Top Features

While Taylor Swift’s New Heights pod episode this week may have had no sponsor ad reads or presenting sponsors 👀 . . . you can’t keep GARAGE BEER in a corner!

Total Wine & More CEO Troy Rice has resigned from the top job at the national beverage-alcohol retailer, he announced on LinkedIn today.

After joining San Diego’s Original 40 Brewing as head brewer earlier this year, Kyle Fjalstad has launched a beer that bridges the gap between Original 40 and the last brewery on his resume, Modern Times.

The percentage of Americans who say they drink alcoholic beverages has fallen to its lowest point – 54% – in the history of Gallup’s annual survey tracking drinking patterns of adults. The firm said the decline comes amid “a growing belief among Americans that moderate alcohol consumption is bad for one’s health, now the majority view for the first time.”

Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey will go under the control of a receiver following a lender’s claims that the company was in financial distress, according to a federal judge’s order issued Thursday.

San Diego-based Ballast Point has new, local investors in its ownership group, San Diego Beer News reported. Hospitality force RMD Group and boutique investment firm Cypress Ascendant have taken shares in the brewery, and the investors who facilitated the bombshell acquisition of Ballast Point from Constellation Brands in 2019 have exited.

A legal dispute between two Pacific Northwest cider brands is bringing into question what defines a “recipe” and how airtight – and specific – agreements between bev-alc brands and their manufacturing partners need to be. Schilling Cider has filed a civil complaint against Incline Cider and its parent company Compass Brands, LLC, alleging Incline breached a “recipe agreement” and shared confidential information with a competing company

Representatives of Uncle Nearest were in court last week fighting to retain control of the whiskey brand’s operations as its lender seeks the appointment of a receiver as the company has fallen into default on $108 million in loans. BevNET spirits editor Ferron Salniker joins the Brewbound Podcast to share the latest on the case.

Breakout ready-to-drink (RTD) brand Good Boy Vodka will move its California distribution to California Beverage Solution (CBS) this month, the companies announced today.

The Idaho joint venture between Scout Distribution and Columbia Distributing is being sold to Hayden Beverage Company, the companies shared today.

All signs point to the cost of a night out getting more expensive. July marks a continuation of bev-alc away from home outpacing overall inflation. The CPI for both food (+3.9% year-over-year [YoY]) and alcohol (+3.4% YoY) outpaced overall inflation for all items (+2.7% YoY) in July.

Tilray Brands is moving deeper into THC-infused beverages – and getting higher in the process.

Any positive vibes recorded in recent weekly data reports may have been a mirage. After some “less pessimistic data” reports, off-premise beverage-alcohol sales have returned to the red, market insights firm Circana shared in its latest weekly report.

If c-store traffic is a barometer of economic anxiety for American consumers, this summer hasn’t been exactly carefree.