Craft beer industry news.
Sazerac has signed a binding agreement to acquire Au Vodka, a top-selling ready-to-drink (RTD) canned vodka brand in the UK. The deal continues the Fireball owner’s two-year buying spree and marks its largest push yet into the UK market.
BevNET CPG Media announced today that Bryce McDonald has returned as vice president of sales. He will lead the sales organization and work with partners to develop programs across the company’s media, events, insights and professional resources.
Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter August 13-14, including headlines from Hi-Wire, Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Garage Beer or more.
Believe it or not, we have not one, but two developments in old beer archeology that put the can of now a discontinued “below premium” lager brand from my college days that still resides in my fridge to shame. Yes, it seems the Indiana Joneses of the beer world are at it again!
Workers at the Samuel Adams Boston Brewery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, submitted an intent to unionize to Boston Beer Company on Thursday.
Contract-focused joint venture B3 Beverage looks much different from when it launched last year. Philadelphia’s Yards Brewing has made it official with the platform, which has taken final steps to acquire it. However, other founding member breweries have since departed.
The latest spirits distribution headlines include RTD gin cocktail The Original Southside landing in major retailers, a wave of Southern Glazer’s (SGWS) additions spanning vodka, rum, and scotch, and distributors scooping up new territory in the wake of Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) collapse, among other moves.
The liquor channel has dragged off-premise scans for much of 2025, but it was convenience stores that led July’s year-over-year (YoY) losses, according to the latest weekly report from market research firm NIQ.
Adult Non-Alc (ANA) beverage sales passed $1.08 billion in U.S. off-premise sales in 2026, with the real number likely higher when counting on-premise and alternative channel sales. But more than halfway through 2026, that growth is slowing as the category matures.
Sometimes the key to a craft brewery returning to growth isn’t just cleaning up its portfolio, it’s cleaning up internal operations.
Rhinegeist Brewing’s Cincy Light line has crossed categories with the debut of Cincy Splash, a vodka-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail. The vodka sodas are available in three flavors: Pineapple, Black Cherry and Peach. The 4.5% ABV, 100-calories drinks are packaged in 355 ml slim cans and sold in single-flavor 4-packs and variety 8-packs, according to a press release.
There were many kinds of party drinks before 2010, but we’d bet none of them came in colorful plastic orb-shaped containers. BuzzBallz, the Sazerac-owned ready-to-drink (RTD) party prop, doesn’t just stand out for its spherical shape, but for what it represents about how people are drinking these days: with entertaining, high-ABV, convenient formats.
The decade-long consent decree that allowed Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) MegaBrew merger with SABMiller to go forward expired in July, removing guardrails that had been placed on the world’s largest beer manufacturer by the Department of Justice to ensure competition in the marketplace. Chris Jones, managing director of Central Market Strategies, joins this week’s Brewbound Podcast to explore what competition looks like in a post-consent decree beer industry.
Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter, including headlines from Asahi, Monster, Iron Hill and more.
