Beer Industry News, Insights, Jobs, & Events

The latest spirits distribution headlines include RTD gin cocktail The Original Southside landing in major retailers, a wave of Southern Glazer’s (SGWS) additions spanning vodka, rum, and scotch, and distributors scooping up new territory in the wake of Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) collapse, among other moves.

Talea Beer co-founder and co-CEO Tara Hankinson will share how the New York City-headquartered, woman-founded-and-led craft brewery manages multiple locations and stays profitable during this December’s Brewbound Live business conference.

Sometimes the key to a craft brewery returning to growth isn’t just cleaning up its portfolio, it’s cleaning up internal operations.

Rhinegeist Brewing’s Cincy Light line has crossed categories with the debut of Cincy Splash, a vodka-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail. The vodka sodas are available in three flavors: Pineapple, Black Cherry and Peach. The 4.5% ABV, 100-calories drinks are packaged in 355 ml slim cans and sold in single-flavor 4-packs and variety 8-packs, according to a press release.

There were many kinds of party drinks before 2010, but we’d bet none of them came in colorful plastic orb-shaped containers. BuzzBallz, the Sazerac-owned ready-to-drink (RTD) party prop, doesn’t just stand out for its spherical shape, but for what it represents about how people are drinking these days: with entertaining, high-ABV, convenient formats.

The decade-long consent decree that allowed Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) MegaBrew merger with SABMiller to go forward expired in July, removing guardrails that had been placed on the world’s largest beer manufacturer by the Department of Justice to ensure competition in the marketplace. Chris Jones, managing director of Central Market Strategies, joins this week’s Brewbound Podcast to explore what competition looks like in a post-consent decree beer industry.

Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter, including headlines from Asahi, Monster, Iron Hill and more.

The price of a drink at a bar or restaurant has gotten more expensive more quickly than most other things, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If there’s ever a good place to make a pitch that a drinks brand is about hedonism, it would be at Tales of The Cocktail, the U.S. bar industry’s biggest event, which took place in New Orleans last month. What’s surprising is that the pitch came from a non-alc brand.

Will Dead Guy rise from the grave? Bidding for Rogue Ales & Spirits’ intellectual property is underway through August 21.

Another craft platform is taking shape in Minnesota. Minneapolis-headquartered Fulton Brewing has struck a deal to acquire the brands and distribution rights to Bemidji Brewing, a 14-year-old craft brewery based in the downtown district of the city that bears its name.

KEG 1 River City (K1RC) has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to acquire Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) Kentucky assets, the companies announced today. The deal would add roughly 2 million cases annually to K1RC’s portfolio. The deal follows news late last week that Breakthru Beverage Group was pulling out of its deals for RNDC’s Kentucky and Indiana operations.

A year after extending its partnership with England’s Arsenal Football Club, the dedicated non-alcoholic (NA) beer maker has inked a multi-year agreement to become a “Proud Non-Alcoholic Beer Partner” of MetLife Stadium and the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids started exploring the creation of a non-alcoholic (NA) beer five years ago, as the boom of craft NAs kicked off in response to consumers’ increased interest in bev-alc moderation following the COVID-19 pandemic.