Brewbound Podcast

With the July 4 holiday approaching, the Brewbound team discusses slow days that turn into news-filled days. Such as Monday, when Anheuser-Busch InBev announced the promotion of Brendan Whitworth to U.S. CEO and North America zone president. The gang also looks at recent legislative moves in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as the closure of two quarter-of-a-century old craft beer bars. Other topics include alcoholic gummies, NFTs, Pepsi’s interest in Rockstar alcoholic offerings, an IRI pop quiz, bad math, and major life changes. Listen to the episode above and on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday (or so). Check Brewbound’s upcoming events schedule for future podcast episodes and streaming video programming. Email [email protected] with questions and feedback.

Expect drastic shifts in off-premise sales data from week to week moving forward as we begin to cycle the pandemic-driven stock-up period from 2020, NielsenIQ VP of beverage alcohol practice Danelle Kosmal cautioned during the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast. Kosmal joined the Brewbound team to discuss why 2019 might be a fairer comparison for 2021 numbers, what she’s watching for moving forward, and when the numbers might begin to normalize. On that last point, don’t expect normalization until 2022 and even then, it’ll be a “new normal.” “It’s going to take us a good year or two to figure out what that balance is going to be,” Kosmal said. “How much of the old life of bars and restaurants are we going to go back to? And how much of the new habits that we’ve learned to embrace over the past year will continue?” Kosmal also discusses trends in hard seltzer, where seltzer consumers are coming from, and the growth of ready-to-drink canned cocktails. Listen to the episode above and on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Check Brewbound’s upcoming events schedule for future podcast episodes and streaming video programming. Email [email protected] with questions and feedback.

Alva Mather and Nichole Shustack of McDermott, Will & Emery — a law firm with one of the country’s leading beverage alcohol practices — joined the Brewbound Podcast to break down all the pressing legal issues facing the beer industry in 2021. Between the rise of e-commerce and the nebulous definition of hard seltzer for tax and regulatory purposes, there’s a lot that brewers need to know to remain on the right side of the law this year. Pandemic-driven shutdowns have led to expanded privileges for craft breweries to offer home delivery and shipping services, which have met pushback from distributors in some states. “My perspective here is that the three-tier system is here to stay, but it’s adaptable,” Mather said. “And we’ve seen that during the pandemic.” As consumers are shopping online for alcohol at record-shattering rates, brewers have upped their e-commerce game, linking to platforms such as Drizly and Instacart that can deliver beer to drinkers’ homes in under an hour. Shustack and Mather cover necessary information for these new trade practices, which are regulated differently state by state. “Brewers should keep their ears to the ground and understand what the dynamics are in the state and who they’re actually operating with, because if you contract with a third party, that’s not where your liability ends,” Shustack explained. “You have some obligation to make sure that you’re contracting with the right third party and they have all the protocols to make the delivery — for example, age verification.” Listen to the episode above and on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Check Brewbound’s upcoming events schedule for future podcast episodes and streaming video programming. Email [email protected] with questions, comments or suggestions for future shows and guests.

Rabobank beverage analyst Bourcard Nesin joins the Brewbound Podcast to discuss his new report that details how drinker demographics are changing and how beverage companies can welcome these new consumers, who are more female, more diverse and older. “There’s really these seismic shifts at the consumer level,” Nesin said. “The changes are particularly among the consumer groups that alcohol companies have either ignored or actively avoided in some cases in the most terrible way. “A lot of it has to do with economic empowerment, and a lot of it has to do with shifting cultural norms,” he continued. In 2019, women accounted for 50.1% of alcoholic beverage drinkers younger than 25, surpassing men for the first time ever. Since 2004, the number of women of color regularly consuming alcoholic beverages has increased 84%. People of color represented 31% of alcohol consumers in 2019, increasing 8% over the past decade and a half. Nesin shares insights gleaned during interviews with executives at beverage alcohol companies and discusses the evolution of beer marketing. The Brewbound team and Nesin also discuss the Capitol Hill riot and its implications for the beer industry, including how the largest beer manufacturers and trade organizations are approaching future political contributions. Other topics covered include Jim Beam’s new campaign to recruit beer drinkers, the Brewers Association’s decision to move Craft Brewers Conference to Denver in September, FIFCO USA shuttering of Portland Brewing Company after 34 years and Molson Coors’ partnership with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to launch a new energy drink. Listen to the episode above, or find it on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Email [email protected] with questions, comments or suggestions for future shows and guests.

This week’s edition of the Brewbound Podcast looks back at headlines from late December 2020 and the start of the new year. The Brewbound Team discuss the federal government making the excise tax cuts permanent; the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services maintaining the daily servings of alcohol at two drinkers per day for men; the Sheehan family lawsuit; and Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson’s 2020 recap. Listen to the episode above, or find it on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Email [email protected] with questions, comments or suggestions for future shows and guests. Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded days before the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

In early November, Canadian cannabis company Aphria struck a $300 million deal to acquire Atlanta’s Sweetwater Brewing Company — the maker of the 420 Extra Pale Ale brand and other cannabis-themed products. This week’s edition of the Brewbound Podcast discusses the opportunities and challenges ahead for the combined company, the size of the cannabeer market and more with: Liz Connors, director of analytics for Headset, a firm that tracks cannabis data and analytics; Rick Maturo, associate director of client services for the cannabis practice at Nielsen; And Sean McNulty, host of the Selling Craft Beer podcast. McNulty and the Brewbound team also discuss growing e-commerce player goPuff’s deal to acquire BevMo, Tree House branching out in Massachusetts, Mark Anthony investing in another production facility to make White Claw, Diageo recalling Guinness 0.0 and more. Listen to the episode above, or find it on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Email [email protected] with questions, comments or suggestions for future shows and guests.

Cider is always taking people by surprise, according to American Cider Association (ACA) executive director Michelle McGrath. “CiderCon always beats the expectations of people who have never been here before,” McGrath said of the annual gathering of hundreds of cideries from around the globe, which was held last month in Oakland, California. “We are the premier professional conference for the cider industry in the world.” In Episode 3 of the Brewbound Podcast’s third season, McGrath shared the organization’s goals and challenges as cider fights for share in an increasingly crowded alcoholic beverage marketplace. This 2020 edition of CiderCon was the organization’s first since rebranding as the ACA and dropping the United States Association of Cider Makers moniker, a switch McGrath believes was necessary due to the organization’s increased lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. “We had more conversations with Congress than we’ve ever had before,” McGrath said. “When you’re trying to explain to somebody who you are and you lose them about halfway through the name, it’s not a very effective lobbying tool.” When the ACA meets with lawmakers, the organization is advocating on the behalf of both large and small cideries, so McGrath and her team must thread the needle between the concerns of low-volume, orchard-based cideries and global producers. “We’ve got hundreds of cidery members; our membership has increased 30% in the last couple years,” she said. “We’re representing not only hundreds of small, mom-and-pop cideries across the land, but also the vast majority of the volume of cider produced in this country.” One issue that affects cider makers of all sizes is the federal Alcohol and TobaccoTax and Trade Bureau’s regulations regarding cider packaging, which prohibits cider makers from packaging cider above 7% ABV in 12 oz. cans. With more consumers gravitating toward canned offerings, cider makers find themselves in a difficult spot to meet the demands of the market. “A lot of our members, they don’t necessarily want to go into cans, they believe their product demands a higher price point in a bottle and represents the type of cider that they make,” McGrath added. “But the market is perhaps forcing many of them into cans, so that’s a challenge because cider is not allowed to pack in a 12 oz. can if it’s above 7% ABV, due to the federal standards of fill, so this is something that we’ve been working on.” Another issue facing cider makers is overcoming false assumptions that all ciders are alike.. “People don’t realize that it’s that diverse,” McGrath said. “They say ‘I’ve had a cider; I don’t like it,’ but they never say ‘I’ve had a beer, I don’t like it.’ They usually taste several styles of beer.” Listen to the latest episode above, or find it on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published Thursdays. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].