Brewbound Podcast: The One Word You Should Never Say on a Slow News Day

[00:00:00] Justin Fonte: 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] New Jersey: What's the one word you should never say in a newsroom or a buddy cop film? Find out on Check Brewbound Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome to Check Brewbound Podcast. My name is Justin Kendall and I'm the editor of Brewbound. And I am joined as always by my co-host in podcasting, Justin Fonte, who is once again, still in New Jersey.

[00:01:04] Justin Fonte: I am in New Jersey and I am thrilled to pieces about it.

[00:01:07] New Jersey: Thankfully, this isn't visual or else we'd have a lot of disappointed people who don't see pineapple walls or pineapple lamps or a lot of pineapple in that house.

[00:01:19] Justin Fonte: Yeah, my mom's got a thing for pineapples. She likes them because they're the symbol of hospitality and has something to do with sea captains. So I think she thinks she's a sea captain, but basically there's always like a ton of people in and out of our house, either staying for weekends or just hanging out. So she likes to think of herself as very hospitable, but it makes it really easy to buy her stuff. She just gets pineapples.

[00:01:41] New Jersey: That's all you need with a parent at this point is just something to keep coming back to.

[00:01:47] Justin Fonte: Birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, pineapples all the time.

[00:01:53] New Jersey: Well, we are not alone. We have brought back our expert in Generation Z culture, Zoe Licata. Thanks for being here again, Zoe.

[00:02:04] Zoe Licata: Thanks for having me back. Glad to still be here.

[00:02:08] New Jersey: Well, you're not going anywhere.

[00:02:09] Justin Fonte: I think, yeah, we are both very glad that you're here too.

[00:02:13] New Jersey: Yes, we're gonna have you for the whole show here. So we may even throw you into the mix of our IRI pop quiz, which stay tuned, that's coming up. But first, we need a New Jersey Beach report.

[00:02:29] Justin Fonte: New Jersey beach reports. So, and by that, I'm, you know, I basically just make my friends count the banner planes with booze ads. Saturday was too foggy for any, so there really wasn't much to report. But Sunday we had a ton of activity. We had banner planes from Twisted Tea with their tagline, Jersey parties with tea. Now on my way down here, I saw a billboard in mass that said Boston parties with tea, and that makes sense. But Jersey parties with tea, I don't know. We didn't have any kind of historic tea party down here. Also saw something for McUltra, truly, their tagline was live truly at New Jersey shore. I think these guys are doing a lot with the customization. I don't know that it's working. Also saw a plan for Seagram's hard seltzer, which I thought was new, but it's not. Then Bud Light had like a whole portfolio banner ad where it's just like a picture of all manner of Bud Light cans in a bucket, like Bud Light the beer, Bud Light lime, Bud Light seltzer. I don't know that that's something we ever would have seen out of that company like 10 years ago. And then there was a plane for High Noon that called itself a hard seltzer. And then I started asking my friends what they thought about hard seltzers versus spirits-based RTDs. And they basically said, we don't know how it's possible for somebody to have such a cool job and yet be so boring and annoying.

[00:03:47] New Jersey: That's a fair point. And a lot of folks are going to wonder that probably a little later when we get into our legislative update, because we're going to talk about just that. But you also have been peddling some cocktail gummies on your friends. I believe they're called eat your drink.

[00:04:05] Justin Fonte: Yes, yes. They are called Eat Your Drink. So back to the hospitality angle of my mom and her pineapples. Last week, my cousin who was recently married was visiting us. He brings his kids for a week at the beach every summer and they love it. But he had just got married and somebody gave him and his new wife as a wedding gift, two boxes of cocktail gummies called Eat Your Drink by a company called Smith and Sinclair. And look, I don't know how these are, like, how did these get made? Like what regulatory approval does this pass? So each one supposedly is 5% ABV. Each one is flavored with different cocktails. The few that I sampled with my brother and sister-in-law on Friday night were okay. Like, we weren't that wowed by them, but then I pass them out to everybody the next day, and everybody that tried one loved one. And my friends were like, oh, I would definitely eat this. Like, would you? Like, I don't know, man. Like, I like the act of drinking a drink, you know? Like, it takes time. It's like a ritual. It's something you do. But like these gummies, you eat two bites and then they're gone. Maybe I'm not the market. They seem to be even made by a company in the Netherlands. I totally understand why my cousin, well, my cousin brought them to me and was like, you're the only depraved person I know that would try these. But when we had been at his house for his wedding last month, I had purchased some hard seltzers that one of his 10 year olds mistook for a kid-friendly beverage because of all the bright colors and took one sip and was caught immediately. But I get why he does not want booze candy in his house.

[00:05:35] New Jersey: What kind of gift is that? Who gives this? I mean, and clearly it was not an appreciated gift because he's already regifted it to you.

[00:05:44] Justin Fonte: Right, like there's nothing about him or his wife that scream like these people need to eat some booze. Like I can see somebody giving that to me. But I don't know. I mean, they were good. Some were good.

[00:06:01] New Jersey: Zoe, would the people of Generation Z, do they like cocktail gummies?

[00:06:06] Zoe Licata: It definitely seems like something that, like, everyone would go and buy just to, like, say that you tried a cocktail gummy. But I don't see it being anyone's, like, oh, I've got to get my gummies for the weekend. Like, I don't think it's, like, a regular thing. It just seems like a cool, like, Instagram product to have for a minute.

[00:06:27] Justin Fonte: Yeah, are you smelling fashioned one? Yeah, I am. It's it's the old fashioned flavor. It smells. A little more like Clovey than an old fashioned like this smells like like Christmas spices, you know, because you open that you're going to have to eat it right now, right now. Alright, well, as long as you don't want another story out of me today. Yeah, like they're covered in sugar. They're pretty big. They're like bigger than a quarter and fairly thick like. I don't know, half an inch thick. This doesn't taste like an old-fashioned. Some cherry notes, though.

[00:07:04] New Jersey: But your friends were sold on them.

[00:07:06] Justin Fonte: Yeah, but you know what? Maybe they have terrible taste.

[00:07:08] New Jersey: I don't think you have to eat the whole thing. Okay, good.

[00:07:11] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I want to know what the serving size is. How many are you supposed to have at a time and how many is too dangerous to have in one sitting?

[00:07:20] Justin Fonte: The calorie serving was two pieces and it was 70 calories for two, which isn't bad at all. On Friday night when I was actually trying them with my brother and his wife, we split three among ourselves and I probably had more if I cut them up. And I thought a little bit of a buzz, like after one and like a quarter. But I don't know, man, like I'm old. I mean, I could see like if you're in your youth and you want to pound shots before you go out, I guess. you could do this. But what I don't get is, if you ate 10 of them right in a row, would you get alcohol poisoning in like half an hour that like that seems dangerous. Like you could bring these anywhere you can drive with them, you could put them in your purse and go to a bar. And listen to me now like what a friggin nerd. But like, I think they're dangerous.

[00:08:08] New Jersey: Well, and this comes during a summer in which a lot of alcohol producers are making alcoholic freeze pops or alcoholic ice cream. I believe we've got a Coors Seltzer ice cream out there. There's Truly Freeze Pops. They've partnered up with the Otter Pops folks, but clearly not branded Otter Pops, I don't believe. There's Bud Light Seltzer ice pops. And then I think there's some non-alcoholic, truly infused gummy bears.

[00:08:38] Justin Fonte: Yes, gummies from Sugarfina, which is like a fancy candy maker, confectioner. I guess that's a fancy term for candy makers. So yeah, I guess everybody wants to make snacks.

[00:08:48] New Jersey: Would you incorporate any of these products, Zoe, in a darty?

[00:08:54] Zoe Licata: I could definitely see freeze pops being a part of a darty, no doubt. You're going to be out in the sunshine, so a nice alcoholic ice pop sounds perfect.

[00:09:04] New Jersey: So fill us in once again on what a Darty is and tell all of us olds how the rules have changed.

[00:09:14] Zoe Licata: Yes. So darty, day drinking, party, you're partying during the day. I have learned this past weekend that it has to be outside. So I went to a darty this weekend. We went inside to cool down and my friend came in and said, what are you doing? Darties are outside. So you have to be outside. If it rains, I guess you can't have a darty, unfortunately. Sorry, guys. But that also means you cannot have it in the wintertime, which is really sad.

[00:09:44] Justin Fonte: What if you are depraved enough to want to stay outside and drink in a rainstorm?

[00:09:50] Zoe Licata: I guess then technically you're still having a diet. I don't know how long you're going to stay out there, but I mean to each his own.

[00:09:56] Justin Fonte: I know. I feel like maybe that that deserves a new name. During one hurricane, me and my lunatic friends from down here at New Jersey Shore who ate all of my cocktail gummies, brought beach umbrellas to the beach and we like hid under them and like drank beer during a hurricane.

[00:10:11] Zoe Licata: Yeah, that needs its own name. That's a whole nother level.

[00:10:15] Justin Fonte: and something else entirely.

[00:10:17] New Jersey: That is intense.

[00:10:20] Justin Fonte: Sorry, I've taken us very far off the rails.

[00:10:24] New Jersey: You have. I mean, I didn't believe the part about being depraved, but I believe you have just changed my view.

[00:10:32] Justin Fonte: Pretty depraved. Now that I know all the things that I know about the legal and regulatory aspect of the alcohol industry, I don't know how I didn't get arrested or make anybody lose their life. I was a real jerk. We used to have clubs down here. You know what? We should stop. But there were clubs down here that would do 18 for girls to get in, so we would bring beers with us because big purses were trendy. Yeah. What a mess. And shockingly, I am a productive adult member of society. Look at me now, I'm great.

[00:11:05] New Jersey: Indeed you are, and you're back in New Jersey, so clearly there aren't any warrants out for your arrest that we know of.

[00:11:14] Justin Fonte: No, no.

[00:11:18] New Jersey: Moving on to the business at hand, we've got a big show coming up on July 15th that you won't have to sneak beers into. Fortunately, we're doing it virtually again, but possibly for the last time, that is Brew Talks on Thursday, July 15th at 3 p.m. Eastern time. You can register for free at Brewbound.com. No subscription required, don't have to be an insider, but you do have to register. And yeah, hopefully last one virtual before we hit the road again and do this live at CBC. But first we've got two panels, one discussing the summer selling season and looking ahead to the fall. We're going to have our friends from Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione, will be back with us as well as Danelle Cosmo from Nielsen IQ. So we'll get all that off-premise data. We'll also have Brewers Association Chief Economist Bart Watson. So we've got the biggest brain in the beer industry. And we'll have Jason Milburn from Kroger giving us that grocery view. Pretty excited for that panel.

[00:12:29] Justin Fonte: That's a solid panel. I think that group of people, I would love to talk beer with them. So I'm glad we've got it on the calendar.

[00:12:37] New Jersey: Yeah, so come listen to us talk beer with those folks and throw us some questions. But that's not all. We also have a second panel discussion and Sam's gonna stick around for that one. We're gonna discuss the future of the US craft beer bar scene. just sort of in light of what we've seen recently with the closure of the falling rock in Denver and the blue tusk is eminent closure in Syracuse. We're going to have some folks who aren't closing and we're going to look at, you know, how suppliers can really help these guys you know, as the on-premise opens up. And who do we have for that panel? We have Michael Roper from the Hop Leaf in Chicago. We've got Melissa Myers from the Good Hop in Oakland. And we have Selena Teo from the Belfry Lounge in Kansas City. And I used to live around the corner from the Belfry Lounge, and I used to frequent there. So I'm very excited to catch up with Selena, and I love that panel.

[00:13:40] Justin Fonte: How much do you think the Belfry, how big of an impact did the Belfry Lounge have on your development as a beer drinker?

[00:13:46] New Jersey: I was pretty much in the thick of it at that point, but one of those where it's like, oh, here's a, you know, 18% beer, you know, let me drink this and then go sleep for seven hours. convenient to live walking distance from that. Exactly. It was the best of times. And speaking of other shows that we have coming up that Jess and I actually won't be on, but our parent company is actually doing a BevNET cocktail showdown. So they're looking for up and coming, ready to drink spirits based canned cocktail brands. That's a pitch competition. It's set for August 12th. You can find out more details about that at Brewbound.com. But we got to get to our show and I teased it at the start and that one word that we're not supposed to say. that can, you know, make a day go from, oh boy, wow, it's super quiet. Oh shit. There's that word quiet. That's the word. I said it this morning and we are recording this on June 28th. It's a Monday, you know, it's a holiday week. So you'd think it would be a little bit quiet, but it is not quiet.

[00:15:07] Justin Fonte: Dude, you've said this word so many times in the past few minutes that I think we've now screwed ourselves for the whole rest of the week.

[00:15:13] New Jersey: I think we have. It's sort of like the candy man. I just went in the bathroom and I've said his name over and over, looking into the mirror, and he's just going to show up at my house now. He might as well after saying quiet so many times.

[00:15:28] Justin Fonte: I think you've now just like summoned like maybe three acquisitions. We'll see what happens. Check in with us on Friday.

[00:15:35] New Jersey: I know. If there are that many acquisitions, we'll record a Brewbound minute. Good. We're going to need 30 minutes for a Brewbound minute though at that point. So what happened? I guess I had my Spidey senses tingling today because what was it that I said to you on Slack?

[00:15:52] Justin Fonte: You said that we should probably be on the lookout for news about Anheuser-Busch's new North America zone president. And we both said, yep, that sounds right. And then what happened?

[00:16:05] New Jersey: AB has promoted Brendan Whitworth as its US CEO and North America zone president.

[00:16:11] Justin Fonte: Which you said to me like a month ago, that you were like, I bet it's going to be Brendan. And I was like, yeah, that sounds right.

[00:16:17] New Jersey: It felt right, yeah. The guy's had eight years in the org. He seemed to be on the fast track. He's a former Marine and CIA counter-terrorism guy.

[00:16:28] Justin Fonte: Is he the only one of those in the beer industry? I think so.

[00:16:32] New Jersey: He's the only one that can speak about it, maybe.

[00:16:35] Justin Fonte: Yeah, I mean, I also, I went on his LinkedIn and he speaks Arabic. He also played soccer in college.

[00:16:42] New Jersey: He's been sort of a shining star within the AV system. So makes sense for him to supplant Michelle Dukras, who is transitioning to global CEO and taking over for Carlos Brito. All of that is going to happen on July 1st. So by the end of the week.

[00:17:02] Justin Fonte: Yeah, like when you hear this podcast, right?

[00:17:07] New Jersey: Yep, just in time for the July 4 holiday. yes but that was the big news to start the week and we're still sort of hung over from last week and all of the legislative issues that are sort of cycling through i guess the various states and state houses out there and you picked up on what was going on just in New York. And yeah, basically pandemic driven takeout and delivery privileges have expired. in the state.

[00:17:44] Justin Fonte: Yes. So New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were all acting, basically walking in lockstep at the beginning of the pandemic because those states are so close together that let's say if restaurants are still open for indoor dining in Connecticut, but not New York, it's really easy for you to go to Connecticut for dinner and come back to New York and then who knows what's happening. So that made sense that they were doing that. but they were really early adapters of letting bars and restaurants sell cocktails to go. They had that much sooner than our home state of Massachusetts did. And on Wednesday, the New York State Liquor Authority informed its licensees that in 24 hours or less, they would no longer be able to offer home delivery of alcoholic beverages or sell alcoholic beverages to go. That was a little concerning because there are a good number of breweries in New York that were really leaning pretty heavy on delivery. I know our friends at Torch and Crown based in Manhattan, I called and talked to their director of marketing, Chris McClellan, and he said that this is really what kept us going for 12 months. And their delivery sales has started to decrease with people being able to go out, but they still were counting on that being a huge revenue driver for them. So to lose it is alarming.

[00:18:54] New Jersey: I think that's my question and you sort of hit on it is how big of a deal is this still for craft breweries in the state? Because they had relied on that so much during the pandemic, but with on premise and at the brewery sales coming back and mixing in off premise sales as well. I mean, is it that big of a deal that this is going away? Or, you know, is it just sort of a little bit of extra?

[00:19:23] Justin Fonte: So I think it depends where in New York you are. In New York City, everybody gets everything delivered, and that's just kind of part of life. People are used to that. You can get pretty much anything you want delivered. You can get your dry cleaning delivered. You can get food delivered in the middle of the night. That's really a way of life for them. It makes sense to me that Torch and Crown was really reliant on delivery. I know when we talked to other half early on in the pandemic there in Brooklyn, they said that they were really cranking through delivery, but they weren't sure if they could keep it up if traffic came back to normal. But Torch and Crown, they are self-distributing. They were ready to do this. When I talked to Chris, he was making deliveries actually. But I also talked to my friend Chris Benelli, who's the co-owner of Rock Brewing in Rochester, and he tried delivery for like two weeks early on and it really didn't take. So it really depends on where in the state you are. What I had heard from both Chris and the New York State Brewers Association Executive Director, Paul Leone, and Chris is also on the Guild Board as well, is that the legislators upstate and downstate are very different and they have different concerns. Like people who represent New York City don't really want to give any other freedoms to alcohol than they have. Apparently there were problems in the city where people were going up to bars and restaurants, getting to go cocktails and drinking them walking down the street. And you know, Brooklyn is not bourbon street. their legislators were pretty upset about that. So I don't know, it's funny, like a state like that where your biggest population center is so different from the rest of the state and your needs are wildly different, you know?

[00:20:59] New Jersey: Right. I mean, you can see that in a lot of different states, though, like the environment in Kansas City or St. Louis is going to be way different than Springfield or St. Joseph or something like that, or Des Moines is going to be different than, you know, the more rural parts of the state. But yes, I mean, New York City might as well be another planet compared to, you know, the rest of the state or even, you know, the rest of any of my Midwestern states.

[00:21:31] Justin Fonte: Totally, and thank you for checking us on the East Coast Bias. I feel like you always provide a geographic balance, which is much appreciated. Yeah, in New York, there's options. So like there's, brewers can apply for different, a different license that will allow them to keep all these things. Like some breweries, if you have the right license, you're still allowed to deliver an offer to go. So there's just, you know, red tape stuff you gotta do on the back end. The other thing that this abrupt change in regulation last week was it took away everyone's ability to, you know, like how last summer and at least, you know, where I am right now and where I live in Mass, restaurants were still allowed to have their extended outdoor spaces. Last week, the governor was basically saying you can't do that anymore. You can't serve alcohol outside the area your license covers.

[00:22:17] New Jersey: This also seems to be a bit of a change for Cuomo because If memory serves, you know, he has been very brewery friendly. I remember getting lots of press releases about all the things he wanted to do for breweries in the state. And for this to sort of come you know, you had to expect that maybe it would happen at some point, you know, state of emergency wasn't going to last forever. But you would expect there to be some type of extension or something. And that never happened. And here we are with little notice and a major change.

[00:22:57] Justin Fonte: Yeah. And this little notice major change has been happening to them for a whole year. And I know they're not alone. That's been the case in every state because everybody, you know, is just kind of rolling with it. But Chris Finnelli at Rochester told me that they would get, you know, a change announced on Thursday and it's publicized so consumers know about it. But consumers will come in on Friday and say, oh, well, this is the law now. And then you know, they're still waiting to hear from the SLA and the SLA is who has the ability to find them. So that's, of course, who they're going to listen to. And the SLA might not be able to ready off to offer an interpretation until Monday. So it's been a long, tiring year of rules constantly changing and you feel for them.

[00:23:37] New Jersey: So let me ask both of you this. How much delivery alcohol have you guys done since the pandemic? Or have you done any really?

[00:23:48] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I did quite a bit during the pandemic, especially in the beginning-ish, when you just didn't really want to go outside or like hours were weird or whatever for places. We would just order at the beginning of the week or before the weekend, just a couple bottles of wine or some like beers or whatever. It was quicker than going anywhere. I mean, places around here with like Drizzly and everything, you could get something to your door within like 30, 40 minutes. So I know for myself and other people, we were using it pretty often. You were using Drizzly? Yeah.

[00:24:22] Justin Fonte: We didn't use it that much. I know my husband got Trillium delivery a couple times, I think for the novelty, but we didn't really Drizzly that much. There's two liquor stores within walking distance of our house.

[00:24:33] New Jersey: Yeah. Plus, I mean, you and I may not be the best test case, Jess, because we both get so much alcohol delivered to our homes from the suppliers that a lot of times there's not a need to.

[00:24:49] Justin Fonte: No, exactly. And thank you, suppliers. It's much appreciated. Like I was doing like online ordering and clicking collect from breweries. I did that quite a bit.

[00:24:57] Zoe Licata: Yeah, I did a lot of pickups and stuff as well when everything was happening, just ordering directly from places.

[00:25:03] Justin Fonte: I ordered online from a brewery in my neck of the woods and went in to get it. And I looked, I looked like awful. Like I had zero makeup. I was like wearing like completely mismatched athleisure. It was the dead of winter. Like it was not my best showing. And I walked in and somebody was like, we saw your name come through. We need your, we read your stuff on Brewbound. And I was just like, oh no. Hello.

[00:25:26] New Jersey: Local celebrity.

[00:25:28] Justin Fonte: I'm hugely prettier than this. I apologize.

[00:25:34] New Jersey: Well, New York is not the only state that we're going to talk about here because there's also a fight or was a fight by the time you're listening to this in Pennsylvania over making cocktails to go permanent, but that has been shelved because Democrats and Republicans have different ideas of what they want to do in this state Democrats were for the cocktail to go permanence But they weren't down with the idea that Republicans had which was to expand RTD spirits based cocktail sales beyond the state-controlled stores that basically poison-pilled the legislation and now that's shelved and

[00:26:17] Justin Fonte: Yeah, which is funny to me because I feel like if you support one of these, it's not that far of a stretch to support the other. So it's weird that they're dug in on this, but Pennsylvania's got really weird liquor laws now.

[00:26:31] New Jersey: And that's something that we're sort of seeing play out across the country is either an expansion of privileges or a battle over what to do with ready to drink canned cocktails. This becoming sort of a contentious point for folks. Then we go. A little, I guess, further over on the east coast to your home state of New Jersey with the tax equivalency fight there, there was a bill that would have brought the state excise tax rate on spirits based ready to drink and cocktails in in line with beer, and that has been pulled from consideration. The tax cut would have been pretty significant. It would have dropped the tax on RTD cocktails from $5.50 per gallon to $0.12 per gallon. And after initial threshold limit of 8% ABV, there was a Senate committee that amended this legislation to jack it up to 9.9% ABV.

[00:27:37] Justin Fonte: So weird, I mean, I just don't get it because we don't have any major manufacturers of RTDs based in the state. I don't know who got the legislators ears on this one, but, you know, I feel like I've said it in this space previously, New Jersey has really high taxes. And I know, you know, any tax you put on a good is gonna be passed along to the consumers of the good. But if there's a way that you can say like, we are raising taxes to a revenue that's not your income or your property taxes, like, why would you not do that? I don't know.

[00:28:08] New Jersey: You don't often see something like that. This feels unheard of to me, but it's off the table for now. Maybe something changes this week. It's highly unlikely. The New Jersey legislature is headed for recess, and then it's an election year, so it becomes a lame duck situation. But that legislation is expected to come back this fall. And it's not going away. That fight is only going to intensify, and we're going to be writing about it again in the fall.

[00:28:44] Justin Fonte: I mean, I'm here. You want me to go to Trenton? It's an hour away. Say the word.

[00:28:48] New Jersey: I will absolutely go. You can take your cocktail gummies and you can hit the road and head over to the State House.

[00:28:56] Justin Fonte: So embarrassing. Yeah, there's great pizza in Trenton, so I will be happy to go on that mission.

[00:29:01] New Jersey: All right, well, another story that we were on last week and we sort of touched on it at the top of the show is the Falling Rock has shut down. It's closed now permanently as of Sunday. And there's another craft beer bar in your neck of the woods of Syracuse that is closing up shop.

[00:29:25] Justin Fonte: Yeah, the Blue Tusk, which is in downtown Syracuse, New York, which is where I went to college. So I didn't hang out at the Blue Tusk that much. We've previously tread on in this episode. I was kind of a degenerate youth and wasn't really hanging out at craft beer bars back then. It was more, you know, frat house basements and sticky floor dive bars. But we would go to the Blue Tusk. It was a great spot for lunch. And in those days, what I was really more aware of was they had an excellent selection of really interesting imports. But you know, it was definitely a beloved spot. And Zoe, you wrote about the battle they were having with the landlord. And it just seems kind of funny that they're saying they'd love to stay and the landlord is saying we'd love to have someone just like them. So it's like, I don't know why you two crazy kids can't work this out.

[00:30:09] Zoe Licata: Yeah, it's so strange. So the building itself got bought out like three years ago by a new developer, and they've been having like very short term leases on the place since then, and apparently recently they were told yeah we have a new tenant that has agreed to sign like a 25 year long lease. either you can sign a lease that's that long or you guys have got to go. And it seems so strange because both the owners of the bar and the people who like run the company who have the building are like, yeah, we we love this bar. We don't want to leave. So I don't know why why it's come to this point. And they haven't released who's going to take over the space either. So I don't know who signed that 25 year lease.

[00:30:51] New Jersey: very odd situation there, but coming out of the pandemic, I guess that leaves you a lot more questions than answers because there were deferrals on rent during the pandemic, deferrals on evictions. So I'm not saying that's the issue, but your head sort of starts to wonder when you don't have clear answers to what's going on in a situation like this, where it's like, yeah, we'd love to stay. Yeah, we'd love to have somebody like them, but not them.

[00:31:23] Justin Fonte: Yeah, yeah, a bummer for sure.

[00:31:26] New Jersey: So pour one out for the blue tusk and pour one out for the falling rock. And we're going to stick to Denver and also stick with you, Zoe. You also wrote about Denver Beer Company's NFT. And for old people like me who don't really understand NFTs, can you tell me what an NFT is?

[00:31:47] Zoe Licata: I can try yet. NFT is a non fungible token is what it stands for. And by my understanding, it's like a digital item or something that you can purchase usually with like cryptocurrency. And it's only owned by that one sole person. And so people have been using it to sell digital art or they sold like the founder of Twitter's original tweet for almost $3 million. It's for like unique things. Athletes have been selling like highlight clips. It's this new concept that I don't quite understand. I don't know if anyone really understands it, but it's trendy now. And apparently now it's permeated into the beer world. So the Denver Beer Company is auctioning off a NFT for Beer for Life, where you can purchase this gold coin, digital gold coin, and you will have up to four free beers a day for the rest of your life from the Denver Beer Company.

[00:32:47] New Jersey: And so far, there seems to be a bit of a bidding war on this between Bink Floyd, and AOBA6F. And those two are going back and forth on this so far as I can see. And the price as of this recording is $2,659.39.

[00:33:15] Zoe Licata: So they did like a tally of how much it would be worth to get that many beers for the rest of your life. And they said a 35 year old would spend $664,000.

[00:33:25] New Jersey: How long do they think I'm going to live for?

[00:33:30] Zoe Licata: I think they said if you were 100 years old, you have to live up to 100 to spend that much. So I guess they're getting a deal out of it, but I don't know, man. It's such a strange concept to me. And what's interesting with this one is you are allowed to either sell it or like pass it down. So it could keep going on for a while, like past one person's lifetime.

[00:33:57] New Jersey: Can I buy it with Dogecoin?

[00:34:00] Zoe Licata: Probably. They probably love that. They're all about the cryptocurrency. Do you have Dogecoin?

[00:34:05] New Jersey: I wish I did. No, I would go to the moon if I did, but we wouldn't be renting a house for another year. Unfortunately, I didn't buy any Dogecoin. So cartoon dog money did not fund anything for me.

[00:34:21] Justin Fonte: I barely understand regular money. This is all way too much for me.

[00:34:27] New Jersey: And our last bit of news for this week, Pepsi is looking at getting into the alcohol business again.

[00:34:38] Justin Fonte: Yeah, well, yeah. What did they do before?

[00:34:44] New Jersey: I can't remember now that I said that.

[00:34:47] Justin Fonte: So they sell a hard version of Rockstar that's like vodka based in Canada.

[00:34:52] New Jersey: Are we going to get that?

[00:34:54] Justin Fonte: I don't know. I don't think so, though, because So basically the news in a nutshell is the fact that PepsiCo filed for trademarks for its Rockstar Energy Drink brand for a Rockstar trademark in the beer category and then the FMB, not beer, canned cocktail, hard seltzer category. So which one will they pick? We don't know. They didn't answer any of my emails at all about anything.

[00:35:19] New Jersey: Oh, that's just rude.

[00:35:20] Justin Fonte: Yeah, yeah, it was, you know, had a lot of people not want to talk to me lately. And that makes me sad.

[00:35:26] New Jersey: Yeah.

[00:35:27] Justin Fonte: But like, who's gonna make it? Are they going to make it themselves? So many questions, because we've seen a lot of non out producers hop into the seltzer game lately, right? And there's a few different ways to go about it. You can get a license and and a contract brewer and do it on your own the way spindrift just did, or you get a buddy. And if you're Coca Cola, and you own Topo Chico, you call it Molson Coors, who is Strike and partnership steals left, right and center and say, hey, let's do this. And then you do it. A lot of options. We have no idea what Pepsi will be doing. I have never been big into energy drinks. I had a Red Bull once and it made me feel real uncomfortable. So it's something I try to stay away from because it just doesn't agree with me.

[00:36:11] Zoe Licata: Right. So is this going to be like their version of the four loco like the Gen Z four loco?

[00:36:15] Justin Fonte: I don't know. Maybe do do Gen Z drink Rockstar because Rockstar is old. It's like one of the older energy brands. They're like almost 20 years old.

[00:36:23] Zoe Licata: Yeah, Rockstar was like the kind of edgy like middle schoolers who were like the first ones drinking caffeine had in like when I was in middle school, like 2010 11. So

[00:36:36] Justin Fonte: That's when I was in graduate school at Emerson College, where you would eventually attend college. My God, I'm so old. Can you draw like a straight line correlation to boys who drink Rockstar to boys who wear Axe body spray?

[00:36:51] Zoe Licata: Yes, absolutely. And from where I'm from in Western Mass, it was also the kids who like were on like dirt bikes all the time. And usually now I think are, I don't know, doing other sorts of like adrenaline junkie things.

[00:37:09] Justin Fonte: Sounds right.

[00:37:11] New Jersey: Well, I wonder why Pepsi didn't call you back with that kind of review.

[00:37:17] Zoe Licata: Everyone has an audience. There's a lot of people like that, so.

[00:37:21] New Jersey: Yeah.

[00:37:22] Zoe Licata: Yeah.

[00:37:23] New Jersey: Well, that's the news, but we are not done yet. We are going to do a pop quiz because we just got the latest cut of data from IRI, our friends at IRI, market research firm. So we're going to quiz you two. Are you ready?

[00:37:45] Justin Fonte: I don't know. I think I'm ready. I'm excited.

[00:37:48] New Jersey: All right. Five questions and we'll see how you guys do. What is the top selling IPA of the year so far in multi-outlet and convenience stores? Craft? IPA, yes.

[00:38:07] Justin Fonte: Do I need to buzz in like Jeopardy?

[00:38:09] New Jersey: You can. You'll each get a shot.

[00:38:12] Justin Fonte: So go ahead. I'm going to go with Sierra Nevada, Hazy Little Thing.

[00:38:18] New Jersey: You are incorrect. Oh, rude. Zoe, do you want to venture a guess?

[00:38:26] Zoe Licata: I'm Gen Z, man. We don't even drink IPAs. I couldn't even tell you.

[00:38:30] New Jersey: You are supposed to be drinking this IPA. It speaks to your generation.

[00:38:34] Justin Fonte: Oh, I feel like you just alarmed a lot of people by saying Gen Z doesn't drink IPAs. Sorry, everybody.

[00:38:41] New Jersey: Yeah.

[00:38:42] Justin Fonte: Is it? Oh, is it?

[00:38:44] New Jersey: voodoo ranger imperial ding ding ding ding ding you are correct Justin Fonte yay yes it is the top selling ipa of the year so far up 48.3 percent in dollar sales. That's 54.9 million dollars, a little more than that. Way behind blue and Belgian white, but we all knew it would be. Sierra Nevada hazy little thing IPA is actually the second best selling IPA of the year so far.

[00:39:23] Justin Fonte: Not bad, not bad.

[00:39:25] New Jersey: Both usurping Loganitas IPA, which is in the third spot, but Loganitas is down 11.4% in dollar sales. Again, these are dollar sales. We got to do all the caveats of the on-premise has reopened, craft over indexes in the on-premise, and you should take these with a grain of salt. especially in year-over-year comps with 2020, given the pandemic, and I think I've gotten all my disclaimer and red tape out of the way here.

[00:40:00] Justin Fonte: Yeah, I think you hit everything. How much of it is a dogfight between those guys?

[00:40:05] New Jersey: It is relatively close. I mean, New Belgium's $54.9 million. Sierra, hazy little thing is $45.8 million, more than that, a little more than that. And Lagunitas IPA is in the $43 million range. And Space Dust is coming up next with $35.2 or so million. All right, that is our first question, neither of you got it. Our second question, how many dollars separate the White Claw and Trulie brand families, the number one and number two hard seltzer brands? Do you want to venture a guess, Jess and Fonte?

[00:40:53] Justin Fonte: I would, I would like to venture a guess. And I'm going to talk out loud, think out loud for a little bit. Is this year to date or last 52?

[00:41:00] New Jersey: This is year to date. This is calendar year, year to date.

[00:41:05] Justin Fonte: Great. Okay. That helps. I'm going to say they're about $250 million apart.

[00:41:11] New Jersey: Okay.

[00:41:12] Justin Fonte: Because White Claw is slowing and truly is speeding, but they were previously like really far apart. So I know the gap is closing.

[00:41:22] New Jersey: Zoe, would you like to venture a guess?

[00:41:25] Zoe Licata: I'm going to go... I think it's even smaller. I'm going to say 200 million 200 million. Yeah.

[00:41:33] New Jersey: You're both incorrect. It is $300,000 is what separates them.

[00:41:40] Justin Fonte: Oh my God, that's it. That's crazy.

[00:41:45] New Jersey: White Claw hard seltzer brand family dollars year to date $853,394,701. The truly brand family, year to date dollar sales, 551,323,941,000. Wow. Wow. A mere $300,000 or 300 million. I screwed that up. 300 million. That is, that's on me. You were close actually, 250 million.

[00:42:25] Justin Fonte: I was about to go call Dave Berwick myself and congratulate him.

[00:42:29] New Jersey: This is why at the start of Data Club, I say I am not good at math.

[00:42:35] Justin Fonte: You do, you do, and neither am I.

[00:42:38] New Jersey: So let's take number three. How many dollars separate Mark Anthony Brands and Boston Beer Company year to date?

[00:42:50] Justin Fonte: What a great question. It's going to be bigger than that. But I don't know. Let's see. I'm going to go with 400 million.

[00:43:00] Zoe Licata: I was going to say 500.

[00:43:05] New Jersey: $233.2 million. So that gap is closing between the two companies.

[00:43:12] Justin Fonte: Very much so.

[00:43:13] New Jersey: But then you have to figure in all of the other products that fall within that, which is Mike's and Cayman Jack and Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head and Twisted Tea and yes.

[00:43:27] Justin Fonte: Yeah, I mean, that discrepancy is probably the Twisted Tea power.

[00:43:32] Zoe Licata: Good old tweez, man. Drink some this weekend. At your darty? At the darty.

[00:43:40] New Jersey: Question number four. How many of the top 30 craft brands are in the black year to date?

[00:43:49] Justin Fonte: Hmm. I'm gonna err on the side of positivity and say 18.

[00:43:58] New Jersey: Okay. Zoe?

[00:44:00] Zoe Licata: I'm a bit of pessimist and I was thinking like five.

[00:44:05] New Jersey: The correct answer is 11. Ah. 11 brands are in the black year to date. Again, Craftover Index is in the on-premise, on-premise is back open.

[00:44:18] Justin Fonte: I'm practicing the secret and putting what I want out into the world. I'm trying to manifest some positive sales for craft brewers.

[00:44:26] New Jersey: All right.

[00:44:27] Justin Fonte: Very nice of you.

[00:44:29] New Jersey: Thank you. Question five. What are the dollar sales of Rolling Rock year to date?

[00:44:39] Justin Fonte: Oh my goodness. I should have had some Rolling Rock this weekend. I'm in the land, sort of. I'm in Wawa land. I'm gonna say my homies at Rolling Rock have sold 40 million.

[00:44:52] Zoe Licata: I'm gonna go with 28 million. Oh, you're mean.

[00:44:59] New Jersey: All right.

[00:45:00] Zoe Licata: I'm a pessimist. You're today you are.

[00:45:05] New Jersey: Rolling Rock has sold just under $37.7 million in products. So you are very, very close.

[00:45:12] Justin Fonte: Very close. Very close.

[00:45:15] New Jersey: Yes, they are down 22.4% year to date. And in the last four weeks, they're down 23.1%. So no mayor of East Town bump for Rolling Rock, unfortunately. Bummer. That is a bummer. So that's our pop quiz. I will learn how to do math for our next pop quiz. This was hard, dude.

[00:45:40] Zoe Licata: I didn't know I had to start making flashcards for this job now.

[00:45:44] New Jersey: Yeah, you better be practicing night and day.

[00:45:47] Justin Fonte: I know. We should do this again. This was fun.

[00:45:50] New Jersey: Yes, and before we get out of here, what are you guys working on that the folks out there can look forward to seeing on the site either now or in the near future?

[00:46:01] Justin Fonte: I am working on a story about a production facility in Fort Collins, Colorado that Canadian cannabis company Hexo has acquired. They have a JV with Molson Coors. Many people have JVs with Molson Coors. They produce under the Trust line, T-R-U-S-S. Right now they're doing CBD infused sparkling waters and beverage drops. That will be out this week.

[00:46:26] New Jersey: Awesome.

[00:46:27] Zoe Licata: And I just put out a story on Great Lakes free which did a complete basically rebranding of all of their beers after they like to call themselves the granddaddies and craft beer and they had to kind of get a little younger get a facelift so I did. a cool story on them. And I'm also working on a piece about the Spark Foundation. Beer Culture has created this new foundation that's giving grants to Black men and boys to help them in their entrepreneurial endeavors. So that's a really cool piece that will be up shortly.

[00:47:04] New Jersey: Awesome. And July 4 plans. What do you guys got going on?

[00:47:11] Justin Fonte: Lots of doherties. Well, the 4th of July is my favorite holiday because all you do is go to the beach and then hang out and grill some food and watch some fireworks. And that's it. It's great. It's casual. It's easy. So I'm excited to go to the beach, do all those things. We have, like where I live is a bunch of homeowner association owned beach fronts, which sounds weird, but basically we have completely unsanctioned firework shows that rival like what you would see at Six Flags. It's a pretty great time. You just got to stay pretty far away because it's a little dangerous.

[00:47:46] Zoe Licata: This is my first Fourth of July weekend not working in like 10 years. So I'm very excited. I'm excited for you. Thank you. Thank you. So there'll be a lot of gardening. There'll be a lot of just being outside and not having to deal with the general public in a customer service area for once. So that's going to be really fun.

[00:48:12] Justin Fonte: Congrats. I remember I had to work the fourth one year at an Italian restaurant and we were slammed and it was just like, why are you here? It's the 4th of July. You don't need to eat chicken parm today.

[00:48:25] New Jersey: That is if my saying the word quiet hasn't doomed us to working on the 4th of July because somebody's gonna sell their brewery or something.

[00:48:35] Justin Fonte: So true. Justin, how does Dusty feel about fireworks?

[00:48:39] New Jersey: He hates them. He absolutely hates them. And I actually had to make up his birthday and because he's North America dream, Dusty Rhodes, I made it July 4, which is kind of cruel considering he hates fireworks. And yes, we'll have to be taking care of him as well as Penny the cat who will be hiding under a chair because she doesn't like thunder. So you got to figure that Fourth of July fireworks aren't going to be her favorite either. No, but because I don't go anywhere now and I'm homebound for the time being, I think that they'll be all right because they'll have people around. And that gets me to an explanation of why I'm lame or have been, which is I don't really share that much private stuff on here, but. I haven't been going out. I haven't been at the beach. I haven't been anywhere in bars or restaurants or anywhere that I would normally be because my girlfriend Marcia and I are expecting our first child, a girl, on December 28th. So... thankfully giving me enough time to hopefully co-host Brewbound Live and not have to run off stage and catch a quick flight home. But yeah, that's happening. That's exciting and scary and hasn't really set in yet, but yeah.

[00:50:15] Justin Fonte: I'm so excited. I didn't want to cut you off while you were talking, but like, I'm so excited. Yeah, Brewbound baby. Brewbound baby.

[00:50:25] New Jersey: Yes, maybe the first and probably not the last, so.

[00:50:30] Zoe Licata: So exciting.

[00:50:31] New Jersey: You never know. Yes, that's what's happening in my world.

[00:50:37] Justin Fonte: So if I've... For a while, I thought you were like judging me for like going out and about. And I said, man, I hope he doesn't think I'm a selfish jerk, but I'm vaccinated.

[00:50:45] New Jersey: Yeah, no, if I very cryptically been like, Oh, I can't really go out. That's why. But that's going to change soon. Because we're halfway there on vaccination. I'm fully vaxxed. But you know, she's half faxed.

[00:51:01] Justin Fonte: And yeah, Marcy had to wait a little while.

[00:51:04] New Jersey: Yeah.

[00:51:04] Justin Fonte: Oh, I'm so I'm so excited for you guys.

[00:51:07] New Jersey: Thank you. Very much bearing the lead here on this podcast and very much excited about it. And all my names that involve wrestling have been rejected so far. So if anybody wants to steal flair for the name of their child, go for it.

[00:51:26] Zoe Licata: Maybe you can get the middle name or something.

[00:51:28] New Jersey: I'm trying. I'm working hard here.

[00:51:31] Justin Fonte: Can you get names from GLOW? Does that count in your world?

[00:51:36] New Jersey: Maybe, yeah. I love GLOW. I am a fan of GLOW as well, both the original GLOW and the Netflix TV show.

[00:51:46] Justin Fonte: Oh, I didn't know Netflix GLOW was based on a real GLOW.

[00:51:49] New Jersey: Wow. It really is. 1980s wrestling was wild.

[00:51:55] Justin Fonte: Well, if you have wrestling-themed baby name suggestions, you can send them to news at Brewbound.com.

[00:52:00] New Jersey: That's right. News at Brewbound.com. We will accept all baby name submissions that reference professional wrestlers. That's our show for this week. Thanks to our one-man audio team, Joe, for pulling this together. And I think all three of us will be back next week. So we will see you then. Happy 4th of July. Ooh, happy 4th.