Molson Coors Beverage Company has hired Jennifer Martinez as senior director of corporate affairs. Also, the Breakthru Beverage Group announced that it has acquired the Miller portfolio of brands in southern Nevada, giving the multi-state beer, wine and spirits wholesaler the full Molson Coors portfolio in the state.

In any other year, 10 consecutive weeks of billion dollar off-premise beer category sales would be eye-opening. Consider that in all of 2019, there was just one week — the week of the July 4 holiday — in which beer category off-premise dollar sales topped $1 billion. Now, it’s a footnote in weekly reports.

Kalamazoo, Michigan-headquartered Bell’s Brewery will enter its 42nd state later this year, with the addition of distribution to Oklahoma. Bell’s, the seventh largest Brewers-Association-defined craft brewery, will be partnering with Republic National Distribution Company of Oklahoma.

Bubble NBA basketball is finally here — and two craft breweries are creating beers branded for their respective home teams. Deschutes Brewery will launch Rip City Lager in partnership with the Portland Trail Blazers. Also today, Framingham, Massachusetts-based Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers announced a four-year partnership with the Boston Celtics.

The COVID-19 pandemic cut into Anheuser-Busch InBev’s worldwide volumes and revenue during the second quarter of 2020. The world’s largest beer maker reported that its total volume in Q2 declined 17.1% — as beer volume declined 17.2% and non-beer volume declined 15.5% — while revenue declined 17.7%.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on craft breweries are beginning to be revealed as the Brewers Association (BA) today reported that craft beer volumes have declined around 10% through the first half of 2020.

The streak of consecutive billion dollar weeks for the beer category now stands at nine — and hard seltzers are continuing to push triple-digit growth. For the one-week period ending July 18, off-premise dollar sales of beer, cider and FMBs increased 15.4%, to $1.042 billion, compared to the same one-week period in 2019, according to market research firm Nielsen.

The California distribution shuffle now includes New Belgium. The Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery notified six primarily Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in Southern California and eight Chicago area Molson Coors wholesalers of plans to terminate their distribution contracts without cause.

Deep Ellum Brewing Company founder John Reardon has filed a lawsuit against the CANarchy Holding Corporation — and its private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners — alleging that the craft brewery rollup has failed to make several payments related to the 2018 acquisition of the Dallas craft brewery.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) ruled on Friday that the 51% calculation of gross receipts should only include the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption. As such, to-go sales of alcoholic beverages, as well as distributed volume to retailers and wholesalers should not be included in the calculation of gross receipts to determine which establishments should shutter for on-site consumption.

Boston Beer Company reported second-quarter depletions (sales-to-retailers) growth of 46% and shipments (sales-to-wholesalers) growth of 39.8% during the second quarter of 2020, according to financial results shared after the end of trading today.

An 805 line extension is coming soon to California. Firestone Walker will start a 60-day test of 805 Cerveza — its first line extension of flagship 805 blonde ale — in early August in three California counties.

The CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective is leaning even harder into the seltzer space with two new mixed packs hitting retailers this fall, while also cashing in on the equity of its popular Jai Alai IPA with a low-calorie line extension called Jai Low. CANarchy’s plans for fall resets include the launch of Cigar City Jai… Read more »

The billion dollar weeks keep coming for the beer category in off-premise retailers. Beer category sales (beer, FMBs and cider) in off-premise channels increased 14.9%, to $1.007 billion, for the week ending July 11 compared to the same week one year ago, according to market research firm Nilesen. That makes eight consecutive weeks of beer category dollar sales in excess of $1 billion.