Deschutes Founder/Owner Gary Fish said “For the last 35 years, Black Butte Porter has been the best-selling porter in the nation and Briess has been key to that success”.  We couldn’t agree more. Click to hear Deschutes’ story. Learn More.

Schilling Cider has no plans to jump on the hard tea train, but the Pacific Northwest cidery still plans to meet similar consumer demand with its latest product launch: Schilling Hard Lemonade.

Schilling Hard Lemonade launched last week in three flavors – Imperial Pink Lemonade (8.4% ABV), Imperial Blue Raspberry Lemonade (8.4% ABV) and Guava Lemonade (6.9% ABV). The lemonades are made with full fruit fermentation, and contain no added carbonation, artificial flavors or colors to emphasize the “more natural taste profile” of the premium product.

Schilling co-founder and CEO Colin Schilling told Brewbound: “We’ve been looking for years to diversify the portfolio from Schilling. We’re also looking at categories that are quite frankly bigger than cider as we continue to grow … and lemonade is so within our core competency of being really good with fruit, it’s very fruit forward, [and] we think the full fruit fermentation makes the best possible base for lemonade versus malt or even vodka.” 

Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) have increased dollar sales +10.8% in Circana-tracked off-premise channels year-to-date (YTD) through May 19, the second largest percentage growth in beer behind non-alcoholic beer (+29.1%). In the last 52 weeks (ending June 2), hard  lemonade and hard tea of all alcohol bases increased dollar sales +15.1% and volume +11.7% in Circana-tracked channels, the third largest dollar sales percentage growth among Circana-defined ready-to-drink products (RTDs).

Schilling said: “We’ve always said we want to be the very best partner possible for our distributors and our retailers, and part of that means offering more products to put on their shelves and other things that are going to win in a big way. We’re primarily aligned with Miller [and] Constellation distributors, and for those distributors we have to be a certain dollar figure to justify that they pay attention to us.”

Imperial Pink Lemonade and Imperial Blue Raspberry Lemonade are available in 12 oz. can 6-packs, while Guava Lemonade is available in single-serve 19.2 oz cans, with the lower ABV meeting standards of fill regulations. All three products are now available in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and California. Blue Raspberry is also available for limited release on draft, with Schilling open to a heavier on-premise presence in 2025 with the potential of slushee machine offerings or cocktail collaborations. 

Schilling has been adamant with distributor and retail partners that Schilling Hard Lemonade should be placed next to other FMBs on shelves, rather than in the cider aisle, in a bid to reach core FMB consumers, many of whom are a part of Generation Z, the youngest legal-drinking-age (LDA) demographic. 

“Seeing that hard lemonade and hard tea is 65% of what they [Gen Z] choose if they’re going to choose something to drink, we needed to separate the brand and take some elements from Schilling and incorporate it into that,” Schilling EVP of marketing Rachel Thomas said. 

Schilling Lemonade is the company’s No. 1 priority for the summer, with the company investing $100,000 upfront for the initial launch, its largest new brand investment to date. The investment is already paying off, according to Schilling leadership, with company sales doubling or more every month so far this year.

Insiders can read more, including how Schilling Hard Lemonade is already stacking up against established brands, and how much Schilling raised for non-profits during its latest Keep It Wild campaign.

Delaware craft brewers making fewer than 5,000 barrels annually can now self-distribute up to 1,500 barrels of beer per year to retailers in-state following the adoption of Rule 911 by the Delaware Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABC). The legislation is expected to go into effect this month.

The Delaware Brewers Guild has advocated for the change for the last three years, leading to the introduction of Rule 911 earlier this year, which benefited the state’s smallest craft breweries. The guild argues that requiring small brewers to work with a wholesaler hindered their ability to achieve profitability.

Prior to adoption, Delaware was one of 10 states to prohibit direct sales and deliveries of beer to restaurants and retailers.

Delaware’s 37 craft breweries collectively produced 227,266 barrels of beer in 2023, down from 236,715 barrels in 2022 and the state’s lowest output since 211,280 barrels in 2013.

Registration for the Great American Beer Festival opens today at 10 a.m. MT/noon ET.

Last year’s competition drew 9,298 entries across 99 beer categories and 175 styles, with 263 breweries awarded 303 medals. For 2024, five new cider categories are being added to the competition: 

• Tannic Cider;
• No/Low-Tannin Cider;
• Fruited or Botanical Cider;
• Experimental or Barrel-Aged Cider;
• And Single Varietal Cider.

The 38th annual competition will take place Saturday, October 12. Get all of the competition info here. 

All three bev-alc categories recorded double-digit on-premise sales increases on Mother’s Day compared to the average Sunday in 2024, according to NIQ-owned on-premise data firm CGA.

Wine had the greatest uplift at +77%, followed by beer (+48%) and spirits (+42%). Imports led the beer category, with a +53% lift in sales compared to an average Sunday, CGA reported.

Beer sales more than doubled (+105%) at fine dining restaurants compared to the average Sunday, nearly matched by wine (+93%) and spirits (+91%). 

Still, sales of all bev-alc categories declined compared to Mother’s Day 2023 led by spirits (-8%) and followed by wine (-4%) and beer (-3%), which CGA attributed to “a decrease in quantity across all the alcohol categories.”

Hard seltzer (-20%) recorded the steepest decline from last year, followed by domestic premiums (-3%). Both below premiums (+18%) and imports (+5%) increased sales, according to CGA.

Insiders can read more about recent on-premise trends nationwide, including a +12% increase in sales in the 12-week period ending June 1, and expectations for Father’s Day. 

Total bev-alc dollar sales declined -3.1% year-over-year and -8% week-over-week in Circana-tracked off-premise channels in the week following Memorial Day (ending June 2), the market research firm reported.

Total bev-alc volume also declined (-5% YoY). 

The “anticipated post-Memorial Day pullback” was “reflected across all categories,” Circana’s Scott Scanlon wrote:

• Beer dollar sales -3.8%, volume -5.3%;
• Spirits dollar sales -0.6%, volume -0.7%;
• Wine dollar sales -2.4%, volume -4.7%;
• Ready-to-drink (RTD) dollar sales -2.7%, volume -6.9%.

Scan data is now caught up to nearly halfway through 2024, highlighting the importance of 26-week trends to gauge how bev-alc is performing so far, Scanlon noted. 

He wrote: “It does appear spirits outperformance is cooling, outside of the high growth from spirit-based RTDs. [I] believe beer weekly pullback should not be the focus given the holiday, [and] opportunity still remains for the category during summer selling season.”

Total bev-alc dollar sales were flat in the last 26 weeks, while volume declined -2% YoY. Bev-alc categories performed as follows:

• Beer dollar sales -0.4%, volume -2.1%;
• Spirits dollar sales +3.3%, volume +4.2%;
• Wine dollar sales -1.5%, volume -4.2%:
• RTD dollar sales +5.3%, volume +0.7%.

Brewbound is excited to announce three additional speakers for the Brewbound Live business conference December 11 and 12 in Marina del Rey, California. 

The two-day conference will bring together leaders from all three tiers for business-focused conversations on driving the bev-alc industry forward, data presentations, networking and brand building at the Marina del Rey Marriott. 

Joining the speaker roster are:

• Arthur Moye, owner and CEO of Full Circle Brewing;
• Kaleigh Theriault, director of thought leadership, beverage alcohol vertical, NIQ;
• Brian “BK” Krueger, VP of business development and portfolio strategies, Bump Williams Consulting.

They join previously announced speakers include: 

• Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner, Russian River Brewing;
• Peter Skrbek, CEO, Deschutes Brewery;
• Lester Jones, chief economist and VP of analytics, National Beer Wholesalers Association;
• Jennifer Hauke, founder and president, Draftline Technologies.

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. Interested in speaking? Follow this link to see our speaker guidelines. 

In addition to the mainstage programming and networking parties, Brewbound Live will feature opportunities for one-to-one conversations between brewers and bev-alc brands and retail buyers from chains such as Whole Foods Market. Registered attendees will be considered for meetings with buyers, as space is limited. Find out more details here.

Brewbound Live tickets are available now.