Beyond Beer

The tidal wave of hard seltzers shows no signs of slowing down, market research firm Nielsen’s beverage alcohol practice team shared Thursday during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.

White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands plans to spend $385 million — $135 million more than the previously projected $250 million — to build production facilities in New Jersey and at a still-undisclosed location in the western United States, founder and CEO Anthony von Mandl shared during the Beer Insights Seminar conference in New York on Monday.

Fermented Sciences, the maker hard kombucha brand Flying Embers, announced this week it has raised $25 million in a Series B round co-led by PowerPlant Ventures and Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF). Also, Austin, Texas-based spiked seltzer maker Shotgun Seltzer announced today it has received a $1 million investment from Unorthodox Ventures.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Drake and Canopy Growth partner to launch More Life Growth Company; Walmart offers curbside pickup of alcohol in 29 states; JetBlue to offer Truly Hard Seltzer; and more news bites.

Phusion Projects officially rolled out its first Four Loko branded hard seltzer to retailers today, after going viral on social media over the summer. A-B announced today that Bud Light Seltzer will launch in the first quarter of 2020 in four flavors: Black Cherry, Lemon Lime, Strawberry and Mango.

Boston Beer Company reported strong earnings during its third-quarter earnings call Tuesday evening. The company reported depletions (sales-to-retailers) growth of 30%, 24% of which came from Boston Beer’s core brands and 6% of which came from Dogfish Head offerings.

Anheuser-Busch InBev reported today global revenue growth of 2.7% for the third quarter of the year, driven by an increase of 3% in revenue per hectoliter due to premiumization and strong growth in Mexico, South Africa and Colombia. Volumes worldwide decreased 0.5%; A-B’s own beer volumes were down slightly more with a 0.9% decrease. However,… Read more »

Consumers are considering health and wellness more and drinking less but willing to spend more on alcoholic beverages when they do drink, members of market research firm Nielsen’s beverage alcohol team shared during last week’s Brewers Association Power Hour webinar. Here are three takeaways from Nielsen’s latest update on craft’s mid-year performance. Consumers More Mindful… Read more »

Boston Beer Company is upping the ante as it tries to unseat Mark Anthony Brand as the beer category’s top hard seltzer producer. The company — which makes the Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea, Angry Orchard hard cider and Samuel Adams beer offerings — announced today the reformulation of all 13 Truly flavors in an effort to make them “crisper and more refreshing.” Boston Beer also revealed plans to release a Truly-branded line of lemonade hard seltzers in 2020

As beer companies look to non-beer products such as hard seltzer to buoy their businesses, many are beginning to reimagine themselves as craft beverage companies. “If you can think as a beverage company, there’s so much more whitespace that you can play in,” CANarchy Craft Brewing Collective president Matt Fraser shared during Brewbound’s final Brew Talks meetup of 2019.

Constellation Brands has once again promoted Mallika Monteiro. Last Friday, the New York-headquartered maker of Mexican import brands Corona, Modelo and Pacifico appointed Monteiro as executive vice president and chief growth and strategy officer. Meanwhile, Ceria Beverages, which makes THC-infused, non-alcoholic beers, has appointed Greg Miller as its first vice president of business development.

Starbucks, Apple, Tesla … and White Claw? Anthony von Mandl, the founder of White Claw parent company Mark Anthony Brands, told thousands of beer wholesalers Tuesday during the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s Annual Convention that his company is a disruptor in the vein of those iconic brands.

Call it a scoop. Call it a shill. Either way, Adam Schefter made news today about the relationship between the NFL and Anheuser-Busch InBev. Schefter, the ESPN NFL insider known for breaking the league’s biggest scoops via his Twitter account — including last weekend’s retirement of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck — announced this morning that Anheusr-Busch InBev-owned Bon & Viv is now the “Official Hard Seltzer Sponsor of the NFL.”

Lighthouse Strategies — the maker of the Cannabiniers and Two Roots lines of cannabis-infused non-alcoholic craft beers – announced today plans to roll out a line of non-infused, non-alcoholic craft beers. Starting in September, Two Roots’ non-alcoholic beers will be available in 145 BevMo! stores throughout California.