Constellation Brands is going Hard Knocks with its latest NFL sponsorship deal. The Los Angeles Rams and Chargers — the featured teams on this year’s edition of the HBO documentary series — have locked up multi-year partnerships with the maker of Mexican import beers.

The lawsuit filed by French agri-business cooperative Agrial Group against Seattle Cider Company and Two Beers Brewing Company founder Joel VandenBrink has been settled.

Beer category sales in off-premise retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t been enough to make up for the loss of sales at on-premise establishments after shutdowns to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, market research firm Nielsen reported today.

Mark Anthony Brands has named former Jimmy John’s CMO John Shea to lead the marketing efforts for the White Claw hard seltzer brand. Shea will assume the role this month, a spokesperson confirmed to Brewbound.

The liquor license of New York City’s oldest beer garden — The Beer Garden at Bohemian Hall in Astoria — has been suspended for violating the state’s COVID-19 guidelines. Meanwhile, Dollar sales of hard seltzers in off-premise retailers will soon surpass craft beer sales, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson reported recently, citing data from market research firm IRI.

Athens, Georgia-based Creature Comforts Brewing will become a bi-coastal craft beer brand next year with the construction of a taproom and brewery in downtown Los Angeles, the company announced yesterday. The long-awaited opening of Brooklyn-based Other Half Brewing’s taproom and production facility in Washington, D.C., now has an October 2020 opening date, according to a press release today.

After helping orchestrate one of the biggest transactions in the craft beer space in 2019 — Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages’ acquisition of New Belgium Brewing — Simon Thorpe is on to his next project.

Beer consumers are settling into the “next” normal — and that means increased sales in the convenience channel, according to Nielsen VP of beverage alcohol practice Danelle Kosmal.

The Reyes Beverage Group announced plans today to merge operations of its Chicagoland wholesalers — Windy City Distributing and Chicago Beverage Systems — into one company by mid-October.

Molson Coors Beverage Company’s hibernation of the Saint Archer Gold brand is benefitting upstart active lifestyle lager maker Island Brands. In the Southeast, grocery chain Publix has begun filling the void left by Gold with the Charleston, South Carolina-based beer maker’s Island Active — an 88-calorie, 4.2% ABV light lager, which launched in March just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Danny Brager, the long-time leader of market research firm Nielsen’s beverage alcohol practice, is exiting the company to pursue other opportunities after nearly 40 years.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were easy to see in Craft Brew Alliance’s latest earnings report. Shipments of CBA products during the three-month period ending June 30 — in the thick of the pandemic and its shut down of on-premise establishments — declined 10.2%, to 206,900 barrels, down from 230,500 barrels in Q2 2019.

The National Beer Wholesalers Association’s Annual Convention won’t be taking place in-person in Orlando, Florida, this October after all. The largest meeting of beer wholesalers in the country will instead go virtual from October 4-7. The NBWA was set to host its Annual Convention in Orlando in early October, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has rendered those plans unfeasible.

The clock seemed to expire last week on Massachusetts craft brewers’ hopes of finally achieving franchise law reform. After finally reaching a compromise with wholesalers after a decade of contentious negotiations, the measure (S. 2841) unanimously passed the Senate but couldn’t get out of the House Ways and Means Committee before the expiration of the legislative session last Friday.