Boston Beer Company - Samuel Adams

The summer selling season wraps up this weekend with Labor Day Monday, and one of the hottest segments of the summer has been hard sports drinks. Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior reporter Zoe Licata dive into the fast-growing segment and how their views have shifted on it over the last year.

Bev-alc’s trajectory remained “stagnant” leading up to the final week of August, according to the latest weekly scans report from market research firm NIQ.

Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter, including headlines from Diageo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dad Strength, Boston Beer and others.

The spiked sports drink gold rush is on, but two players have already established themselves at the top of the burgeoning “vodka + ade” drink segment. Following the success of Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka, Stateside has another hit in its portfolio with the addition of Super Lyte, which launched earlier this year.

The spiked sports drink competition is getting another major player. Boston Beer Company will officially launch Rally Dog Vodka Ade in four test markets in September.

Boston Beer Company CFO and treasurer Diego Reynoso is leaving the company a year after it awarded him a $1.2 million stock retention bonus, according to an 8-K filing Thursday.

Halloween’s Michael Myers is joining New Belgium’s skeleton mascot on cans of Slasher IPA. Meanwhile, Scream’s Ghost Face killer is lurking on Boston Beer Company’s Angry Orchard. And Neshaminy Creek is bringing its own Slasher Sampler mix pack to the party.

Workers at the Samuel Adams Boston Brewery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, submitted an intent to unionize to Boston Beer Company on Thursday.

The largest beer companies in the U.S. continue to shift their attention toward their growing spirits-based offerings. And it’s tough to blame them, given beer’s performance so far this year.

In this episode of the Brewbound Podcast, Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior reporter Zoe Licata dive into RNDC’s bankruptcy filing, as well as the fallout, with many suppliers left wondering if they’ll ever get paid back. Plus, they chat about Boston Beer’s fast-follower strategy and craft’s mid-year volume number.

Boston Beer Company has found another growth driver with its spirits-based hard tea brand Sun Cruiser, which continues to deepen its distribution footprint. But the hot ticket item continues to be unable to stop flooding volume from its sibling brands, as the company recorded yet another quarter of shipments and depletions losses.

Boston Beer Company’s fiscal year 2026 (FY26) losses continued in Q2 as the company continued to tackle declines from its top brands, including Twisted Tea, according to quarterly financials the company released today.

In the latest installment of 3 Up, 3 Down, 3 Tier Beverages consultant Danelle Kosmal and analyst Devon Hevener share insights on industry growth and accompanying downward trends, including apple-flavored beer’s ascent.

As any bev-alc professional will tell you – nothing moves product like associating it with the end of a marriage. Or at least that’s my guess as to the pitch in the Twisted Tea marketing meeting for its end-of-summer sales push. The marketing group at Twisted Tea took the phenomenon of divorce filings increasing at the end of summer and thought “How has no one ever used this to sell FMBs?!”