Big Beer

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

Constellation Brands executives tackled a number of issues, from supply “tightness” to Modelo Especial’s growth, and their hard seltzer ambitions during a first quarter 2022 call with investors and analysts today.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has pulled from within its ranks for its next North American Zone and U.S. CEO, naming Brendan Whitworth to the post today.

Boosted by an earlier-than-expected seasonal transition and the return of the on-premise channel, sales of Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy have increased 13% year-to-date, according to the Molson Coors Beverage Company blog. “As we continued to excel with distribution and sales and the off-premise, we were able to quickly transition into Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy,” Dick Leinenkugel, president and chief beer merchant of Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, told Brewbound.

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.

Black is Beautiful, a collaborative initiative started by Weathered Souls Brewing to fight police brutality and other injustices against people of color, has raised $2.2 million, according to a Facebook post by the San Antonio-basec craft brewery.

Sloop Brewing Co. moved up nearly 50 spots in the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2020 regional brewery rankings, rising from the 120th to the 72nd largest regional craft brewery by volume in the country.

Anheuser-Busch (A-B) announced a national campaign with the White House today, incentivizing adults to get vaccinated by offering free beer.

Anheuser-Busch’s (A-B) entire domestic beer and seltzer portfolio — including Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Brewers Collective craft brands — is now brewed with 100% renewable electricity from wind and solar power, the world’s largest beer manufacturer announced today.

Breweries that fall outside of the Brewers Association’s (BA) craft brewer definition collectively declined 5%, to 8.2 million barrels in 2020, according to data in the May/June issue of the New Brewer.

The U.S. beer industry’s economic output has increased by $4 billion since 2018, which is equivalent to 1.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the “Beer Serves America” report — a biennial study commissioned by the Beer Institute (BI) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).

Just how big a part of the beer category could hard seltzer be by 2025? It depends on who you ask. During this month’s Beverage Forum, Anthony Von Mandl and Jim Koch, the leaders of the companies that produce the two largest hard seltzer brands, White Claw and Truly, respectively, offered differing projections, according to analysts’ reports.

Four days after announcing a succession plan for its top leadership post, Anheuser-Busch InBev revealed several executive leadership changes with its wholesaler partners, effective immediately.