The last couple of weeks are a bit of a blur, and how couldn’t they be when you’re running the post-Labor Day acronym gauntlet: NACS, GABF, NBWA, BI, AFWB. OK, I missed a couple of those but that’s why Jess Infante is this team’s road warrior and deserves all the airline status (make it happen, JetBlue).
A weekly reminder of the top storylines of the week seems in order for the site (I often ask Zoe Licata what day it is). Plus, Sean McNulty has Insiders’ inboxes covered.
For starters, Jess, Zoe and I shared our thoughts on the Great American Beer Festival and the first day of the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s Annual Convention in Chicago on this week’s Brewbound Podcast.
The return of the Brewers Association’s biggest consumer-facing event and awards ceremony was a smashing success from what the trade group’s leadership has shared. Plus, Allagash White got the much-deserved gold.
Thursday night’s GABF session was probably not the most representative sample, but I’ll say the crowd seemed a little bit … old.* Blame the Broncos and Colts. Or maybe it’s a generation of palates that haven’t acquired a taste for beer. Maybe blame Hard MTN Dew.
Speaking of Hard Dew, beer wholesalers are not stoked on the FMBs route to market through PepsiCo’s Blue Cloud Distribution — or it being merchandised next to Hot Wheels and Kool-Aid Jammers, as evident by Day One of the NBWA’s Annual Convention. Two — Blue Ridge Beverage and Reyes’ Premium in Virginia — have also filed a challenge with the state ABC to what they deemed an “unlawful ‘dual-distribution’ scheme” that violated their exclusive distro deal with Boston Beer.
If wholesalers needed a little Blue Cloud/Hard Dew/Boston Beer reassurance, they got it from Bernstein Autonomous analyst Nadine Sarwat, who said she doesn’t see Blue Cloud being “a meaningful threat” to beer distribution in the “long term.”
Still, part of the NBWA convention is about playing defense, and so suppliers forcing terminations of their wholesaler contracts was on the mind of incoming chairman Gordon Green. The best coaches know a good defense leads to offense.
The Beer Institute’s annual meeting in Chicago was about defense and offense, namely the beer industry’s fight against tax equalization, which led to a highly quotable session.
“The canned cocktail is a gateway drug. It’s the Joe Camel of the liquor industry,” Mike Halfacre, executive director of the Beer Wholesalers’ Association of New Jersey, said. “The 23 year olds and the 22 year olds that are buying canned cocktails today, the goal is they’ll be buying 1.75s in 10 years. And that’s bad for beer.”
The Beer Institute also revealed its new leader: Brian Crawford, the executive vice president of government affairs for the American Hotel and Lodging Association. And incoming chairman Brendan Whitworth, A-B’s CEO, laid out his priorities for the trade group.
Overlapping with the BI meeting was the first in-person gathering of the Alliance For Women in Beer. Zoe has a full report.
Finally, I’m so damn proud of the work Jess and Zoe do for Brewbound. They killed it this week. A big thanks to everyone who joined us at Brew Talks, stopped to say kind words about the pod or just hung out this week. Hitting the road and seeing everyone is really the best part of this biz. Until next week.
* I’m self admittedly one of those olds, bailing after a couple of hours because my feet hurt. Hey, we hosted a Brew Talks event that day, Cut me some slack.