Meet Brewbound Pitch Slam winner Hurray’s Girl Beer; FIFCO Rrvamps Seagram’s Escapes; news from Molson Coors, Fair State & Night Shift; Owl’s Brew collabs with Chelsea Handler.

While consumers were optimistic about their Dry January plans in December, those plans quickly changed for some, according to the latest report from CGA, the on-premise arm of market research firm NIQ.

For most folks, October is the time to bring old sweaters out of storage, indulge in pumpkin-flavored everything and grab a last-minute Halloween costume. For Schilling Hard Cider, October is its Super Bowl.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is getting in on the mixer set with a new strategic partnership with Fever-Tree, taking an 8.5% minority stake in the business and granting the alcohol giant exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the premium brand beginning February 1.

For the 2024 calendar year, dollar trends have stabilized somewhat for wine (-2.8%) and beer (-0.7%). Spirits experienced a significant slowing of growth in 2024 in off-premise channels, with essentially flat dollar growth (+0.2%). Read the full report.

FIFCO USA has unveiled several changes coming to its flavored malt beverage (FMB) brand Seagram’s Escapes, including the addition of slim cans and the reformulation of some core flavors.

Hurray’s Girl Beer won Brewbound’s 2024 Pitch Slam competition during the Brewbound Live business conference last month in Marina del Rey, California.

The beer category is in the black to start 2025, with off-premise dollar sales growing +3% and volume +0.7% year-to-date (YTD) through January 18 in NIQ-tracked channels (total U.S. xAOC plus liquor plus convenience).

Days after the former U.S. surgeon general called for cancer risk warning labels to be placed on alcoholic beverages, two state Legislatures are considering bills that would expand cancer warnings for bev-alc consumers.

Firestone Walker’s new high ABV Mind Haze Rage line of “lemonade-infused turbo radlers” are now arriving on retail shelves.

Mike Marshall, a staunch anti-alcohol proponent, has been named CEO of the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance (USAPA), a self-professed nonpartisan nonprofit built to prevent and reduce “alcohol-related harm,” and turn “alcohol policy research into public health practice.”

After years of concern that cannabis and THC products could cut into bev-alc occasions, some of the bev-alc industry is starting to view THC-infused beverages as an opportunity. But not everyone is completely on board.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) has reached an agreement with Bellingham, Washington-headquartered Sound Beverage Distributors to acquire brand rights to A-B’s portfolio and other products.

So, just me … or did #DryJanuary journalism about people taking a break or lessening alcohol consumption at the start of a new year turn into straight up anti-alcohol propaganda this year, real quick?