Beyond Beer

If you frequented the Two Robbers’ website or Instagram in the past month, you’d notice a significant change. The website’s homepage now says “Two Robbers Spirits Company” with a “Website Coming Soon!” banner. And the Philadelphia-based hard seltzer company’s Instagram has been completely cleansed, with previous posts deleted and a handful of new photos in their place.

Welcome to Brewbound’s A Round With, a weekly feature that grabs a round with beer industry leaders to discuss business challenges, wins and more. Our second installment features Haidar Hachem and Marilyn “Mari” Orozco, a husband-and-wife duo and the founders of Miami-based Shōjō Brewing.

Spirits sales in the U.S. were flat in 2023, but maintained a very slight revenue lead over beer for the second year in a row, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) in its annual economic briefing today.

Retailers will have an increased “intense scrutiny” of new product launches and bev-alc shelf sets in 2024, according to Bump Williams in his monthly report for Bump Williams Consulting (BWC).

Boston-based Downeast Cider is following the more-is-more philosophy when it comes to innovation in 2024. The cidermaker’s big bet for this year is the Overboard family, an 8% ABV line of unfiltered ciders.

The population of Flavortown just increased by three. Stratford, Connecticut-based Two Roads Brewing has added three new iterations of the Flavortown Spiked flavored malt beverage (FMB) line it brews in collaboration with celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

California canned cocktail and hard kombucha maker JuneShine has received a seven-figure investment from private equity firm InvestBev.

For decades, the Japanese distilled beverage shochu has been mislabeled in the U.S. as Korean soju, but a new law is clearing up the difference for consumers— and clearing a path for category growth.

Dedicated non-alcoholic (NA) beer maker Athletic Brewing is taking a page out of 2010s craft beer check-in culture and run-tracking with its new app feature. Athletic launched “Track Record” earlier this month in order to give its app users a way of recording their alcohol-free days and creating streaks.

More than 1,100 people gathered in Portland, Oregon, this week for the 14th annual CiderCon, hosted by the American Cider Association (ACA).

U.S. craft spirits topped $7.9 billion in sales in 2022, growing 5.3% in value and 6.1% in volume, but slowed considerably from the year prior, according to a new report.

With its business expanding amid a rising U.S. energy drink category, Monster Beverage Corporation projected confidence in its widening product portfolio during its annual investor meeting presentation yesterday.

After nearly nine months of an ugly public legal battle, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Diageo have settled disputes over allegations from the music mogul that the brands he collaborated with Diageo on— Cîroc Vodka and DeLeon Tequila— received worse treatment because of his race.

We checked in with a data analyst, consultant and major retailer buyer on the drivers they are watching in 2024, including what investors will be looking for, where there might be white space in hot categories, and how retailers are making buying decisions.