Beyond Beer

As some suppliers and wholesalers warm to intoxicating hemp beverages, bev-alc trade group leaders are looking for regulatory parity between their members’ products and the burgeoning segment.

Beer’s Q1 on-premise sales were a mixed bag, according to the latest data report from tech and on-premise data firm BeerBoard.

Get out your day-glo body paint and fuzzy boots because festival season is about to start with Coachella’s two-weekend-long party – and this year the adult non-alcoholic (ANA) category is coming out in force.

BevNET spirits editor Ferron Salniker joins this week’s Brewbound Podcast to share the scuttlebutt from DISCUS’ annual meeting, including tariff talk, trends to watch, distributor consolidation and supplier jumps to beer distributors. Plus, Justin and Zoe share their experiences after attending Bell’s Oberon Day in Kalamazoo, Michigan and break down the latest craft-on-craft deal activity in Colorado.

A stockholder of flavored tequila 21Seeds is suing its parent company Diageo for obscuring plans to develop a competing product in the category, while undermining 21Seed’s ability to reach the sales goals tied to its earn-out targets.

Canadian cannabis giant Tilray Brands recorded a 1% year-over-year (YoY) net revenue decline across all its business ventures in Q3, but the latest financials are simply growing pains as the company continues to streamline and consolidate its business, leadership shared today during the company’s quarterly earnings call with investors and analysts.

Sierra Nevada’s Big Little Thing IPA is getting a second act. The imperial IPA has been reformulated as a juicy hazy IPA with the ABV amped up to 9.5% from 9%. Although Big Little Thing has been a top-30 craft brand in off-premise scans, the brand’s trends have trended down since 2023.

Diageo is teaming up with consulting and investment firm Main Street Advisors for a strategic joint venture that swaps out the spirits giant’s majority ownership of Cîroc Vodka in North America for a majority stake in basketball legend Lebron James-backed Lobos 1707 Tequila.

Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) portfolio in California has shrunk again, as Gallo moves its popular High Noon Sun Sips ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail line to the Reyes Beverage Group.

Harvest Hill Beverage Company, best known as the maker of kids drink brands SunnyD and Juicy Juice, has agreed terms for its acquisition by Guatemalan business group Castillo Hermanos, in partnership with private investment firm Centervew Capital. Terms were not disclosed, though a report in the Wall Street Journal pegged the deal at around $1.5 billion.

U.S. adult non-alc (ANA) sales may be closing in on the $1 billion mark, but many bars – including some of the country’s upper echelon – aren’t on board yet with slanging zero-proof cocktails.

The Colorado-based Wilding Brands platform has grown again. Denver-based Great Divide Brewing has been acquired by the parent company of Stem Ciders, Denver Beer Co. and several other brands.

Advocating for the federal government to untangle distilled spirits from tariff policy was the major theme at the annual Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) conference in Washington, D.C., last week.

In the latest edition of A Round With … – a weekly Q&A with industry leaders exclusively for Insiders – Tilray Brands North America president Ty Gilmore talked with Brewbound’s sibling publication BevNET about how the company intends to leverage its scale to go deep in hemp-derived delta-9 drinks and how it is navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for hemp products in the U.S.