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.
Irish cider and beer maker C&C Group has sold Woodchuck Cider maker Vermont Cider Company (VCC) to Northeast Drinks Group, a privately owned holding company.
Spindrift is going hard. The Newton, Massachusetts-based premium sparkling water brand announced today the launch of Spindrift Spiked, a hard seltzer line rolling out to stores next month. Similar to the brand’s core non-alcoholic products, the new line is made with real fruit juice and contains alcohol fermented from cane sugar with a 4% ABV.
The May 1 launch of a line of hard seltzers branded with fast-food chain Sonic’s name and proprietary beverage flavors has the potential to make Oklahoma City craft brewery COOP Ale Works a player in the $4 billion hard seltzer segment, president Sean Mossman told Brewbound.
No- and low-alcohol offerings as a “potential market disruptor” for the beer category, growing retail sales to $3 billion by 2025, according to a new research report from Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog.
Sarasota, Florida-based JDub’s Brewing is alive and about to launch a new flagship offering, following its April 2020 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing thanks to a partnership with Orlando-based contract brewer Brew Theory.
A cidermaker and a craft brewer wanted to open a bar, so they founded a distillery. It’s complicated, but it’s the origin story behind the Bale Breaker and Yonder Taproom, set to open this summer in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, thanks to a piece of legislation passed in 2020.
Truly Hard Seltzer boosted Boston Beer Company’s 2020 revenue to $1.74 billion, but production of the popular bubbly beverage remains a drag on the company’s gross margins, the company reported during its full-year and fourth quarter earnings report Wednesday.
Hard seltzer dollar sales at convenience stores are increasing at nearly double the rates of the rest of the off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm NielsenIQ. Over the last four weeks(ending February 6), off-premise dollar sales of hard seltzers increased 105% at convenience stores compared to the same period last year, while sales increased 55.9% in food (+55.9%) and 59.9% in drug stores.
Ten hard kombucha makers are linking up to launch a national campaign to drive awareness and education of the emerging segment over the next five days in the lead up to “World Kombucha Day” on February 21.
The lemonade seltzer competition is picking up, as White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands announced today that its Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer brand extension is now hitting retail shelves nationwide. Meanwhile, RBC Capital’s Nik Modi recently shared a study that found the hard seltzer segment “is far from its peak and could grow another 150% by 2025.”
Anheuser-Busch InBev will invest $1 billion over the next two years in its U.S. facilities, with part of the investment directed at improving its hard seltzer production capabilities.
Oregon breweries looking to cash in on the $4.1 billion hard seltzer market need to consider the ingredients they choose to produce it, as the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s (OLCC) classification of the bubbly beverage varies by base ingredients.
Cigar City Brewing (CCB), Florida’s leading craft brewery, has announced the release of Boat Drinks Mixed 12-Pack, a variety pack of four citrus-focused beverages. One of the first beer-seltzer combination packages to hit store shelves, the pack combines three cans each of Margarita Gose German-style Sour Ale, Paloma Gose German-style Sour Ale, Citrus Siesta Golden Ale and Meyer Lemonade Seltzer.
Like countless other beverage companies, XED (pronounced “crossed”) Beverages saw its growth plans for 2020 turned upside down with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Now — one year, one rebrand and one reformulation later — co-founders Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow are looking to pick up from where they never got a chance to start.
