3 Up, 3 Down with 3 Tier Beverages is a quarterly insights series available to Brewbound Insiders, via the Chicago-headquartered, bev-alc-focused consulting and data firm.
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.
Sugar-based hard seltzers are now considered malt beverages in Oregon and will be taxed accordingly, ending the state’s discrepancy with the federal government’s classification of the popular bubbly beverages.
More than 75% of beer wholesalers said the summer selling season is off to “a strong start,” as Memorial Day trends either met or exceeded expectations, Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog found in her latest “Beverage Bytes survey” of about 40 distributors covering 145,000 retail outlets (about a quarter of the total U.S. outlets that sell alcoholic beverages).
Consumers used the long weekend to sneak in an extra round with friends and family — and many purchased those drinks online. Sales on alcohol delivery on-demand marketplace Drizly spiked 30% on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, compared to the previous four Sundays in May, the company shared. The hard seltzer segment reached a 28% share of overall beer category sales during the holiday weekend, an increase of 3% over its overall share for the month.
Brew Talks video replay is now available. Beyond beer offerings continue to be the growth driver within the beer category. Boston Beer’s Dave Burwick, Lone River Beverage Company’s Katie Beal Brown and Manhattan Beer’s Ed McBrien discuss the opportunities within the so-called “fourth category” of offerings.
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.
Lunar co-founders Sean Ro and Kevin Wong were a couple drinks in, reminiscing about the “before times” — when COVID-19 hadn’t locked down the country, halting travel — when they thought up their next flavor launch for their up-and-coming hard seltzer brand.
Heineken and several of its subsidiaries have dropped their trademark infringement complaint against Biscayne Bay Brewing and signed a covenant not to sue the Miami-based craft brewery. “The parties have jointly agreed to resolve their trademark dispute,” a Heineken spokesperson told Brewbound.
Lone River Ranch Water announced the expansion of their distribution in 21 states this summer.
New hard seltzer offerings continue to play a “vital role” in driving growth of the booming segment, while several core SKUs keep “churning out growth,” Bump Williams Consulting found in the firm’s latest analysis of the $4.1 billion and climbing hard seltzer segment.
Suzie’s Brewery, maker of Suzie’s Organic Hard Seltzer, and Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed earlier this week to settle the Oregon company’s lawsuit against the world’s largest beer manufacturer for allegedly engaging in deceptive advertising practices for its Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer brand.
White Claw Hard Seltzer and Mike’s Hard Lemonade maker Mark Anthony Brands has filed a lawsuit against Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bang Energy LLC alleging copyright infringement in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. In the lawsuit filed April 26, Mark Anthony argues that the defendants’ MIXX flavored malt beverages infringe on its MXD Cocktail Company flavored malt beverages and may cause consumer confusion.
Two Robbers Hard Seltzer has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by New York-based Brand Foundry Ventures. The company has plans to add six new markets to its footprint: Maryland, Virginia, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington, D.C.
