Brewbound Podcast

The summer selling season wraps up this weekend with Labor Day Monday, and one of the hottest segments of the summer has been hard sports drinks. Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior reporter Zoe Licata dive into the fast-growing segment and how their views have shifted on it over the last year. They look at who is leading the segment now and new entrants looking to fast-follow, including Boston Beer Company. The duo also recap several rounds of layoffs, including Sapporo USA’s wind-down of the Stone Brewing-branded locations in Escondido, California; Mark Anthony’s integration of the Finnish Long Drink and coming sales team cuts; and Diageo’s ongoing $1.2 billion restructuring effort hitting its NYC headquarters. Plus, Justin and Zoe discuss low-ABV beers (and Justin cracks Sierra Nevada’s new Go-Two IPA) and Pabst’s viral stolen beer marketing campaign. Listen here.

Fingers boozeletter author Dave Infante joins the Brewbound Podcast to deep dive Diageo’s ongoing restructuring and workforce slashing under CEO Sir Dave Lewis (aka “Drastic Dave” for his reputation for making big cuts at previous stops). Infante shares insights from his reporting and conversations with Diageo employees, many of whom wondered why the Guinness and Johnnie Walker maker was so slow to adapt to the modern bev-alc competitive landscape.“The frustration that I heard from current and former Diageo employees was mostly about why weren’t we doing this before we had to start laying everyone off,” Infante tells Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and managing editor Jessica Infante (no relation). “You don’t have to get to this point before you start pivoting to RTDs.”The trio also hit recent headlines, including Garage Beer and Liquid Death tapping into the real world animosity around data centers and BuzzBallz’s recent Pop-Tarts partnership.Jessica offered a theory on the BuzzBallz-Pop-Tarts team up: “Kids aren’t eating Pop-Tarts. You know who’s eating Pop-Tarts? Sad, elder millennials who can’t afford anything else and want a tiny treat. The moms who would be out marching on the capitol up in arms against this aren’t feeding that to their kids.”“They’re the ones who are intrigued by the BuzzBallz Pop-Tarts that they saw on Instagram,” Dave adds.“That’s definitely going into their Stanley tumblers,” Jess says.Listen here or on your preferred podcasting platform.

How can a new brand make a splash in the increasingly crowded ready-to-drink waters? A winning combination of differentiated flavors, artistic packaging and a willingness to work the market day in and day out. That’s what has been working for Lake Hour, according to CEO Michelle Ivey, this week’s featured guest. Ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail brand Lake Hour launched three years ago amid the segment’s meteoric rise. Its co-founders – actor Wyatt Russell and film producer Rich Peete – had no prior beverage experience, and tapped Ivey, an industry vet, as CEO in late 2025.“I was blown away with the brand that they built, the fact that they had built this beautiful feeling of family and slowing down and the lake concept,” Ivey said. “Once I tried it, I realized it was one of those, ‘actually’ brands that when you take a sip, you're like ‘Wow, actually, this is great. This tastes so good.’ And so, I was so impressed with what they did and what they built two years in as startup founders that have had no experience in the industry.”Lake Hour recently entered Texas via Reyes Beverage Group-owned Capital Reyes Distributing. Being a young brand in the book of one of the largest bev-alc distributors in the country isn’t daunting for Ivey, because she sees securing mind share and growing the brand as Lake Hour’s job.“That is the brand's responsibility – distributors don't build for you,” she said. “You have to build for you. You have to earn that attention and you do that through proper investment in the market, in my opinion. You have to invest in the sampling, the retail execution, on-premise activation, your social media and consumer awareness and proper field support.Ivey acknowledged that “probably sounds really boring, because it's not magic.” “You have to just be there daily and do the everyday work that it takes to build and sell your brand,” she said. Before the interview, the Brewbound team discusses recent headlines, including a proposed reprieve for intoxicating hemp beverages, how many retailers sold out of various bev-alc products during the World Cup and how Anheuser-Busch InBev views itself relative to spirits giants. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is leaving a big unpaid tab. The distributor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, with liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion, and more than 100,000 creditors.In this episode of the Brewbound Podcast, Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior reporter Zoe Licata dive into the bankruptcy filing, as well as the fallout, with many suppliers left wondering if they’ll ever get paid back.Justin and Zoe also catch up on the other big headlines, including the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2026 mid-year report, with projected craft volume declines of 4%. They discuss why the news isn’t all bad – with a majority of respondents reporting growth – and why it’s not all good.The conversation shifts to Boston Beer’s second-quarter results and Sun Cruiser’s growing importance to the company’s bottomline. They also explore Boston’s growing fast-follower innovation strategy, including Rally Dog, a potential hard sports drink challenger brand. Plus, they touch on if beer companies might be walking back their opposition to the spirits industry’s equalization efforts.Finally, seasonal creep is here and real as pumpkin beers are already popping up on store shelves.It’s a quick, fun recap of the latest news. Listen here.

The Magic of Airport Beers with Experience Threee’s Liz EinhornThe pre-flight beer ranks high on many people’s lists of simple pleasures, but what does it take for that beer to end up in a pint glass?Experience Threee founder Liz Einhorn joins this week’s episode of the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the complexities of beer service in airport concessions. She shares the pros and cons of brewery-branded, airport taprooms and what it takes to secure (and keep) a draft line in a busy airport bar.Before the interview, Justin and Jess break down the latest beer industry headlines, including a lawsuit between Ballast Point’s owners over allegedly ill-gotten business loans, new leadership at the National Black Brewers Association and James Watt’s second attempt to buy back BrewDog. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Best Day Brewing founder and CEO Tate Huffard believes the modern non-alcoholic (NA) beer movement is now in its second wave – one characterized by “belonging.”“What we see now is that non-alcoholic beer belongs on menus, it belongs in beer sets,” Huffard said on the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast. Best Day was made for NA beer’s second wave in which coolers on boats in the summer are stocked with NA and alcoholic beer and fridges at parties also include both options, Huffard said. “All of these beer occasions warrant a great non-alcoholic beer and yet part of the magic is unpacking and uncovering these new occasions that deserve a beer,” Huffard said. “Case in point for me is a lunch beer.”The first wave – driven by the rise of Athletic Brewing Company – helped normalize NA beer and remove the penalty box elements of old-school offerings, Huffard explained. “I give those guys an incredible amount of praise for creating an environment where people could participate in the category and it wasn’t weird,” he said. “And the concept of non-alcoholic craft beer was born in that first wave.”The second wave is about growing the pie, expanding grocery baskets and taking NA beer’s share upward from 2% to 10% and beyond, Huffard said. In the episode, Huffard discusses Best Day’s 30% distribution growth this year and retail expansion, finding luck in craft brewery taprooms, navigating the disruption caused by the launch of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Michelob Ultra Zero and much more. But first, the Brewbound team also catches up on the latest news, including July 4 scans, exec moves at New Belgium and a Jersey banner plane and patio tent update.

At 138 years old, F.X. Matt Brewing isn’t slowing down. President Fred Matt joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the Utica, New York-based craft brewery’s plans for 2026 and beyond, which include Saranac Weekend Warrior Mid-Strength, a 3% ABV hazy IPA and Right Coast Spirits Italian Ice, a vodka-based RTD produced in partnership with Barrel One Collective. In addition to both those relatively new products, the company is also riding a wave behind Utica Club, the pilsner it has produced since Prohibition ended in 1933. Its 5% ABV has made it attractive to craft drinkers looking to “down-shift” after a round or two of higher ABV products, Matt said.“It's a phenomenon that's really happening in the craft community that has brought Utica Club back,” he said. “You also get the nostalgic side of it – everybody's grandfather loved Utica Club, because Utica Club, at one time, was a 10 million case brand.”The notion of moderation is putting wind in Weekend Warrior’s sails as well. The company took a hint from Australia and New Zealand, where mid-strength beers account for nearly 35% of the beer market, Matt said. As the country’s 14th largest regional craft brewery by volume, F.X. Matt has different challenges ahead than the majority of Brewers Association (BA) members, whom Matt serves as BA board of directors chairman. “We’ve got to be more focused in what we bring to the distributor,” he said. “We’ve got to create the energy at retail.”For taprooms and brewpubs, which account for the bulk of the BA’s membership, Matt advised “do what you do best,” which is to focus on guests’ experience. “They’ll keep coming back,” he said. Plus, Jess and Zoe discuss news highlights, including changes coming for the Great American Beer Festival and 2025 production data for taprooms and brewpubs.