Hard Seltzer

Sierra Nevada has announced it will reopen its breweries in Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina, to the public in May after what will be a 14-month hiatus from on-site service, according to a report in the Chico Enterprise-Record. Philadelphia-headquartered, on-demand delivery platform goPuff announced the completion of a $1.15 billion fundraising round earlier this week.

Off-premise beverage alcohol dollar sales fell for the first time in more than a year, declining 1.9% for the week ending March 13 as the industry faces tough comparisons due to the shift in consumer purchasing a year ago, as shoppers stocked their fridges as on-premise shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to market research firm NielsenIQ.

If you’re getting into the $4 billion hard seltzer segment in 2021 with a glut of new offerings, you better go hard. For New Belgium Brewing Company, that amounts to the biggest investment behind a brand launch in the company’s history for Fruit Smash, the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery’s irreverent seltzer line, which began hitting retailers earlier this month.

Molson Coors Beverage Company said the Topo Chico line will begin hitting store shelves in nine states starting March 29, giving the company yet another hard seltzer brand to compete within the more than $4 billion hard seltzer segment that has thus far been dominated by two brands: Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer.

Boston Beer Company executives believe Truly Punch could be the next big thing in hard seltzer, rivaling the brand’s Lemonade and Iced Tea offshoots.

Spindrift is going hard. The Newton, Massachusetts-based premium sparkling water brand announced today the launch of Spindrift Spiked, a hard seltzer line rolling out to stores next month. Similar to the brand’s core non-alcoholic products, the new line is made with real fruit juice and contains alcohol fermented from cane sugar with a 4% ABV.

The May 1 launch of a line of hard seltzers branded with fast-food chain Sonic’s name and proprietary beverage flavors has the potential to make Oklahoma City craft brewery COOP Ale Works a player in the $4 billion hard seltzer segment, president Sean Mossman told Brewbound.

Truly Hard Seltzer boosted Boston Beer Company’s 2020 revenue to $1.74 billion, but production of the popular bubbly beverage remains a drag on the company’s gross margins, the company reported during its full-year and fourth quarter earnings report Wednesday.

Hard seltzer dollar sales at convenience stores are increasing at nearly double the rates of the rest of the off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm NielsenIQ. Over the last four weeks(ending February 6), off-premise dollar sales of hard seltzers increased 105% at convenience stores compared to the same period last year, while sales increased 55.9% in food (+55.9%) and 59.9% in drug stores.

The lemonade seltzer competition is picking up, as White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands announced today that its Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer brand extension is now hitting retail shelves nationwide. Meanwhile, RBC Capital’s Nik Modi recently shared a study that found the hard seltzer segment “is far from its peak and could grow another 150% by 2025.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev will invest $1 billion over the next two years in its U.S. facilities, with part of the investment directed at improving its hard seltzer production capabilities.

Oregon breweries looking to cash in on the $4.1 billion hard seltzer market need to consider the ingredients they choose to produce it, as the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s (OLCC) classification of the bubbly beverage varies by base ingredients.

Like countless other beverage companies, XED (pronounced “crossed”) Beverages saw its growth plans for 2020 turned upside down with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Now — one year, one rebrand and one reformulation later — co-founders Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow are looking to pick up from where they never got a chance to start.