New Products

Ninety-five percent of bev-alc brand launches fail, according to Gustavo Aguirre, VP of brand innovation at investment firm InvestBev. Aguirre spoke during BevNET’s Spirits Sunday event in Marina del Rey, California. Aguirre was joined by GHJ advisory partner Maria Pearman and 5:30 Somewhere founder Dale LeFlam.

After 18 months of learning about the U.S. bev-alc market, California-based hard kombucha brand Mate Maker is ready to expand its portfolio and its distribution, and wants consumers to come along for the ride.

Kirin-owned New Belgium Brewing and Bell’s Brewery both built their foundations on amber ales. More than three decades later, their portfolios look a little different, in very intentional moves to stay relevant with the rapidly changing bev-alc market, CEO Shaun Belongie shared during Beer Marketer’s Insights’ seminar, held this week in New York City.

Duvel USA-owned Boulevard’s beyond beer offshoot Quirk is tea-ing up a 2025 innovation slate that touches on hot trends in the fourth category. Quirk Hard Tea (4% ABV) will roll out in early 2025 with a standalone lemonade tea offering and a variety pack, executives announced to wholesalers during Duvel USA’s virtual wholesaler summit last week.

Boulevard Brewing is looking to the final frontier for its 2025 brand plan. The Duvel USA-owned, Kansas City, Missouri-based craft brewery has elevated its Space Camper brand family to its No. 1 priority, executives shared during a live-streamed presentation of its annual business plan for wholesalers last week.

Hollywood star Tom Holland’s new non-alcoholic (NA) beer brand Bero debuts today with three styles, backed by consumer product-centric investment firm Imaginary Ventures and led by CEO John Herman, an energy drink veteran with 20 years of experience.

Allagash Brewing is opening up its playbook in 2025 to hit key growth areas within craft. The Portland, Maine-based craft brewery’s lineup for next year includes the addition of Allagash Lager and Hazy IPA to the company’s year-round lineup, as well as a year-round variety pack that will be available across the company’s Northeast footprint.

San Diego-headquartered JuneShine is adding another product line to its expanding portfolio, but the latest addition is outside of the beverage-alcohol realm. The maker of hard kombucha, spirits-based canned cocktails and light lagers will expand its repertoire with non-alcoholic (NA) kombucha under the JuneShine brand.

Duvel Moortgat-owned Firestone Walker is staying in the beer category in 2025, and believes beer can still speak to consumer needs – even the consumers who “don’t know they like beer yet.”

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.

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.”

Hulk Hogan is getting into the beer business, lending his name and image to Real American Beer, a new light lager brand that launched Thursday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

Schilling Cider has no plans to jump on the hard tea train, but the Pacific Northwest cidery still plans to meet similar consumer demand with its latest product launch: Schilling Hard Lemonade.

Firestone Walker is the latest top craft player to enter the non-alcoholic (NA) beer space by leveraging the brand equity of its biggest brand. 8ZERO5 blonde, an NA version of the Duvel Moortgat-owned craft brewery’s 805 flagship, will only be available in its home state of California following Labor Day.