Daily Briefing Newsletter

As the heat index crosses the 100-degree mark here on the Jersey Shore … what better topic to get excited about than refreshing 14% ABV barrel aged stouts!

It’s always great when someone pours a fresh can of gasoline on the perennial kids in taprooms bonfire that seems to eternally burn in the craft beer world … thanks, NY Times.

It’s about time we start this newsletter with some good news, no? Move over Spirit Halloween stores – we’ve found a new use for former brewery space! So, how do y’all feel about, uh, “growing fish” instead of making beer?

This week’s beer goes out to Gen Z. Look, I know I’ve been a bit hard on you folks lately … so you certainly deserve a nice cold bottle of beer (you know how those aluminum tariffs are these days). Although, let me know if you need help opening it … as the youngins on the NBA Champion OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER had no issues bouncing the PACERS out of town, but they were subsequently thwarted by the French.

Man, you know it’s bad when beer consumption is down in Belgium of all places. Data indicates the 2024 number was -2.1%, following a 2023 where it was -6%. Guessing that imported STELLA from Newark, NJ just isn’t moving as many units as one would hope … but maybe they should send over a few cases of BUSCH LIGHT’s newest foray into flavortown along with it – move over #BLAPPLE – it’s #BLIMEtime!

Well, it seems the Gen Z: Bar Noobs report is becoming a weekly thing. After last week’s bewilderment at the idea of using cash instead of credit cards as a way to control how much one spends at a bar in a given evening … it seems this week our relatively new LDA patrons need to be instructed how “ordering at the bar” works in the U.K.

according to this new NY Times piece, twentysomethings now get anxiety from leaving credit card tabs open, and yes, that sound you hear in the background is Gen X rolling our eyes at you big time. Instead, a lotta kids today pay with their credit cards and close out every time they go up to the bar to order a … HIGH NOON, even if they’re drinking several during a bar visit. What’s that? Cash? Yeah, not so much, boomer.

So, June is the month beer sales turn around … right? Asking for a friend. But hey – maybe the beer biz just needs an energy boost to change its fortunes! Thankfully A-B has ya covered with its new drink line called PHORM ENERGY, created in partnership with UFC CEO Dana White.

🍻 A Round With Meli Founder Samara Oster; 😮 RNDC Rocked By Brown-Forman Exit; 🤝 Two Roads, Yards & Bald Birds Partner; 📰 CBC 2026 and a Michigan Distro Deal; 🗣️ Almanac CEO: ‘I Hate the Word Taproom’; 🌵 Beer Mail: AriZona Hard with Vodka

We may still have a week to go until Memorial Day weekend … but you know we’re getting close when you begin to smell the #bigbeer BBQ promotions rolling out!

If you’re reading this newsletter on the day it comes out (please tell me I’m not the only reader 🤞), there’s still time to get mom a thoughtful present for tomorrow! Otherwise, uh, you’ll have to roll the dice on finding one of these MILLER LITE “gold” cans, which were only made in 24 oz. cans for c-stores, and as part of the oh-so-popular 16 oz. can 12-pack format, so hopefully mom loves her tallboys.

Remember the days when the biggest gripes around tax and trade matters was that the TTB wasn’t approving new beer labels quick enough? Well, at least #TrumpTariffs are not holding Ryan Reynolds back – he’s now looking to dominate the boxed wine business (gin, it’s been real) and teaming up with the GALLO folks to create an Ugly Estates wine line, whose initial rollout will be in Texas.

Well, I hope your 1,461 pack of MOOSEHEAD beer arrived in time. Welcome to … “The Tariff Era” – a far less beloved (and self-induced) economic period than the “0% Interest Era” of yore. The 2010s really were Camelot.

In Wednesday’s Brewbound Newsletter: 🍀 St. Patrick’s Day Off-Premise Dollars -3.9% YoY; 💰 Oregon Proposes 8% Sales Tax for Beer & Wine; 🏟️ Allagash Joins the Mets and Tilray’s Stock Issues; 🌎 The No. 1 Centennial Hop Buyer; 🍊 Sierra Nevada Revamps Big Little Thing IPA.