Call it a late career shift or just a beverage-alcohol professional trying something new, but the former brewmaster for White Claw is launching an energy drink.

While the two Republican senators from Kentucky square off on how hemp could be regulated in the upcoming Farm Bill and conservative Texas lawmakers relitigate the state’s approach to intoxicating cannabis derivatives, another GOP congressman is laying the early groundwork for legislation to legalize it.

Hold on to your coffee cups. Keurig Dr Pepper is solidifying its position as one of the world’s largest coffee companies on Monday in announcing an $18 billion deal to acquire JDE Peet’s, expected to close early next year.

Cannabis beverage brand Uncle Arnie’s is planning to nearly double its team from 40 to 75 employees after closing a $7.5 million Series A investment round co-led by Mindset Capital and Delta Emerald Ventures.

It’s still Not Beer, but now with a buzz. Dallas-based beverage brand Not Beer is expanding beyond alcohol-free sparkling water for the first time with Not Beer Vibed, a 10mg THC/10mg CBD seltzer available online in 12 oz. slim cans.

Jones Soda is offloading its Mary Jones marijuana beverage brand to privately held cannabis business MJ Reg Disrupters LLC as the drink maker “streamlines operations” and “focuses on core soda offerings.”

While 30 major store improvement projects are slated to be completed in 2025, 60 “underperforming” Kroger stores will be closed over the next 18 months.

Almost exactly eight years since acquiring Whole Foods Market, Amazon is on the verge of restructuring the natural grocery chain’s leadership.

Despite rising regulatory hurdles nationwide, optimism still exists for intoxicating hemp beverages, as evidenced by smaller investment funds’ desire to back brands in the nascent category.

What’s the best route from online to on-shelf sales? For many intoxicating hemp brands, the solution appears to be finding space with beer and liquor distributors. Having leveraged DTC distribution to meet the unique needs of the category, hemp brands are now considering how to marry online sales with the larger opportunity within beverage-alcohol retail.

Not that long ago, the idea of buying cannabis online – especially in a drinkable format – would have seemed like an unlikely pipe dream. Now, order-by-mail has become a primary mechanism for distributing intoxicating hemp beverages.

Get out your day-glo body paint and fuzzy boots because festival season is about to start with Coachella’s two-weekend-long party – and this year the adult non-alcoholic (ANA) category is coming out in force.

In the latest edition of A Round With … – a weekly Q&A with industry leaders exclusively for Insiders – Tilray Brands North America president Ty Gilmore talked with Brewbound’s sibling publication BevNET about how the company intends to leverage its scale to go deep in hemp-derived delta-9 drinks and how it is navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for hemp products in the U.S.

Dealing with droughts is part of life in California, but an extension to the state’s self-imposed ban on hemp-derived THC drinks looks set to further stress an already reeling industry. Prior to their scheduled expiration this month, California’s Department of Public Health extended a six-month ban on “intoxicating hemp products” imposed in September for another three months. Now set to expire on June 24, the emergency measure can be readopted only one more time, according to California law.