News

Beer category dollar sales at off-premise retailers increased +2% year-over-year for the week ending August 21, outpacing total beverage alcohol dollar sales growth (+1%), according to market research firm IRI.

Non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing Company launched a new “Fit For All Times” campaign today, featuring several familiar names, including NFL player J.J. Watt and celebrity chef David Chang – both early investors in the Stratford, Connecticut-based company.

In this Brew Talks replay, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Dan Kenary of Harpoon’s parent company Mass. Bay Brewing and Suzanne Schalow of Craft Beer Cellar share their views on the evolution of the beer category with the addition of fourth category offerings such as hard seltzers, spirits-based canned cocktails, hard kombuchas, hard teas and more.

With the summer selling season’s last gasp just days away, NielsenIQ VP of beverage alcohol though leadership Jon Berg expects ready-to-drink (RTD) offerings and beer “to have positive momentum” this Labor Day holiday weekend. However, Berg cautioned that results may be “slightly muted” compared to 2021 as shoppers are “really starting to feel substantial impact from inflation now.”

Boston Beer Company is launching a multimillion-dollar, multi-channel marketing campaign to support Truly Hard Seltzer, which it recently reformulated with real fruit juice. In the new ad campaign, Boston Beer, which has leaned on singer Dua Lipa in previous Truly ads, has instead turned to fruit flies to help promote the reformulated hard seltzer brand.

Beer inventory in wholesalers’ warehouses is at risk of expiring in the next 30 days, according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) August edition of the Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI).