St. Patrick’s Day gave the on-premise a welcome boost, but it wasn’t completely sunny for the bev-alc industry, according to the latest report by CGA, the on-premise arm of market research firm NIQ.

Hand Family Companies (HFC) has made a blockbuster deal to add Stone Distributing Company and Classic Beverage in Southern California to its newly formed Sunset Distributing subsidiary, the multistate independent Anheuser-Busch distributor announced today.

Distributor sentiment for the beer category continued to fall this month, according to the latest Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) from the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).

Oregon bev-alc consumers may have to open their wallets and pay sales tax for the first time, should proposed amendments to House Bill 3197 pass. Amendments proposed by Rep. Tawna Sanchez were made public Tuesday, and would add an up to 8% retail sales tax on purchases of “malt beverages, cider and wine” in the state.

Youth soccer games aren’t just a way to get the family outside and to mingle with neighbors – they are also a great place to meet a future business partner. At least, that was the case for Luis Espinoza and Craig Panzer, the founders of Roundhead Brewing, Massachusetts’ first Latino-owned brewery, located in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Brewers Association-defined craft beer recorded a -4% decline in packaged volume in 2024, BA staff economist Matt Gacioch reported this week in the trade group’s annual packaging report.

The origin story of Oregon-based 2 Towns Ciderhouse is very similar to the humble beginnings of many craft brewers: childhood friends with a passion for the craft, and a basement. 15 years later, founders Aaron Sarnoff-Wood and Lee Larsen have grown the company to be the second largest cider brand in grocery nationwide.

The total beer industry ended 2024 in the red, but New England remains a positive beacon, as the region continues to buck trends, Bump Williams Consulting president Dave Williams highlighted earlier this month during a presentation at the New England Craft Brew Summit in Portland, Maine.

Adult beverage consumers can now party like Willie Nelson. The country music star and his wellness enterprise partner Long Play, Inc. have partnered with California-based bev-alc maker JuneShine Brands to launch Willie’s Remedy+, a non-alcoholic (NA), intoxicating hemp-based “social tonic.”

One-third of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, according to the 2025 Annual Holiday Preview report from consumer research firm Numerator.

Constellation Brands has “evolved” the playbook for its portfolio of Mexican import brands for 2025 and beyond, leadership shared last week during the company’s annual Gold Network Summit in Orlando.

The hard tea segment operates similarly to soda, with one or two leading national players, and a handful of regional winners. With that analogy, and Boston Beer Company’s Twisted Tea equating to a Coke or Pepsi, California-based hard tea maker Jiant believes it can be hard tea’s Olipop – a flavor-forward, ingredient-focused functional brand that connects with new and lapsed consumers.

None of beer’s various headwinds – including Tuesday’s tariffs announcement – seemed to dampen Constellation Brands’ spirits this week in Orlando, Florida, during the beer giant’s annual Gold Network Summit with distributor partners.

2025 kicked off with cautious optimism for the beer category, but that has been quickly subdued after a disappointing February and Super Bowl performance, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s (BWC) monthly report, citing NIQ off-premise data (total U.S. xAOC + liquor + convenience) through mid-February.