Boston Beer Company - Samuel Adams

Boston Beer Company adjusted its full-year forecast for shipments and depletions growth after a significant slowdown in the hard seltzer segment in the second quarter. The company previously projected full-year growth of 40-50% in shipments (sales to wholesalers) and depletions (sales to retailers), but has trimmed that projection to 25-40%. Its depletions increased 24% during Q2, decelerating by half from Q1’s growth of 48%, according to remarks from founder and chairman Jim Koch in the quarterly earnings release. “To be totally honest, we’re surprised at the sharpness and the suddenness of the change in trajectory,” Koch said during a conference call with investors and analysts.

Boston Beer Company “overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter” and the demand for the company’s Truly Hard Seltzer, CEO Dave Burwick said in a press release announcing the company’s Q2 earnings results.

Boston Beer Company and Beam Suntory today announced a joint venture to extend two of the companies’ most popular brands — Truly Hard Seltzer and Sauza tequila — across categories.

Hard seltzer could account for 10% of total beverage alcohol sales by 2025, according to a report from financial services firm Credit Suisse. Since 2019, hard seltzer, which currently accounts for 3.5% of total beverage alcohol, has been pulling share from all three categories.

Carissa Sweigart, Boston Beer’s leader of diversity, equity and inclusion, and Shelley Smith, brewing innovation manager, join the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the 2021 release, the origins of the beer, the company’s overall philanthropic efforts, and the conversations currently ongoing at the brewery in the wake of industry-wide allegations of misconduct and misogyny.

More than 75% of beer wholesalers said the summer selling season is off to “a strong start,” as Memorial Day trends either met or exceeded expectations, Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog found in her latest “Beverage Bytes survey” of about 40 distributors covering 145,000 retail outlets (about a quarter of the total U.S. outlets that sell alcoholic beverages).

Brew Talks video replay is now available. Beyond beer offerings continue to be the growth driver within the beer category. Boston Beer’s Dave Burwick, Lone River Beverage Company’s Katie Beal Brown and Manhattan Beer’s Ed McBrien discuss the opportunities within the so-called “fourth category” of offerings.

Just how big a part of the beer category could hard seltzer be by 2025? It depends on who you ask. During this month’s Beverage Forum, Anthony Von Mandl and Jim Koch, the leaders of the companies that produce the two largest hard seltzer brands, White Claw and Truly, respectively, offered differing projections, according to analysts’ reports.

Boston Beer Company officially announced its foray into a new frontier today: non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beverages.

After initial projections that the hard seltzer segment would grow at a rate of 70-100%, Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick said the expectation is now in the 60-90% range, with Truly outpacing the segment.

Boston Beer Company’s torrid run driven by Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea continued into the first quarter of 2021. Through the first 13 weeks of 2021, Boston Beer — whose brands include Samuel Adams, Truly Hard Seltzer, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard — reported a 48% increase in depletions and a 60.1% increase in shipments.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is beyond excited to announce its new, non-alcoholic wheat brew, Lemon Quest, hits shelves nationwide starting in May.

Hard seltzers will be receiving more shelf space in convenience stores, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog’s latest “Beverage Bytes” survey of convenience store beverage buyers (representing 30,000 retail locations, or about 20% of the c-store channel).

Angry Orchard, the nation’s leading hard cider maker 1, and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) announced today a year-long partnership, naming Angry Orchard the official hard cider of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.