Beyond Beer

The past year saw some major M&A deals, and day one of BevNET Live Winter 2025 in Marina Del Rey, Calif., served as the perfect platform to sit down with the leaders of Poppi and Health-Ade Kombucha to learn how they steered their businesses to an exit. The annual beverage industry conference also featured no shortage of panels covering investment trends, startup strategy and the ongoing issues in the space from a looming hemp ban to rising costs.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) will acquire a majority stake in party punch maker BeatBox for approximately $490 million, the company announced today.

Monster Beverage Corp. and The Coca-Cola Company have eliminated “undue friction” in their distribution relationship. Free from those frictions, Monster is now ready to leverage the partnership to expand its beverage category reach and fuel global growth, leadership shared this week.

Former Ilegal mezcal COO Michelle Ivey will join Lake Hour as CEO, joining co-founders Wyatt Russell and Richard Peete in guiding the canned cocktail brand.

A subsidiary of AriZona Beverages USA subsidiary has acquired Manna Beverages’ facility in Anaheim, California. 

While bev-alc is in flux, zero-proof partying is still in full swing with the announcement of a new multi-year partnership that brings Hiyo Social Tonics into Live Nation venues across the country.

The Zero Proof Playbook is BevNET’s exclusive interview series with the pioneers and experts who are shaping adult non-alc (ANA) spaces – uncovering the trends and on-the-ground data driving it forward. John Wiseman founded NA craft cocktail company, Curious Elixirs before the adult non-alc (ANA) category even had a name in the U.S. While running… Read more »

If you’re a ready-to-drink or spirits company taking marketing cues from CPG, you may be doing it wrong.

After ranking as the eighth-largest craft brewery by volume in 2024, Athletic Brewing Company is on pace to cross the 500,000-barrel threshold by the end of 2025.

BevNET spirits editor Ferron Salniker chatted with the creator of St-Germain about how to translate learnings from the bar to RTDs, where to spot opportunities in crowded categories, and how to be a bartender’s RTD brand even when selling off-premise.

Pike Brewing (Seattle, Washington) will close Pike Pub and Pike Fish Bar, both located at the city’s iconic Pike Place Market, it announced this week. Details of Molson Coors chief commercial officer Michelle St. Jacques’ separation from the company were laid out in a Form 8-K filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The inspiration for Shake Up Cocktails didn’t come from a bar or a boardroom …  it struck at a Midwest state fair.

Untappd, the Next Glass-owned craft beer rating social platform whose users have anointed some craft brewers and crushed the souls of others, has expanded ratable products to include spirits, wine, adult non-alcoholic (ANA) beverages, ready-to-drink cocktails (RTD), THC-infused seltzers, coffee, soda and “more,” according to a press release.

Canned water brand Liquid Death has signed with four mostly craft-centric distributors in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. Liquid Death, which is preparing to launch an energy drink line in early 2026, has signed with Hand Family Companies’ subsidiary Sunset Distributing (California), The Odom Corporation (Washington), Bigfoot Beverages and Summit Beverage Distribution Co. (both Oregon).