Beyond Beer

Ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails’ share of Drizly sales is growing at 15 times the rate of hard seltzer, according to e-commerce alcohol marketplace Drizly’s 2021 Consumer Report.

Consulting firm BW166 reported that label approvals for seltzer and seltzer-like products are accelerating, with approvals trending at 334 per month compared to the 228 per month in 2020. More than half (53%) of on-premise visitors went to a bar or restaurant during the July 4 weekend, according to CGA, an on-premise market research firm.

The river has run its course for Coors Seltzer, Molson Coors Beverage Company told wholesalers today. In a message to the company’s wholesalers this afternoon, Molson Coors chief marketing officer Michelle St. Jacques and U.S. sales president Kevin Doyle announced the company will cease production of Coors Seltzer, asking wholesalers to sell through remaining inventory.

Hard seltzer could account for 10% of total beverage alcohol sales by 2025, according to a report from financial services firm Credit Suisse. Since 2019, hard seltzer, which currently accounts for 3.5% of total beverage alcohol, has been pulling share from all three categories.

Hard seltzer accounted for 28% of beer category sales on Drizly over the July 4 weekend, up 2% from 2020, according to the on-demand, e-commerce alcohol delivery platform.

Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito officially passed the torch Thursday to Michel Doukeris after 15 years with the world’s largest beer manufacturer.

Canadian cannabis company HEXO Corp. has established its U.S. presence with the acquisition of a production facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. “This will be the first expansion into the U.S. market,” HEXO general manager of U.S. operations Charles Bowman told Brewbound. “There’s more forthcoming, but this is the bedrock. This is our foundation.”

BevNET is proud to announce its inaugural Cocktail Showdown, a pitch competition that will showcase the most innovative and disruptive brands in the rapidly emerging category of spirit-based ready-to-drink and ready-to-pour cocktails. Taking place on August 12, 2021, the competition will be presented as a virtual platform for the hottest new pre-mixed cocktail brands in America.

PepsiCo filed an application with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office to trademark its Rockstar brand in the beer and “alcoholic fruit cocktail drinks; alcoholic malt beverages, except beers; hard seltzer” categories on June 14.

Sierra Nevada has filed a counter lawsuit against Matagrano, Inc., the Chico-headquartered craft brewery’s former South San Francisco-based wholesaler, in the Superior Court of the state of California, County of San Mateo. The trademark lawsuit between Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Grupo Modelo over the former’s ability to produce and sell Corona Hard Seltzer will continue, despite Constellation’s motion to dismiss, a federal judge ruled this week.

Minhas Craft Brewery, the second-oldest continuously run brewery in the U.S., is producing Happy Dad Hard Seltzer, which was created by the Nelk Boys, a group of Canadian YouTubers with more than 6.6 million subscribers.

Ready-to-drink canned cocktail maker Ohza has closed a $4 million funding round led by CircleUp Growth Partners. The financing is expected to help the brand scale nationwide as it partners with distributors such as Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and Breakthru Beverage group.

Sugar-based hard seltzers are now considered malt beverages in Oregon and will be taxed accordingly, ending the state’s discrepancy with the federal government’s classification of the popular bubbly beverages.

More than 75% of beer wholesalers said the summer selling season is off to “a strong start,” as Memorial Day trends either met or exceeded expectations, Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog found in her latest “Beverage Bytes survey” of about 40 distributors covering 145,000 retail outlets (about a quarter of the total U.S. outlets that sell alcoholic beverages).