUM owned 7 of them (4 VOODOO, 3 BELL’S), and NBB was the top craft brand family for 2023, +18.2% in sales to $514 million. 
• ATHLETIC had 5 (with Run Wild leading the way at No. 5), and finished the year as the No. 15 brand family in craft sales, which were +80.6% YoY (volume was +79.2%).

They were the only two brands in the top 10 to increase both volume and sales in 2023.

Here’s the 2023 off-prem top 15 craft list at large:

1. Molson Coors craft portfolio: ($551.1 million, -7.7% dollar sales);

2. New Belgium: ($514.8 million, +18.2%... and note, Bell’s is also on the list here at #11);

3. Anheuser-Busch InBev’s craft portfolio ($464.6 million, -1.5%);

4. Sierra Nevada ($357 million, +4.3%);

5. Boston Beer ($310.9 million, -4.3%);

6. Tilray Brands ($211 million, -4.8%);

7. Heineken/Lagunitas ($178.8 million, -7.5%);

8. Gambrinus/Shiner ($135.59 million, -0.7%);

9. Founders ($125.9 million, +2.2%);

10. Firestone Walker ($122.1 million, -2.9%);

11. Bell’s Brewery ($112.4 million, +6.5%);

12. Monster Beverage/CANarchy ($97.1 million, -5.6%);

13. Artisanal Brewing Ventures ($92.3 million, +2.7%);

14. Sapporo/Stone ($87.98 million, -1%);

15. Athletic ($79.6 million, +81.4%).

Meet the new line of ABSOLUT + OCEAN SPRAY canned sparkling cocktails, coming in mixed 8-pack 355ml cans of Vodka Cranberry, Vodka Cran-Grape, Vodka Cran-Pineapple and Vodka Cran-Raspberry.

Which, OK, fine … but that’s just 4 varietals – what am I supposed to have with my breakfast on Fridays? 🙄

Maybe I’ll just have a new 9.5% ABV Cherry Limeade SWEETWATER Gummies IPA –  I’m sure that has a reasonable calorie count … plus, it’s always good to start the day with original German traditions.

WELDWERKS BREWING CO

Staff Brewer - Greely CO

STARR HILL BREWERY

Director of Retail Operations - Crozet, VA

SWITCHBACK BREWING CO

NH Sales Manager - Manchester, NH

🤝 GOT A JOB

LAGUNITAS hired former HEINEKEN exec Peter Green as its new head of sales, effective March 1. 

AZ/NM distributor HENSLEY Beverage promoted their CCO Andy McCain up to the CEO role, after 27 years with the company. 

Former NEW BELGIUM CEO Steve Fechheimer has joined the board of hard tea maker JIANT. 

😪 LEAVING A JOB

SAPPORO-STONE CEO Maria Stipp is leaving the company next week. CFO Zachary Keeling will serve as interim CEO after that until a new leader is found. 

Well, at least according to CIRCANA off-prem data for 2023, which has CONSTELLATION beating MOLSON COORS for the No. 2 sales slot by … uh, $11.7 million on $8.45 billion in sales, but hey, a win’s a win.

• CONSTELLATION: sales +14.9%, volume +11.1%
• MC: sales +11.2%, volume +6.9%

Oh, right! A-B 😂. Yeah they’re still tops with $12.3 billion in sales across grocery and c-stores, but the trends are probably what you expect:

• Grocery: sales -11.3%, volume -13.4%
• C-store: sales -7.4%, volume -11%

Overall share of off-prem (grocery + C-store) beer sales in 2023:

• A-B: 32.08% (-3.8%)
• CONSTELLATION: 18.44% (+1.44%)
• MOLSON COORS: 18.41% (+1.41%)

Total beer in off-prem (grocery + c-store):

• Sales: +2.6% ($45.8 billion)
• Volume: -1.7% (1.53 billion cases)

Man, this week’s episode is the best one ever! They have this really sharp guy on who does this weekend BREWBOUND newsletter who … OK, fine, it’s me.

I’m gonna say the A through L’s in Justin’s rolodex were all a pass on this week’s pod, but it was great to dive into the 2023 numbers together and talk about uh… well, just where craft is in 2024, and how it can avoid having an exact same narrative by end of 2024. Doing the same thing here in the new year isn’t gonna cut it.

PLUS: We dive into the DRIZLY thing #RIP and of course get some Jersey talk in and more.

Listen Here!

• DIAGEO and Diddy have reached resolution agreement – no details released, but their business ties are severed, and CIROC vodka and DELEON tequila remain in the DIAGEO family.
• CA craft stalwart BAGBY Brewing announced it’s closing in Oceanside, and that neighbor GREEN CHEEK will be taking over its space later in Q1.
• NEW BELGIUM is going lager in SoCal, as they’ve taken a minority investment in LA’s OPEN Brewing, which NEW BELGIUM contract brews already. The beer hit shelves in December 2023. 
• KROGER and ALBERTSONS have pushed the close date for their merger deal to end of FY24 in August while they … ya know, have a few more words with the Feds. Sure, it’s fine.

This week’s beer is going out to craft breweries who emphasize traditions in their community. As Justin and I discussed on this week’s BREWBOUND podcast, as craft searches for its way (and more importantly, renewed growth) in the post-COVID world – meaning something to the drinkers in your area is an increasingly important thing to emphasize.

Two stalwarts of the craft beer community announced their plans to continue doing that, yet again.

First up is one of the grandest craft traditions of them all, Oberon Day, which the folks at BELL’S announced will be held on March 25 this year in Kalamazoo.

Next up are the folks at WI’s LAKEFRONT Brewing, who announced their annual “Renew Your Vows” on Valentine’s Day event will happen, well, on February 14. OK that one is a little less of a save-the-date info reveal, and more uh, here are the hours to come do it kind of thing.

Nevertheless, both are examples of breweries establishing and maintaining ongoing annual events in their communities that people look forward to (and also will get the breweries free press!) at a time when the craft sector may be doing a little soul searching about what’s ahead.

I’m still shocked (well, maybe mildly surprised) that GOOSE ISLAND didn’t turn its really fun 2019 ‘double doink’ snow field goal 🏈 kicking competition into an annual tradition #MissedOpportunity. Then again, given the footage from that event, maybe the A-B legal department put the kibosh on future editions 🦵.

Slainté!  

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)