News

In this issue, Sierra Nevada lays out its 2025 plans, A-B makes a deal to sell distro branches in MA and OH, Oregon’s hop crop declines double digits, NIQ offers a halftime bev-alc report on the Brewbound Podcast and Zoe shares her Bahamian beer haul.

Party punch maker BeatBox hosted its first national sales meeting in Houston, which had the feel of a Meow Wolf, with a faux convenience store decked out in neon, a trippy giant mushroom-covered hard tea garden, a Las Vegas-themed area with casino games, a lab for new innovations with “scientists” that looked strikingly like Rick of Rick and Morty Adult Swim fame and the usual presentations about the coming year.

Rachel Kiley was the first-ever employee at Atlanta-based Monday Night Brewing when it opened in 2012, joining as sales director and working her way up to chief operating officer. After helping lead the brewery’s expansion to six locations across four states and 21,000 barrels of beer produced in 2023, Kiley has stepped down to become CEO of Sneaky Spirits, the brand she founded with her husband, Peter.

New Belgium Brewing eliminated the roles of seven employees Thursday as part of a reorganization of its sales and marketing structure, a spokesperson told Brewbound.

While many annual business plans over the next couple months will likely include fourth-category innovations, Sierra Nevada is focused on continuing to innovate with “beer-flavored beer.”

Beverage-alcohol’s growing “fourth category” of flavor-first offerings are quickly becoming a “mega category,” NIQ VP of alcohol industry thought leadership Jon Berg shared on the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) has reached agreements to sell wholly owned distributor branches in Massachusetts and Ohio to independent A-B distributors in each state, the company announced today.

If craft beer had a Bizarro World, a place where everything was the opposite of its current state, it would be Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of New Trail Brewing.

Music festival season is in full swing, and this year it’s seeing more than just psychedelic costumes and light shows. The music industry is nothing if not eager to tap into youth trends; in this case, it’s the rising popularity of non-alcoholic beverages from across categories that’s manifesting at concert venues nationwide.

The consumer price index (CPI) for beer both at home and away in July continued to outpace overall inflation and the CPI for the rest of the beverage-alcohol industry, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Tilray Brands announced “a definitive agreement” with Molson Coors Beverage Company to acquire four craft beer brands in its Tenth & Blake division.

Ya know, some days … being on TV is harder than it looks, folks (#funfact – I’ve done a few TV appearances of my own, and no, Zoe, none were via footage on the local news). The team at KREM-TV in Spokane was reporting on a beer-naming contest that EASTERN WASHINGTON U was holding with the NO-LI Brewery to give a new name to the Eagle Ale (working title) that they were making together

The adult non-alc industry was rocked in April when pioneering retailer Boisson shut its nine physical stores and filed for bankruptcy. Now, many non-alc (NA) brands are still asking questions about the closure, while others are finding opportunity in a growing landscape.

Eric LeGrand’s life was changed in 2010, when he became paralyzed while playing football as a defensive tackle for Rutgers University. The end of his athletic career marked the start of his entrepreneurial path, leading to his latest venture launched last year: Eric LeGrand Bourbon.