Brewbound Podcast: Hard Seltzer Tries to Beat the Off-Season Blues

[00:00:00] Brewbound Podcast: Heading to CBC? Kick things off the day before at Brewbound's meetup at Love City Brewing in Philly, Sunday, April 19th from 5 to 7 p.m. Connect with beer industry leaders, grab a drink, and catch up with Check Brewbound team. It's free to attend and walking distance from the convention center. Head to Brewbound.com slash lovecity.rsvp. And don't forget to catch Check Brewbound team at booth 956 during CBC.

[00:00:28] Jessen Fonte: What do Jess and Zoe do when left to their own devices? A bonus episode of Check Brewbound Podcast. Welcome back to Check Brewbound Podcast. I'm Jessen Fonte and with me today is editorial assistant extraordinaire and the unofficial spokeswoman for Gen Z's Drinking Habits, Zoe Licata. What's up, Zoe? Hello.

[00:00:59] Zoe Licata: I'm very excited for this all female squad.

[00:01:03] Jessen Fonte: I know, right? So Justin's on vacation, we're holding down the fort, and there was so much beer industry news that has happened in the past few days that we wanted to share with you and also basically prove to him that, you know, he can take time off and, you know, we are here to keep the shit moving because that man is basically a workaholic.

[00:01:22] Zoe Licata: Yeah, that's really, really what's motivating us to do anything this week is just to make sure that Justin will go on a vacation again and feel like nothing's going to burn or fall apart. Right. I think we did a great job.

[00:01:35] Jessen Fonte: Yeah. I think we've been doing good. Yeah. So we, we have been on our own since Friday. It is now Tuesday afternoon. Uh, we've published a ton of stories, lots going on, but Zoe, what'd you do this weekend?

[00:01:48] Zoe Licata: What did I do this weekend? Um, I moved this weekend. Oh my God. Yeah, I had to move everything along with everyone else in the city of Boston, uh, move out of my apartment for a little bit. So that was always fun, nice and humid and sweaty.

[00:02:07] Jessen Fonte: Hmm. That doesn't sound fun. That sounds like the exact opposite of fun. You're listening to this and you, I mean, I'm sure you, you have the universal experience of having to move. It's terrible, but September 1st in Boston is, oh God, the worst, because as you probably know, Boston has a ton of colleges and they all start their academic calendar right around there. So all of, basically all the leases, no matter where you live, are all on a September 1st timeline. Yeah, it's awful.

[00:02:37] Zoe Licata: It's literally, oh, it's the city is packed with people moving out of apartments, moving into apartments, moving into dorms. It's a mess. But you can't move into your new place for a little while, right? No, which is also kind of a common thing where like there's also always a weird like limbo period for some people. Usually it's only like a day or two, but the new place we're moving into isn't available to like next month. So I am. currently speaking from my parents in western massachusetts out in the woods here which like ain't no shame in that game i would take the month not paying rent too no it's great and it's very relaxing i get to hang out with the birds all day it's a good time that sounds so nice we all know i have spent a lot of the summer at my family's house so

[00:03:25] Jessen Fonte: Clearly, I have absolutely no problem foisting myself upon my mom. She makes dinner. Yeah, that was great. Right? Both my brothers gave up their leases during COVID and moved. One moved in with his wife's family from LA to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other moved from his place in Brooklyn. And then he and his wife have bounced between my mom's house at the Jersey Shore and her mom's house at the Jersey Shore.

[00:03:48] Zoe Licata: Honestly, it's, it's the move. It's the move. And it's so easy now that we, cause we're still working from home that you could, you could really go anywhere. So you might as well take advantage of it while you can.

[00:03:59] Jessen Fonte: No, this like COVID nomadic behavior. I'm honestly jealous. I have a mortgage and my husband can't work from home, so I'm here, but clearly also there. So, and I'm going to New Jersey tomorrow for the long weekend. doing what you can. Yeah, I mean, I kind of hate Labor Day. It's a little depressing.

[00:04:20] Zoe Licata: Yeah, it's never really been like a thing for me. When I moved to Boston, the friends I've made here, they're like, Oh, Labor Day, like it's so much fun. It's like the last big weekend of the summer. And I don't think I've ever thought about Labor Day other than It signals that it's time to move.

[00:04:38] Jessen Fonte: That's so funny to me because Labor Day has always been you know like my so my mom was at the Jersey Shore, but she lives in a house that it was rebuilt post Sandy but before that the house that was there, my grandfather built in like 1961. And Labor Day weekend is such a big deal because it's the end of the tourist season and like our little neighborhood has like a big block party. My neighbors, we all get together and we have a big party. It's just, I don't know, but like at the heart of it, it's kind of a bummer because it's like summer's over. Yeah. They call the Tuesday after Labor Day at the Jersey Shore Tumbleweed Tuesday, because everybody's gone. So I took Tumbleweed Tuesday off last year. It was like one of like the five days I took off before the holidays. And it was great. But in the grand tradition of what you've probably noticed happens when either Justin or I take off, there's a ton of news. Right. And before you got here, it was just the two of us. So... It was, I remember like, I forget what happened, but I remember sitting on the beach, scrolling through Twitter and seeing like some pretty major beer story and being like, oh, sorry, Justin. But he was fine. He was fine.

[00:05:49] Zoe Licata: do you want to start? I m about seasons. We're tal are going into fall. So w about these new seasonal are coming out.

[00:06:02] Jessen Fonte: You are s So I believe it was one of the first episodes after we rebooted this podcast last fall, we talked about like, will there ever be a Pumpkin Spice Hard Seltzer? And that question I think was answered last year by somebody releasing one. But this year Pumpkin Spice Hard Seltzer is for sure going National Beer Bud Light Seltzer The number three Hard Seltzer brand nationwide is introducing a fall pack with Apple Crisp, Pumpkin Spice, Maple Pear and Toasted Marshmallow. That's going to be out September 6th through October 24th. Zoe, would you drink any of those?

[00:06:43] Zoe Licata: I have had the Apple Crisp one before. They released it last year when they had like their winter holiday Party Pack. And honestly, it was better than I expected. I was very, very hesitant, but it was actually pretty good. I don't know about Toasted Marshmallow and I'm not, I know it's a sin and I'm not the biggest Pumpkin Spice fan. But Maple Pear is interesting. It's not the most obvious flavor. So that one's cool.

[00:07:06] Jessen Fonte: I'm interested in that one for sure. I am totally with you on that. Like I'm not really the biggest Pumpkin Spice fan either. And I feel like I name dropped Pumpkin Spice latte in last week's episode, which is weird because I'm good for like one a season. But I think that's me like trying to play what I perceive as my role here as like the mid 30s millennial sad lady. I am not really a huge Pumpkin Spice. I don't hate Pumpkin Spice. Definitely don't hate it, but it's not my fave. I'd try it, but I love maple as a flavor and I've been waiting for years for maple to knock pumpkin off the fall throne and become like the flavor of fall. That's probably never going to happen. I would be excited if it did, for sure. Right? Maple's delicious. I put maple syrup in my coffee instead of sugar. Oh, cool. I sound like Buddy the Elf. A little bit, but there's nothing wrong with that. No, well, because I mean, I drink cold coffee all year and sugar doesn't really dissolve in cold coffee and maple syrup, the good stuff. It's not like maple flavored high fructose corn syrup. That is not what I am putting into coffee. Good. Yeah. It's delicious. I'm a big fan, but I also have a trash coffee palate.

[00:08:16] Zoe Licata: I approve. Thanks. All of the trees around my parents' house and everything get tapped for like maple syrup every year. Like we're a little bit of like maple syrupy snobs. Look at you. Can you do it like on your own? Like, how does that work? So there's like people who in town, they come up, they tap them themselves, and then they like bring it back to their sugar house and everything. But they'll give us syrup in return for using the trees. That's sick.

[00:08:43] Jessen Fonte: Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I love syrup. Wow, cool. Now the other interesting thing that Bud Light is doing with its various Party Pack is their summer retro tie dye pack is going to be year round on October 11th. And I know you had shared in a previous podcast episode that that went over pretty big with your friends. What flavors in there did you like?

[00:09:03] Zoe Licata: So they have the three flavors. They have cherry limeade, twisted berry and blue raspberry. And I want to say that the blue raspberry is probably the most popular with my friends. And it tastes just like a blue raspberry, like ice pop pretty much with a little bit of an alcohol taste at the end. But yeah, all my friends were extremely excited to see that that's going to be year round because that was like the go-to for this summer.

[00:09:27] Jessen Fonte: Interesting. Now I feel like they're doing something here with the outer packs because that is tie-dye and the fall one is like plaid flannel. So I feel like they're trying to tap into this, you know, nostalgia of probably younger members of my generation, but definitely your generation thinking about like what they wore as little kids, right?

[00:09:49] Zoe Licata: Yeah, there's definitely a little bit there. I think nostalgia has a lot to do with it. I mean, the retro pack was kind of all about, oh, this was like the flavors of, like I said, the ice pops we were having when we were kids. So there's a little bit of that there. And I think, I mean, it just makes it stand out, like with all the Hard Seltzer that there are now seeing the cool packaging. I mean, we're suckers for that.

[00:10:10] Jessen Fonte: Totally. I mean, I think what they're getting at with those flavors was they were trying to recreate the red, white and blue bomb pops, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean those are so like I think this word gets used in abuse but they're pretty iconic I know years ago in my old life working on the Sam Adams brand team I worked on a lot of seasonal campaigns and stuff and one year when they were redesigning some rail. A design that made it into the mix but wasn't chosen was a summer ale can that looked just like a bomb pop, which was really cool. The creative team did an awesome job. It had the drips worked into the art and it looked great. But I think it ultimately was not picked because they didn't want people to think the beer inside would taste like that pop because some real does not taste like that.

[00:10:57] Zoe Licata: So yeah, I feel like that's what I would assume.

[00:11:00] Jessen Fonte: Yeah, yeah. But glad those bomb pops are getting some love from some alcohol brands. The other big news in seasonal Hard Seltzer trends is the Truly Holiday Party Pack. I just wrapped up a call with Alessia, the CMO of Boston Beer, who talked me through a few things about Hard Seltzer that will be turning into some brew-bound content. But one thing that was pretty cool was that they are launching a holiday Party Pack inspired Truly Holiday cocktails. It launches on November 1st. Flavors inside are Cran Orange Sparkler, Pom Ginger Fizz, Holiday Sangria Style and Spiked Apple Spice. So not a whole lot of overlap with Bud Light, and they won't actually interact in market because Truly will roll out November 1st. I asked Lesia if this is going to be a continuation or the first in a line of rotator packs, and she said maybe. But what I think both of these packs show us is Light Seltzer's biggest brands are now getting very serious about the annual slowdown we see with Hard Seltzer each year in the fall and winter. Now, sales slow down, they clearly don't go anywhere because Hard Seltzer is still selling billions of dollars, but they definitely do fall off a little bit in the fall and winter. You see it in market when they have point of sale pieces and other marketing and various campaigns on social and digital, but I think actually bringing these specific fall flavors to market really shows that they really are intending to get pretty serious.

[00:12:31] Zoe Licata: And it feels like a cool way that we've, Hard Seltzer has evolved from when it first started as those like four core flavors, whatever that everyone was doing. I think it's kind of the direction that Hard Seltzer has to go to continue to grow and be relevant to people.

[00:12:48] Jessen Fonte: Yeah, exactly. Back in 2019, I think the striking thing about seltzer was how much it sold with how few SKUs. Yeah. And the SKUs have certainly started to catch up. And, you know, as we've been reporting, you know, wholesalers told Goldman Sachs, they really think a shakeout is coming and they think it's coming soon. So we'll see what happens. But I asked Leslie if they would think about maybe fitting the Truly Hard a little. And she said that retailers have plenty of other skews from the long tail to select a cut before they cut anything from truly, which is true. But they've got a lot of packs right now. They've got their original citrus. their berry tropical lemonade, which is their bestseller, iced tea and punch. And now this holiday pack is coming, so we'll see what happens. But she told me something that was really interesting, which is that Truly is the number two brand in household penetration in all of the beer category. Oh, wow. Right? So number one is Bud Light, number two is Truly Hard number three is White Claw, which is the category leader. So what that kind of shows is that there's fewer people drinking White Claw, but they're drinking a lot of White Claw.

[00:13:55] Zoe Licata: Right.

[00:13:56] Jessen Fonte: They have also done some of their own research. They have a pretty robust consumer insights team. And they found that last year they asked people if they think that Hard Seltzer is a beverage that they will drink for years to come and it's going to be a staple. 45% of people said yes to that question last year, which is way more than I would have thought. And this year they asked the same question and 54% of people told them that Hard Seltzer is something they'll drink for years to come and it's a staple.

[00:14:25] Zoe Licata: I'm surprised that went up. You'd think it would like go down after like kind of the first initial like, Oh yeah, this is popular and stuff that people are like, no, yeah, we still like it.

[00:14:34] Jessen Fonte: And we're going to keep drinking it even more than before. Right. I mean, clearly just shows you the general Hard Seltzer drinkers. We're not paying attention to the Boston Beer Q2 earnings call that apparently shocks all of the business writers in the country to declare Hard Seltzer debt. Right. We talk about how much we don't like talking about Hard Seltzer and it's not like we don't like talking about Hard Seltzer, but we talk about Hard Seltzer so much, but I think a lot of the hand wringing that's been going on Bud Light Seltzer is over. Sorry guys, it is definitely not over. So that's the skinny on Hard Seltzer. We also have big news coming up about fall conventions. So travel is back. We get to go places. You and I are leaving for Denver a week from tomorrow.

[00:15:16] Zoe Licata: So soon.

[00:15:17] Jessen Fonte: We covered this last week. I'm excited to see Justin in person and Justin's excited to see Don Bixel Jr. But When all of us get to Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference, something we are not going to have to do is show proof that we've been vaccinated. The Brewers Association has decided to not require that. They put out a new statement yesterday that I'm going to quote. They said the Brewers Association will not require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to attend the Craft Brewers Conference. However, we encourage all attendees to be fully vaccinated to protect themselves and others. We desire that all of us who can be vaccinated do so in order to protect everyone. Which was interesting when you contrast it with the other news of the week, which was what?

[00:15:57] Zoe Licata: The NBWA actually said we are going to require proof of vaccination or a negative test if you want to attend their annual convention. So you have to show proof of vaccination before September 19th or a negative test after September 30th. And they will also provide rapid tests for the day of the convention as well. So yeah, it's interesting to see how different people are handling it. I mean, I want to lean a little bit more towards people or being a little more cautious. I think that makes me feel a little safer.

[00:16:29] Jessen Fonte: But yeah, it's interesting. That's a split I didn't think we would ever see. But yeah, the National Beer Wholesalers Association's annual convention is in Las Vegas this year, October 3rd through 6th. Justin and I will be there. Zoe, I'll be holding down the floor in Boston. Thank you. Appreciate it. Very off brand for me as a loser who doesn't leave her couch, but I love Vegas. Oh, really? Yeah.

[00:16:54] Zoe Licata: Never been, never had the desire to.

[00:16:57] Jessen Fonte: So I never had either. And then I went for work. I had to fly out for two different Oktoberfest events in Vegas, two different years. And it was super fun. Like we saw Britney perform, we went to a club, like, and that's, those are not things I do at all. Like I was very dressed completely wrong. Like I think I was wearing like a pink and green sundress. Like I looked like a real jerk. But anyway, yeah, I'm glad the NBWA is requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test. They're giving options. I get it that not everybody wants to get vaccinated, not everybody can get vaccinated, but they're at least providing these options and including the rapid test the day of. And they've said that anybody who tests positive can't come in. We're obviously a little too close now to CBC to make any kind of proof of vaccination requirement, but I mean a negative test or a test in the morning like you could do that.

[00:17:47] Zoe Licata: The negative test one is interesting. I feel like that like shouldn't that be like the bare minimum is just like I don't know, have a negative test just to make sure. Yeah, I just know that like even like we've talked about this a few times, but when I was like working directly in the service industry, like the biggest thing was with all these new requirements, relying on people to be honest about like what their status or exposure has been doesn't really work. And so I feel like places kind of have to have some sort of like help for people to kind of encourage them to be more truthful about what kind of exposure they might have and a negative test can do that. So it's interesting to see that the Brewers Association is like, no, we're just we're going to trust people to do what's best for them and for everyone else.

[00:18:37] Jessen Fonte: Yeah, it is very nice that they're that trustworthy. While we are in Denver, my family will be doing their annual tomato jarring day. So at the end of tomato season, which is now, my sister-in-law buys up bushels and bushels of tomatoes and everybody gets together and we, you know, you cook and crush them and then you jar them and then you have like fresh tomato sauce to use all winter. And it's a great day. It's so much fun. We like start at 7 a.m. and there's a lot of champagne and last year, Hard Seltzer and whatnot. But My sister-in-law is making everybody participating in Tomato Day take a negative test.

[00:19:11] Zoe Licata: Wow.

[00:19:12] Jessen Fonte: Right?

[00:19:12] Zoe Licata: Take no, everyone. Seriously.

[00:19:17] Jessen Fonte: Other news this week, Blue Moon announced that they're releasing Moonhaze Hazy Juicy Pale Ale. It's a pale ale that checks in at 5.7% ABV and 30 IBUs. It's going to be the third priority behind Belgian White and Light Sky. I thought this was really interesting because this is really the first hop forward beer I think we've ever seen them, certainly launched nationally. I'm sure they do all sorts of cool stuff at their brewery out in the Rhino section of Denver, which maybe we can go visit next week. But this was interesting to me and It makes sense when you think about it because of how important the orange is to the Blue Moon story, you know? Right. Blue Moon is a Belgian whipped beer. It uses orange traditionally. Whipped beers use orange peel and coriander, but Blue Moon is also served with Cran Orange wedge and that is their thing. It's their ritual. It's really like you know, you see it out at a bar and you know, like that is a blue moon, a hazy beer. At least, you know, eight years ago, you'd see a hazy beer out with Cran Orange slice and you would know that that was a blue moon. It was kind of before the proliferation of hazy IPAs and pale ales that we have right now. But I think, I imagine they probably saw this trend happening where these citrus forward, juicy, hazy beers skyrocketed and they weren't getting any of that action when they have those brand credentials, like haziness, juiciness, citrusiness is all in their DNA. So interesting to see what happens with this.

[00:20:40] Zoe Licata: Yeah. I mean, I'm always excited to see someone who's like kind of known for like one or two things come out with something new ish, but still kind of along something that, you know, they're familiar with.

[00:20:52] Jessen Fonte: Yeah. Now, the landscape has changed so differently from when I was a new drinker. But when I was like 21, 22, Blue Moon was something you kind of, like, I drank a lot of Blue Moons because you would order one, you'd know it had a little bit more alcohol, but you'd also get the orange wedge. And it would be like a symbol, you know, you hold it in your hand and people at that bar know that you think and care more about what you're drinking. At least that's what I think I thought in my dumb little 22 year old brain. Yeah, but that was really like the entryway to Craft Brewers for me. Blue Moon and the Samseas in my family for sure. Do Gen Z. young adults dabble in the blue moon at all?

[00:21:31] Zoe Licata: Definitely. I don't think we think about it as much as like, Oh, this like gives me any sort of superiority into the craft or anything, but it's one of the probably like top three, if you're going out to a restaurant and you're going to order a beer, that's what people are going to get. Just because you know, you like it, you know, it tastes like it's going to satisfy and do the job, you know? So it's definitely still something that we all know about. We're still ordering it. So that has lasted.

[00:21:58] Jessen Fonte: Totally. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. In my conversation with Joy Ghosh, who's the senior vice president, I might've just promoted him, but the vice president of Beyond Beer and F&B Brands, we talked all about this last week. And he told me the occasions for the brand for them to kind of break down where drinkers really look to Belgian White to be the beer that they drink either at a happy hour or they pair it with a meal, pair it with food. Light Sky, which they released last year and was like really a runaway success in its first year and is doing great in its sophomore year as well. Light Sky is their daytime occasion beer and they want Moonhaze to really fit into this relax and unwind, I assume, you know, hang out after work, drink a beer. They think it's for people who are looking for more flavor but Dollar sales of the whole Blue Moon brand family have declined year-to-date 6.5% to $231 million, which is of course nothing to sneeze at, at multi-outlet food and convenience stores through August 8th, according to IRI. Belgian White's really driving those declines, but Scandata doesn't really reflect on-premise. And Joy told me that they have increased in 11 of the last 12 months, increased their share in the on-premise.

[00:23:05] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I feel like I associate Blue Moon more with like drinking it on premise and like you said, like with food at restaurants and stuff. So I feel like it kind of makes sense that it doesn't perform as well or looks like it's not performing as well because it doesn't have that on premise factor. Yeah, totally. Great call. All right, tell me about what's going on in Louisiana. Yeah, I mean, we all know what's happening with Hurricane Ida out there right now. So they experienced a category four hurricane over the weekend, 16 years basically to the day from when they got hit by Hurricane Katrina. Luckily, the levies held this year, they didn't get as severe damage as they did before, but companies and businesses are still experiencing flooding, they're experiencing property damage, they're experiencing closures. And so one of the local Craft Brewers, Foeberg Brewing, which previously they were called Dixie Beer, they put out a press release on Monday, And they said they've been working directly with the Louisiana government to provide whatever they can to help people and businesses in the area, specifically their majority owner, Gail Benson. She has given a initial donation of one million dollars to help fund the Gulf Coast Renewal Fund. And that was created by Benson and her various organizations. She also owns like the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans. So this fund is created by all of them to help support recovery and relief in the area. And she also offered up any of her facilities. She owns like various buildings and arenas from her ownerships in the area. So they're gonna be using the Sports Performance Center, which is where both teams play to help with anything FEMA needs, for just helping people shelter, provide resources to people. So Fulbright is trying to do the best that they can to help everyone in New Orleans and the general like Louisiana area. And they know directly what it's like to deal with a hurricane and everything. I mean, their original brewery got totally wiped out from Hurricane Katrina. And they had to contract brew from 2005 until about 2019 because of it when they opened their new facility. So now that they have this new ownership, they're trying to give back to other businesses and help them recover as well.

[00:25:33] Jessen Fonte: Which is great. It's definitely good to have a multi-sport and business billionaire mogul on your side. For sure, yeah. Not a bad thing. No. Now what else did you hear has happened in New Orleans? I think a few breweries had some damage, right?

[00:25:48] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I mean, we saw just like browsing through the various news reports. There's been a lot of like structural damage from all the winds and everything. And one of the most popular images I've seen is of a portion of roof that just blew through the streets. And the roof actually belongs to a local brewery. It belongs to Jack's Brewing? Yes, the roof came off of Jack's Brewing and just flew off into the street. And so I don't know what other property damage they had, but that's definitely something they're going to have to deal with. And I know basically all the breweries in the area, including Fulberg, are currently closed right now just because they're assessing damage. They're still dealing with everyone having to like fix everything in the area. And so all the breweries and businesses in general are just dealing with lots of financial strain because of it.

[00:26:41] Jessen Fonte: The last thing they need, especially after the year that we've had, well, we're thanking everybody down there. We hope everybody was able to stay safe. Definitely a scary thing. I love New Orleans. It's one of my absolute favorite cities. I was one of the obnoxious people who went there with the bachelorette party. So I'm sorry to the people of New Orleans, but we were generally pretty well behaved. My husband had his own bachelor party there and and as part of the weekend they went to a pelicans game. Interesting. I don't know and my brother I guess was chilled whilst there so we bought a sweatshirt at the stadium and it's like one of his favorite sweatshirts so thanks Gail Benson. Yeah, well, that's that's the news. Yeah, we did it. We did it. We did. And we'll have more stuff this week on upcoming personnel changes at the Breakthrough Beverage Group. They are replacing longtime CEO Greg Baird with Tom Benet, who is the CEO of the National Restaurant Association, which I always abbreviate as NRA and then have to explain to other people, no, it's not that NRA, it is the restaurant group. What else? We'll have more coming up from our chat with Lesia and about Truly Hard Seltzer. And Zoe, you've got some stuff upcoming from IWSR and Drizzly.

[00:27:56] Zoe Licata: Yeah, IWSI talked about kind of how RTDs may be the best avenue for like premium vodka brands to kind of stay relevant and get some growth because they're struggling a little bit right now. And Drizzly keeps expanding its reach. It is now basically in all of Oregon. It's got all of Portland and Eugene and also today announced it expanded its reach in Florida as well. I talked to Jeff Carroll today, who works at Avalara, and he gave me some interesting insight into how these companies are kind of blurring the lines between delivery and direct-to-consumer shipping. They're growing really, really rapidly where their reach and expansion is, so definitely something to keep an eye on of how they grow and how these companies kind of change how consumers can get their favorite brands.

[00:28:53] Jessen Fonte: Cool, well, more to come on that for sure. Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend. Don't get as bummed out as I surely will be. Drink some Hard Seltzer, drink some beer, drink some hard kombucha, some ranch water, all of the things. Thank you to our one man, wondrous audio team of Joe, who's gonna flip this and make us sound listenable. And thank you all for listening. We will see some of you in Denver next week. Give us a shout if you're gonna be around. Otherwise, we'll catch you in a couple weeks. Yeah. Thanks, everybody.