Read the latest beyond beer news relating to companies involved with RTD cocktails, hard cider, hard seltzer, hard kombucha, spirits, cannabis, and non-alcoholic products. Take a comprehensive look at developments in these evolving sectors, offering valuable insights into the innovations, trends, and market forces shaping the world of beer and beyond.
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Former Angry Orchard head cider maker Ryan Burk has joined Blake’s Beverage Company as VP of quality and innovation. Burk has been advising Blake’s and its portfolio of brands – Blake’s Hard Cider, Austin Eastciders and AVID Cider Co. – for a couple years, including through the launch of its most recent innovations.
Allagash Brewing is launching its first non-alcoholic (NA) offering this week with the release of Allagash Hop Water. Hop Water will exclusively be sold in 12 oz. can 6-packs at the brewery’s tasting room in Portland, Maine, starting later this week.
The once-booming flavored malt beverage (FMB) segment is “showing some concerning declarations over recent weeks,” Bump Williams Consulting (BWC) founder Bump Williams noted in a recent report. FMB volume gains dropped by half – from +2.2%, to +1.1% – from the four-week period to the one-week period ending May 18, according to NIQ retail measurement data cited by BWC.
New hard tea and hard lemonade brands continue to populate shelves, while the No. 1 hard tea brand continues to grow its share, despite being more than 20 years in the game.
Schilling Cider continues to grow, despite abstaining from adding new markets for the immediate future, and making just one distribution change in 2023.
Momentum Brewery has recently stomped its footprint in the non-alcoholic beverage category with the debut of two ground-breaking near beers: Momentum Golden and Momentum Hazy IPA.
The beer distributor route-to-market has served fourth category brands like BeatBox and Stateside Vodka’s Surfside hard tea and lemonade, but getting in front of the right buyers in the fast-changing category is still “messy.”
AriZona Hard Tea VP of sales Lou Fabiano joins the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the opportunity for the hard tea challenger brand as it attempts to cut into Boston Beer Company’s 90% stranglehold on the market with Twisted Tea.
As another Dry January approaches, the non-alcoholic (NA) category has posted “its largest year of absolute dollar growth in five years,” Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA) CEO Marcos Salazar shared during the trade association’s webinar earlier this month.
In October, cider grew its share of beer dollars in Circana-tracked off-premise channels +0.25% month-over-month (MoM) – an improvement over the segment’s typical fall seasonal declines. The trend change is primarily due to the efforts of National Cider Month, according to leadership at Schilling Cider.
Coca-Cola is bringing another of its juice brands to the bev-alc world. This time, it’s Minute Maid Spiked. The Coca-Cola Company’s bev-alc subsidiary Red Tree Beverages is launching a line of multi-serve wine cocktails under the juice brand in spring 2024.
FIFCO USA-owned Seagram’s Escapes is refreshing its brand family in 2024. Seagram’s Escapes Refreshers will roll out in 15 markets next year, the company announced today. The 5% ABV flavored malt beverage (FMB) is sweetened with cane sugar and fruit juice, according to a press release.
Newcomers in non-alc are climbing up the list of Drizly’s top-selling SKUs, illustrating how brands are continuing to find innovative ways to replace drinking occasions.
When Tilden, a 750 ml ready-to-serve mocktail debuted at the start of the year, the founders used flask-sized sample bottles to pitch their new product in sales meetings.
Boston Beer Company executives made “inactionable statement[s] of corporate optimism” about sales of Truly Hard Seltzer during its Q1 and Q2 earnings calls in 2021, negating a lawsuit and subsequent appeal filed by investors who alleged the company misled them about the brand and company’s performance. A panel of three Second Circuit judges upheld the… Read more »
The Gambrinus Company is attempting to carve out its own slice of the growing non-alcoholic (NA) beer pie with a line of NA Shiner offerings.
Flow Water is continuing to expand operations at its Aurora, Ontario, production facility while simultaneously seeking its divestiture, announcing today a five-year manufacturing partnership with alcoholic RTD party punch maker BeatBox Beverages set to kick off next summer. The deal, due to commence sometime between May and July 2024, marks Flow’s first move into beverage-alcohol… Read more »
