Let’s start with some good news this week! All of the bev-alc inflation over the past few years combined with other larger American consumer pocketbook pressures ⛽️ is bringing back a time-honored tradition: pre-gaming! (Wait, did that ever really go anywhere?)
Let’s start with a thanks to the folks at on-prem POS software company TOAST for confirming items I often include in this newsletter. Congratulations, NYC – you officially have the country’s most expensive pint! (See Zoe? I toldja!).
If, for some reason, you have a hard time meeting people at a music festival who are um … also into music – HEINEKEN thankfully has you covered! Yes, meet “The Clinker!”
I think we’ve all learned to do a proper whenever we hear TILRAY is done making deals at this point – although this time it’s for … Popsicles. Hmmm, OK, ya got me – do go on.
As we sit in the middle of the best 5-day stretch on the college sports calendar, I hope your attempt to redeem yourself from your men’s March Madness bracket with an intact women’s March Madness bracket yesterday totally paid off. Either way – I’m sure you’re enjoying some new beer ads to cheer you up! Well . . . kinda new.
NA beer is now on the list, with a new crop of celebrities joining Tom Holland, Charlie Sheen and John Mulaney – although I’m trying to figure out why no one brought a beer for Mike Meldman.
Folks often ask me, Sean – what’s it like living the glamorous life of a weekend beer biz columnist in New York City? Is it just like Sex and the City? Well Zoe, some days it is for sure (although with far fewer brunches), but it does come at a price. Thus, I give you this week’s dispatch from a bar in my neighborhood, which may give some insight into the volume issues the industry continues to see.
What happened to GUINNESS 0 in NYC? I haven’t seen it on WHOLE FOODS’ shelves in several weeks in a couple of stores that I’ve checked, and I’ve also struck out finding it at other city food stores. It’s still plentiful in Jersey, but yeah – maybe we get on that as March begins?
It’s not too often in life that one gets the opportunity to own “the Bentley of outhouses,” and yet that’s where we find ourselves as January comes to a close.
A-B may be shutting down its Newark, NJ brewery after several decades, but the A-B eagle will live on!
Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was Saturday, January 10, 2025. Hopefully everyone’s resolutions are going well so far …
It’s nice to see Troy Aikman working the phones to get those EIGHT sales moving back in the right direction.
The BUFFALO BILLS may still be 2 games behind Zoe’s PATS in the AFC East … but they’re winning the beer innovation war.
BREWBOUND isn’t the only one goin’ Hollywood (adjacent) – my very own neighborhood brewery ROCKAWAY BREWING CO. in Long Island City, NYC is giving Jeopardy! star Vinnie Cilurzo a run for the craft beer celebrity title! The brewery was featured in this week’s FBI episode on CBS.
