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.
As beer companies look to non-beer products such as hard seltzer to buoy their businesses, many are beginning to reimagine themselves as craft beverage companies. “If you can think as a beverage company, there’s so much more whitespace that you can play in,” CANarchy Craft Brewing Collective president Matt Fraser shared during Brewbound’s final Brew Talks meetup of 2019.
Constellation Brands has once again promoted Mallika Monteiro. Last Friday, the New York-headquartered maker of Mexican import brands Corona, Modelo and Pacifico appointed Monteiro as executive vice president and chief growth and strategy officer. Meanwhile, Ceria Beverages, which makes THC-infused, non-alcoholic beers, has appointed Greg Miller as its first vice president of business development.
Starbucks, Apple, Tesla … and White Claw? Anthony von Mandl, the founder of White Claw parent company Mark Anthony Brands, told thousands of beer wholesalers Tuesday during the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s Annual Convention that his company is a disruptor in the vein of those iconic brands.
Call it a scoop. Call it a shill. Either way, Adam Schefter made news today about the relationship between the NFL and Anheuser-Busch InBev. Schefter, the ESPN NFL insider known for breaking the league’s biggest scoops via his Twitter account — including last weekend’s retirement of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck — announced this morning that Anheusr-Busch InBev-owned Bon & Viv is now the “Official Hard Seltzer Sponsor of the NFL.”
Lighthouse Strategies — the maker of the Cannabiniers and Two Roots lines of cannabis-infused non-alcoholic craft beers – announced today plans to roll out a line of non-infused, non-alcoholic craft beers. Starting in September, Two Roots’ non-alcoholic beers will be available in 145 BevMo! stores throughout California.
Four Loko maker Phusion Projects plans to launch a 14% ABV hard seltzer sometime in the fourth quarter of 2019. The Four Loko Twitter account teased the launch Tuesday night, posting an image of the forthcoming seltzer that quickly garnered 76,700 likes and 21,400 retweets, as of press time. Phusion Projects co-founder and managing partner Jaisen Freeman confirmed to Brewbound that Four Loko Seltzer will be introduced later this year.
Boston Beer Company is asking consumers to ditch their old alcoholic beverages and drink what they “Truly want” — hard seltzer. The company, which makes the Truly Hard Seltzer brand, today unveiled five, 15-second commercials featuring comedian and actor Keegan-Michael Key that are part of a national advertising campaign for the 100-calorie, 5 percent ABV seltzer. Those ads began airing today across television and all digital channels.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Pyramid owner FIFCO USA settles a lawsuit with its Alehouse staff; Manhattan Beer Distributors and its delivery drivers battle over alleged ‘wage theft;’ Left Hand enters the CBD-infused, non-alcoholic drink market; New Delhi bans A-B InBev for three years; and more news bites.
The global cannabis market today — both legal and illicit — stands at $344 billion, according to New Frontier Data. With only an estimated 263 million users worldwide, the segment is poised for tremendous growth as regulatory barriers break down and consumers become more interested in the space.
Nine Pin Ciderworks, New York’s first farm cidery, announced the release of Cucumber Lime Light Cider, the first in the company’s new light cider series that honors New York cider’s colonial roots.
Canopy Growth Corporation (TSE: WEED) today announced that co-CEO Bruce Linton has stepped down as chief executive and board member. However, Linton, who co-founded the company in 2013, called into CNBC to clarify that he was fired from the world’s largest cannabis company.
There is another mate joining from across the pond. Magners® Irish Cider is bringing new innovation to the US for the first time in a while with Magners Berry. Magners Berry has been a fan favorite overseas, and the Magners US team has received many requests to bring it stateside.
Lighthouse Strategies — the company behind Cannabiniers and the Two Roots line of CBD- and THC-infused non-alcoholic craft beers – is closing in on its next brewery acquisition. Speaking to Brewbound, CEO and chairman Michael Hayford said the company could finalize the purchase of a craft beer company in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. before the end of June.
Baltimore-based independent brewery, Heavy Seas Beer (Clipper City Imports, a division of Clipper City Brewing LP), of Baltimore Maryland, announced today the launch of E.Krispers Cider.
