Beyond Beer

Off-premise beverage alcohol dollar sales fell for the first time in more than a year, declining 1.9% for the week ending March 13 as the industry faces tough comparisons due to the shift in consumer purchasing a year ago, as shoppers stocked their fridges as on-premise shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to market research firm NielsenIQ.

If you’re getting into the $4 billion hard seltzer segment in 2021 with a glut of new offerings, you better go hard. For New Belgium Brewing Company, that amounts to the biggest investment behind a brand launch in the company’s history for Fruit Smash, the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery’s irreverent seltzer line, which began hitting retailers earlier this month.

Molson Coors Beverage Company said the Topo Chico line will begin hitting store shelves in nine states starting March 29, giving the company yet another hard seltzer brand to compete within the more than $4 billion hard seltzer segment that has thus far been dominated by two brands: Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer.

Boston Beer Company executives believe Truly Punch could be the next big thing in hard seltzer, rivaling the brand’s Lemonade and Iced Tea offshoots.

Irish cider and beer maker C&C Group has sold Woodchuck Cider maker Vermont Cider Company (VCC) to Northeast Drinks Group, a privately owned holding company.

Spindrift is going hard. The Newton, Massachusetts-based premium sparkling water brand announced today the launch of Spindrift Spiked, a hard seltzer line rolling out to stores next month. Similar to the brand’s core non-alcoholic products, the new line is made with real fruit juice and contains alcohol fermented from cane sugar with a 4% ABV.

The May 1 launch of a line of hard seltzers branded with fast-food chain Sonic’s name and proprietary beverage flavors has the potential to make Oklahoma City craft brewery COOP Ale Works a player in the $4 billion hard seltzer segment, president Sean Mossman told Brewbound.

No- and low-alcohol offerings as a “potential market disruptor” for the beer category, growing retail sales to $3 billion by 2025, according to a new research report from Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog.

Sarasota, Florida-based JDub’s Brewing is alive and about to launch a new flagship offering, following its April 2020 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing thanks to a partnership with Orlando-based contract brewer Brew Theory.

A cidermaker and a craft brewer wanted to open a bar, so they founded a distillery. It’s complicated, but it’s the origin story behind the Bale Breaker and Yonder Taproom, set to open this summer in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, thanks to a piece of legislation passed in 2020.

Truly Hard Seltzer boosted Boston Beer Company’s 2020 revenue to $1.74 billion, but production of the popular bubbly beverage remains a drag on the company’s gross margins, the company reported during its full-year and fourth quarter earnings report Wednesday.

Hard seltzer dollar sales at convenience stores are increasing at nearly double the rates of the rest of the off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm NielsenIQ. Over the last four weeks(ending February 6), off-premise dollar sales of hard seltzers increased 105% at convenience stores compared to the same period last year, while sales increased 55.9% in food (+55.9%) and 59.9% in drug stores.

Ten hard kombucha makers are linking up to launch a national campaign to drive awareness and education of the emerging segment over the next five days in the lead up to “World Kombucha Day” on February 21.

The lemonade seltzer competition is picking up, as White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands announced today that its Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer brand extension is now hitting retail shelves nationwide. Meanwhile, RBC Capital’s Nik Modi recently shared a study that found the hard seltzer segment “is far from its peak and could grow another 150% by 2025.”