Big Beer

Light lager continues to increase share on Drizly, clawing back share losses to hard seltzer over the past two years, according to the e-commerce alcohol delivery platform in its latest BevAlc Insights report.

Wicked Weed built its name in the craft brewing industry with sour beers, but in recent years under the ownership of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Asheville, North Carolina-based brewery has found commercial success in craft beer’s most popular style space, IPAs.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has waived its right to advertising exclusivity in the alcohol category during Super Bowl LVII, which it has exercised since 1989.

Monster Beverage Corp. plans to introduce three to four alcoholic beverage brands over the next few quarters, some of which will use brand names acquired from CANarchy and some that will be developed in-house. That slate may not include hard seltzer, as the company playing in the broader FMB space and, potentially, spirit-based RTD canned cocktails.

Molson Coors issued a “voluntary withdrawal” of some SKUs of Coors Light and Keystone Light last week, a spokesperson told Brewbound.

Boston Beer Company has launched its first-ever media campaign to support Hard MTN Dew, its ready-to-drink, fermented sugar-brew produced through a licensing partnership with PepsiCo.

McDermott: Alcohol Suppliers Hit with ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits McDermott Will & Emery’s Alva Mather and Jeremy White cautioned beverage alcohol suppliers that they may be “in legal crosshairs” due to an “uptick in website accessibility cases,” according to a recent blog post. Mather and White wrote that plaintiff firms are issuing “pre-suit demand letters… Read more »

Six months after taking the helm as president of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Brewers Collective, Andy Thomas shared his views on how the world’s largest beer manufacturer’s craft beer division is approaching the summer selling season and the rest of the year.

Cowen is lowering its fiscal year 2023 estimates for Boston Beer Company, analyst Vivien Azer wrote in a report today, noting the financial services firm has become “increasingly skeptical” that Boston Beer will meet its guidance of +4%-+10% shipment and depletion growth.

A judge has ruled in favor of Anheuser-Busch InBev and dismissed the deceptive advertising lawsuit Molson Coors (then-MillerCoors) filed against the world’s largest beer manufacturer over its 2019 Super Bowl campaign.

Large regional breweries that fall outside of the BA’s definition of a craft brewer collectively produced more than 8.64 million barrels of beer in 2021, a +2% increase on a comparable basis, according to data provided by the trade organization. The BA excludes companies that are at least 25% owned by a larger brewing company from its craft brewery data set and sets a production ceiling for BA-defined craft brewers at 6 million barrels.

Boston Beer Company’s plans in the non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beverage space are beginning to play out one year after establishing a Canadian subsidiary to focus on those offerings.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s beyond beer division is organizing itself around four priorities: hard seltzers, Cutwater Spirits, Nütrl Vodka Seltzer and Ghost Energy, beyond beer business unit president Fabricio Zonzini shared during Beer Marketer’s Insights’ spring conference in Chicago last week.

Boston Beer Company executives are now expecting hard seltzer growth for 2022 to be near the lower end of its previously communicated projections of flat to +10%, but they reaffirmed confidence in the long-term staying power of the segment, founder Jim Koch shared this week during the Global Staples Forum, according to a recap compiled by Goldman Sachs managing director Bonnie Herzog.