Athletic Brewing Company

In a nutshell, experiential marketing means getting out in the field to events and other public spaces and putting cans in hands. Easy in theory, but far more nuanced and complex in practice.

Smog City Brewing co-founder Laurie Porter is a prepper. Even during craft’s days of double-digit growth in the middle 2010s, Porter, who calls herself “an incurable optimist,” was eyeing a future when that growth wouldn’t be there.

After ranking as the eighth-largest craft brewery by volume in 2024, Athletic Brewing Company is on pace to cross the 500,000-barrel threshold by the end of 2025.

Constellation Brands Layoffs at Rochester HQ; Monster Q3 Alcohol Net Sales -17%; Samuel Adams Adds Winter White Ale, First New Winter Seasonal in 30 Years; Athletic, Vans Warped Tour Debut Collaboration; Pair Your Market Basket Sub with a MB Lager; Parting Shot: Rainier Jubilee Cans Return.

The return of professional football didn’t result in a boost to on-premise beer trends, contrary to years past. Opening weekend of the 2025 NFL season (September 4-7) led to high-single-digit declines in both draft beer (-7.3%) and packaged products (-8.3%) compared to 2024 opening weekend (September 5-8), according to on-premise tech and insights firm BeerBoard.

The adult non-alc category is on its way to hitting $1 billion in off-premise sales as new entries shake up the top brand families and begin to drive prices down, according to market research firm NIQ.

St. Louis-based Urban Chestnut Brewing Company has acquired the beer brands of O’Fallon Brewery, which ceased operations after 24 years at the end of last year.

Non-alcoholic beer, Italian imports and fruit-forward offerings are just a few of the summer trends popping in Total Wine & More and Whole Foods Market stores. Total Wine’s Adrea Starr and Whole Foods Market’s Mary Guiver offered insights into what they’re seeing as summer sets in.

The beer category “surprised” Circana EVP BevAl Scott Scanlon last week and not in a good way. Both dollar sales (-6.1%) and volume (-7.3%) dropped mid-single digits in the week ending June 15 at off-premise retailers tracked by the market research firm.

Six of the 10 largest Brewers Association-defined (BA) craft breweries recorded volume declines in 2024, according to data from the trade group’s May/June edition of The New Brewer magazine.

New breakout brands, Q1’s soft trends and the beer industry’s non-alcoholic (NA) plays were hot topics during Beer Marketer’s Insights’ Spring Conference, held earlier this week in Chicago.

Non-alcoholic (NA) beer claimed a record 4.2% share of beer category grocery sales during Dry January, according to an analysis by Bump Williams Consulting chief strategy officer Dan Wandel. NA beer recorded double-digit year-over-year (YoY) increases in dollar sales (+23.5%) and volume (+20.2%) in U.S. food stores tracked by market research firm NIQ for the four-week period ending February 1.

Non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing Company has struck a multi-year sponsorship deal with Live Nation to make its beer available in 117 concert venues and at four major music festivals.

Off-premise dollar sales of craft beer declined -3.3%, to more than $4.6 billion, in 2024, according to multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience store data shared by market research firm Circana.