New Belgium Brewing Company

What do distributors want in 2025? A survey of 173 distributors from across the U.S. found that middle-tier leaders are seeking simplification and focus in programs, among other key traits. Those answers were among the takeaways from consulting firm Tamarron’s 27th annual Brewer Partnership Compass survey.

After reaching nationwide distribution in 2023, Bell’s Brewery has refocused on its core Great Lakes markets. New Belgium CEO Shaun Belongie explained that the Michigan craft brand struggled in far away markets, leading the company to double down at home.

New Belgium is still feeling the effects of Hurricane Helene almost one year after the deadly storm devastated western North Carolina. Even as the company’s Asheville production facility has come back online, New Belgium is dealing with tough decisions made in the aftermath.

New Belgium Brewing Company turned down the innovation firehose to a drip – for the most part – to start 2025. Yes, the company did add “Mini Rippers,” 7.5 oz. 8-pack cans of Voodoo Ranger Juice Force and Tropic Force (both 9.5% ABV). And it rolled out LightStrike, a 5% ABV non-carbonated hard refresher line, aimed at Millennials and Generation Z consumers.

Refreshers are like opinions – no one’s the same, but everyone’s got one. Numerous fruity and colorful hard beverages have hit the shelves in the past two years, labeled as “refreshers,” but that is about where their similarities end.

Teamsters’ strike at Breakthru spreads to six more states; Voodoo Ranger and Malört collab on Roulette IPA release; Intuition Ale Works available for turnkey sale; G4 Kegs pauses imports; consumer spending dips in May; and Constellation data shows Hispanic consumers’ pullback from dining out.

Although still in decline, craft beer’s dollar sales and volume losses eased up in May, according to the most recent off-premise report from market research firm Circana.

Volume at craft breweries outside of the Brewers Association’s (BA) definition of small and independent declined 4% on a comparable basis, to 6.752 million barrels, in 2024, the trade group reported in the May/June edition of The New Brewer magazine.

Beverage-alcohol’s embrace of flavor and craft beer’s shifting distribution trends were among spotlighted issues during last week’s Beer Marketer’s Insights Spring Conference in Chicago. Leaders from BeatBox Beverages, Boston Beer Company, Atomic Brands, Columbia Distributing and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) shared where their business and the beer category is heading. Here are a few soundbites from the conference.

Carrie Yunker ended her more than two-decade run at Bell’s Brewery on a high note Monday – Oberon Day, the annual release of the company’s spring-summer seasonal wheat beer.

Dollar sales of craft beer declined -4.2%, to more than $596.2 million, year-to-date (YTD) through February 23 in off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm Circana.

Bell’s Brewery executive vice president (EVP) Carrie Yunker will depart from the company next month after more than two decades with the Comstock, Michigan-based brewery.

Craft’s rolling four-week losses improved to start 2025, according to the most recent report from market research firm Circana. The segment’s off-premise dollar sales declined -3.1% and volume, measured in case sales, declined -4.6% in the four-week period ending January 26 (L4W) at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C). That marked an improvement over the prior four-week period (through December 29, 2024), when craft dollars declined -5.1% and volume declined -6.5%.

New Belgium CEO Shaun Belongie joins the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the comeback in Asheville, the company’s still-unfolding contingency plans and the road ahead.