Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Well, anyone planning on doing a Carl Spackler-style “cannonball” at this year’s Oktoberfest needs to re-strategize. Yes, the Germans have totally pulled a narc move and are banning the smoking of marijuana at this year’s Oktoberfest celebrations. 

Then again – smelling weed smoke wafting inside a beer tent all afternoon is not the most appealing idea, so this is really for the best. Plus, going to Oktoberfest to smoke weed is a bit like going to GABF to, well, smoke weed too actually. The analogy holds 🧐.

AND: 85. That’s how many Black-owned breweries were among the uh, 9,683 U.S. BA-defined craft breweries in 2023, according to NB2A executive director Kevin Asato.

PLUS: Sending a kudos out to RUSSIAN RIVER for donating a 20 BBL brewhouse to a TBA member of the NB2A, and for assisting in trucking and setting up equipment with whichever Black brewer is chosen to receive it. Well done! 

PLINY definitely now has my vote for president.

First, the BREWBOUND Week in Beer award goes out to the WBC judge who picked the best Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale from … 326 entries 🤯. Thanks for donating your palate to an awards competition, and I hope things stop tasting like Mosaic hops for you by June. Kudos to Chicago’s OLD IRVING for being the Mosaic’est! (and yes, I know several judges participate – but uh, that ruins my joke 🙄)  

West-Coast Style IPA was next in popularity with 281 entries (and was thankfully won by a West Coast brewery, Long Beach, CA’s ISM Brewing).

Plus – a shout out to Jersey! KANE Brewing won the Wood & Barrel-Aged Strong Stout category, standing out from the 198 entrants with their Dripping Maple beer, and winning a category that they also won in 2016.

Ah, there’s nothing Justin loves more after coming home from a 3-day #beerbiz confab ... then going right into an earnings call breakdown (BOSTON BEER below) ... and then having a late Friday afternoon breaking news story. Then again, when you’re the boss – well, I’ll just say Zoe & Jess did a fine job reporting the story yesterday.

But yes, it’s a (non-Bruins) Massachusetts power play! JACK’S ABBY will buy WORMTOWN, and the two breweries will exist together under a newly created HENDLER FAMILY Brewing Co. outfit, with the deal expected to close in early June.

They’ll have 110K BBL of capacity, and jobs will be offered to “the vast majority of current non-ownership” staff at WORMTOWN. 

No word on a price or any financials here, and it sounds like the two brands will continue to exist on their own (i.e. no pouring each other’s beer in taprooms etc).

“Why? Because the juice can speak for itself. And if all ego is cast aside – don’t care what my color is, don’t care what my gender is – and if all of that wasn’t put aside so the juice spoke for itself, I would not be sitting here right now.”

KINGS COUNTY BREWERS COLLECTIVE (KCBC)

NYC Sales Rep – NYC, NY

STORMALONG CIDER

Packaging Manager – Mills, MA

BROUWERIJ WEST

BWC hired Dan Wendel as its new VP and Chief Strategy Officer. Dan is coming over from a category insights role at MARK ANTHONY.

Looking at CIRCANA data for the week ending April 14, here’s what the YoY changes look like for some top brands in the off-prem:

• BL Hard Seltzer: -53%
• TRULY: -23.5%
• TOPO CHICO Hard Seltzer: -20.8%
• WHITE CLAW: +0.2%

BUD family dollars were also -14% YoY, vs. the initial days of the BUD LIGHT collapse.

Hey, it’s better than Q1 ‘23 ... where shipments were -7.6%, and depletions -6%.

Here’s the Q1 BOSTON BEER picture this year:

• Shipments (sales to wholesalers): +0.9%
• Depletions (sales to retailers) were flat
• Revenue: +3.9% YoY ($426 million)
• Net Income (profit): $12.6 million (was -$9 million Q1 ‘23)

As for what’s driving the numbers: TWISTED TEA 👆, TRULY 👇.

The Philly-based RTD maker announced they’re expanding distro to 40 states this year (they were in 17 in 2023), and introducing 5 new SKUs across lemonade and tea products. 

While they see potential in CA, TX and OH, they’ll still keep the main focus on their core Mid-Atlantic states that they launched in just two years ago.

This week’s pod welcomes BWC’s Dave Williams and Brian “BK” Krueger (wait, Dave owns a tie?) to talk Q1 sales trends, spring resets, and what trends seem to be sticking as a result of the great BL plummet of 2023. 

PLUS: The BREWBOUND trio discuss what stood out for them most from the opening chats and presentations from the stage at CBC, and Jess’ hater vibes around the new TSwift opus.

Listen Here!

ANOTHER TWO-FER!: Yes, a second pod this week once again, featuring 3 guests during the Cali Craft Beer Summit:

• NORTH COAST Brewing CEO Jennifer Owen 
• Tom McCormick, the former executive director of the CCBA
• HopXL’s Eric Duchin

Listen Here!

• NOLA’s FAUBOURG’s brewery assets are expected to get about $2 million at an upcoming auction in June, despite a previous $30 million investment in the brewery from Gayle Benson, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. 
• KROGER and ALBERTSONS agreed to divest an additional 166 locations as their latest gesture to get their merger deal done. That brings the total offering up to 579 stores, the large majority from the Western U.S. 
• FX MATT bought an RTD brand called ‘MERICAN MULE Canned Cocktails, based in CT. The company distributes its spirits-based RTDs across 18 states, although no word on a sale price here.
• Brewpub production took a -4% hit last year according to Bart Watson (the rise of to-go/delivery in the restaurant space certainly not helping). 

This week’s beer is actually going out to the packaged foods industry – it turns out the beer business isn’t the only industry searching for new occasions! 

According to Bloomberg, the mantra of this year’s festivities at the Consumer Analyst Group’s packaged foods confab (referred to as CAGNY) in Boca Raton was yes, finding ways to increase occasions for their products, as the processed foods reputation (and sales) have taken a hit in recent years … and yes, the popular bev-alc topic of Ozempic effects has also become an increasing part of the conversation.

Thus, the presentations were full of creative ideas, like how to incorporate DORITOS into dinner recipes (the perfect pairing for your DORITOS liquor), and how FROSTED FLAKES make for a perfectly sensible dinner, according to a WK KELLOG exec. Clearly, they should be holding this conference on a college campus and not in Boca Raton.

So beer biz – you’re not alone, and I actually think CBC and CAGNY should totally join forces. I mean, a conference with free beer samples a plenty  ... combined with a conference where tables in the coffee lounge are “covered with packaged cupcakes” and breakfasts offer “dozens of kinds of cereal”? Where do we sign up?!

I don’t think I even need to mention the potential for some all-time killer pastry-beer collabs. Get on it, CBC 2025 🍰.

Slainté!  

-Sean McNulty