After a successful trial, Constellation Brands will expand its Modelo line extension Oro nationwide in March 2023, the company announced. Modelo Oro – a lower-calorie, lower-carbohydrate light beer intended to appeal to drinkers looking for better-for-them options – was one of several innovation productions Constellation introduced this spring for simultaneous test launches in various markets.

Sierra Nevada announced last week the closure of its Berkeley, California-based Torpedo Room satellite taproom after nearly a decade in business.

Wholesalers gave highest marks to Anheuser-Busch InBev, Boston Beer Company and Constellation Brands Beer Division in Tamarron Consulting’s annual survey of distributors’ perception of key beer industry suppliers.

Non-alcoholic beer, the convenience channel and imports are three bright spots in the beer business for the second quarter of 2022, according to bev-alc data firm 3 Tier Beverages. In this new quarterly series – 3 Up, 3 Down – Stephanie Roatis, 3 Tier consultant, product team, identifies three winners and three losers across bev-alc scan data.

Two and a half years after selling Detroit-based Atwater Brewing to Molson Coors and seven months following his exit from the brewery, Mark Rieth is diving back into the beverage industry with FÜL Beverage, a family of non-alcoholic beers and functional drinks.

Multi-state Pacific Northwest wholesalers Craig Stein Beverage (CSB) and the Odom Corporation have announced an impending merger of their businesses in parts of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. The deal, announced last week, will combine Odom’s territory in eastern Washington and northern Idaho with CSB’s territory in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and southwestern Washington.

Off-premise dollar sales of craft beer have declined -7.4% for the first half of 2022 compared to last year, according to NielsenIQ data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting (BWC). “Rate of decline has slowed a bit in Q2 (-6.4%) vs. Q1 (-8.5%), but the fact of the matter is that sales overall remain in the red, while several other segments have started to show signs of life,” BWC wrote.

What could the sale of a long fiercely independent craft brewery to a global brewing giant mean for consumer sentiment?

Boonville, California-based Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC) will expand to Louisiana with craft house Pelican Craft Brands, the brewery announced this week. Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Foolproof Brewing signed with Mission Beverage for distribution in its home state last month.

Molson Coors will invest in national advertising during Super Bowl LVII, making it the first brewer other than A-B to run an official commercial during the broadcast in more than 30 years.

Total beer off-premise spending reached $1.104 billion for the week ending July 3, marking the category’s highest sales week of the year so far. Only the weeks that included July 4 in 2020 and 2021 saw stronger beer sales than this year’s holiday week.

Halfway through 2022, off-premise scan data of the craft beer segment is “somewhere in between expected and alarming,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson wrote in an update about craft’s performance ahead of his mid-year review of craft production, scheduled for July 28.

Atlanta-headquartered Monday Night Brewing will set up shop in North Carolina next year, when it opens a new taproom and expands distribution in Charlotte, the company announced today.

Following the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s (NJABC) move to enforce special conditions that restrict craft breweries’ ability to host events and offer food, state Sen. Michael Testa has announced he will introduce a bill to counter the restrictions.