Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, December 14, 2024.

Yes, I’m back after a week off doing a vacation (ish) in Ireland and England! What’s that? Yes, Zoe, there was no Week in Beer newsletter last week. Thanks for noticing.

While I didn’t do anywhere near as much pubbing or craft beer tasting as I did on my trips to London in the 2010s (great to see The Craft Beer Co. pub chain still going strong though!) … I still did a fair share of hopping into pubs to see what’s on tap.

Gotta say my main takeaway in London was that A-B has really gotten CAMDEN TOWN Hells Lager all over the place, resulting in far less HEINEKEN and KRONENBOURG on tap … at least to my own memory.

While over in Dublin, I was very pleased to see this 0.0 tap in a sports pub where I watched some NFL games, not very far from the brewery itself.

OH: The TTB announced a list of 24 brewing ingredients that are now exempt from its formula submission and approval requirements, including things like cucumber, lavender and bananas. That sound you hear in the background is the Germans falling over laughing.

While that wasn’t the title of the BA’s 2024 Year in Beer recap, it might as well have been. Final numbers are still pending of course, but it’s looking likely that BA craft beer volume will be worse than the -2% projected at mid-year.

Either way, that’s already worse than the -1% seen in 2023.

The total brewery count is also on the decline according to the latest numbers, at net -25:

• 2023: 9,761 breweries
• 2024: 9,736 breweries

Closings outpaced openings (399 vs. 335) in 2024 for the first time since the early 2000s.

Just looking at the amount of brewing equipment on the market alone makes none of this a surprise, of course, but good to have the official numbers from Bart.

BUT: The GABF did have over 40k attendees this year! While nowhere near the heights of previous years … 40k people still decided to attend/travel to the biggest event in craft beer.

MANHATTAN PROJECT BEER CO.

Director of Operations – Dallas, TX

FIDDLEHEAD BREWING

Field Sales Rep – New Jersey

CIVIL SOCIETY BREWING

YUENGLING hired former DESCHUTES exec Neil Stewart as its new field marketing director after a 2-year stint outside of the beer industry. 

95%

Well, it’s dead at least as far as the feds are concerned, as a judge issued a preliminary injunction against the deal, agreeing with the FTC’s case about limiting fair competition in the grocery space.

As ALBERTSONS has now also officially rescinded its offer … and filed a breach of contract lawsuit against KROGER seeking billions of dollars in damages, I’d say the involved parties see this as a dead matter as well.

But hey – nice try, fellas. Have fun in court.

• OH: The FTC has now sued SOUTHERN GLAZER’S over its pricing practices, namely charging smaller “mom and pop” retailers higher prices than larger retailers.
• Future Trump FTC commissioner Andrew Ferguson was among the 2 FTC members dissenting on the action.

This potential $50M infusion is according to a Bloomberg report, with a goal here of helping the contract brewer avoid bankruptcy – which is still also a legitimate potential development for the company with facilities in WI, TN, PA and CA.  

CITY BREWING produces for some of the biggest names in the industry from BOSTON BEER to MARK ANTHONY and PABST.

But the contraction is real – BOSTON BEER made 22% of its 2023 output there, but in 2021 it was 32%, according to info from annual reports.

Beer at home prices were +2.6% in November vs. a year ago, holding steady with the overall inflation rate … but still significantly above the +1.8% for total bev alc.

Spirits were essentially flat vs. a year ago, and wine was up a slight +0.3%. 

This week, check out interviews with three 2024 BREWBOUND Award winners:

• The 2024 Craft Brewery of the Year, CORONADO Brewing Company;
• The 2024 Large Brewery of the Year, NARRAGANSETT Beer;
• And the 2024 Beyond Beer Company of the Year, SURFSIDE.

Listen here!

• Seth Rogen is bringing his marijuana brand HOUSEPLANT into the beverage space, launching 4 SKUs of a THC-infused zero-calorie sparkling water in the U.S.
• TILRAY is also rolling out a line of 5mg Delta-9 THC drinks called HERB & BLOOM across 9 states, which come in flavors that mirror alcohol (margarita, bellini, daiquiri), ya know, just so everyone’s super clear about what these are. Thanks, TILRAY 🙄.
• FUNKYTOWN is doing a fundraising round with a goal of $5M to buy and open a brewery, taproom & beer garden location near Chicago’s UNITED CENTER as part of a wider revitalization effort around the arena. 
• SAZERAC bought the SVEDKA brand from CONSTELLATION, where it made up about 76% of its liquor volume 😳 according to BERNSTEIN’s Nadine Sarwat. No price was disclosed, but SVEDKA’s sales are -6.2% over the L52W ending Nov. 2, according to NIQ data, and the brand fell to #8 on the vodka brand list this year behind ABSOLUT.
• SUNTORY is creating a business unit focused on the FMB and RTD market called SUNTORY RTD COMPANY NORTH AMERICA. Always love the direct title approach, said the author of the Week In Beer newsletter. The first product called Maru-Hi will begin rolling out in January. SUNTORY is already the #1 FMB company in Japan, the #2 RTD market in the world behind the U.S.
• ALLAGASH is returning to Colorado after 20 years because it realized it forgot one of its mittens there. Jane says she’s been holding it for you and will gladly trade it for a keg of White (yes, a keg – I mean, it’s been 20 years dude).

Ah right! I’m not telling anyone to go to Southern California this week! Although you’re certainly welcome to go … it’s just that Justin won’t be there (except in his mind when he walks outside into the 32 degree Des Moines air with freezing rain in today’s forecast).

Congrats to all of the BREWBOUND AWARD winners this year, even if somehow I yet again didn’t win the best weekly newsletter award.

But HURRAY’S GIRL BEER did win Pitch Slam, so a kudos to that team as well!

This week’s beer goes out to Oktoberfest beers for kicking pumpkin beers’ asses during this fall seasonal uh, season. 

Lester Jones shared this nice chart here from the folks at FINTECH in a webinar last week illustrating the dominance (well done on the Beerfest addition there – who says data nerds don’t have fun?).

The top 2 Octoberfest beers increased their market share in the fall seasonals segment, while the top 2 pumpkin beers lost market share.

It’s nice to see some sanity returning to the beer consumer in addition to its usual return to my refrigerator this September. I do what I can, folks – although how is AYINGER only at #9?! Guess I gotta step up my game next year.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty