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Beer sales continue to run strong in Circana multi-outlet + convenience data thru Q1 2026, outpacing all-channel trends. Sales were up 1.2% by $$ with volume off just 0.5% YTD thru Mar 22 in MULC. All-channel depletions have been tracking down a little more than 2% so far, according to separate Beer Inst estimates, suggesting much softer trends in indie and liquor channels, at least off-premise. On-prem beer STRs were outpacing off-prem, per BI, perhaps settling into a trend after doing so thruout 2025 too. Off-prem convenience store chains are where the growth is at in Circana data. Beer $$ grew 2% with flattish volume in Circana c-stores. But foodstores and all other multi-outlet channels outperformed in Circana data too with beer $$ flattish-to-up slightly and volume down less than 1%. And beer avg price/case rose at a sturdy pace, +1.7%, increasingly driven by continued mix shift toward above-premium segments. Larger suppliers are driving the improved trends in scans. Twelve of the top 20 beer cos grew $$ in Circana MULC yr-to-date thru Mar 22 compared to just 4 &mdash; Diageo Beer, Sierra, Geloso, Athletic &mdash; for full-year 2025 vs 2024. This yr, 3 of the 4 largest cos, Constellation (+5.5%), AB (+1.7%) and Mark Anthony (+4%), are driving the largest $$ sales gains. Kirin-Lion (+5.5%) is rebounding nicely from a down yr in 2025. Yuengling is up 2% to start the yr with early boosts from still-incremental IL and MI sales and early days of WI and IA off-prem rollouts. Sapporo USA also grew 2% with strong double-digit growth from Sapporo lager offsetting Stone declines. And Sazerac malt eked out a 0.3% gain YTD.Plus, Diageo Beer saw its $$ growth accelerate significantly this yr, up 8%. Geloso (+8%) and Athletic (+19%) maintained similar growth paces to start the yr. Sierra Nevada's pace picked up a bit, +2.4%. And a handful of declining cos like MC, HUSA and Pabst still managed to improve. Especially Pabst, which dipped just 1% for the yr in MULC channels, including 3% growth in foodstores (tho flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon remains soft). The top 20 suppliers (depicted in the chart above) make up 93.6 share of total beer sales in MULC channels and collectively gained share so far this yr.Bud Light, Miller Lite Drove All of Premium's Decline; Twisted Virtually All of FMB Drop The two segments declining most in Q1 scans were premium lagers and FMBs. Premium continues to drop most with $$ sales off 2.5%, -0.9 share pts. Bud Light and Miller Lite make up virtually all of the segment's decline as Bud Light (-5.6%) accounts for over half of that drop on its own, again shedding the most $$ sales (-$36 mil) of any beer brand so far this yr. Miller Lite posted the 2d largest drop industry-wide, down 3.6%, $17 mil. Coors family is growing for a change as Coors Light dipped just 1% and Banquet (+11%) pushed it over the hump in Q1 scans. Yuengling Traditional Lager is up 1% as well, thanks to new mkt boosts. Budweiser $$ still down but improved to -2%.Within FMBs, Twisted Tea (-3.7%) accounted for virtually all of the segment's 1%, $9.3 mil decline, tho just over half of FMB's 0.22-pt share loss. All other FMBs were collectively flat on $$ with volume down 2.7%. Twisted still makes up over 1/4 of FMB sales to start the yr but it dropped another 0.75 share of segment YTD. Among remaining FMBs, there are several healthy gainers from top brand fams like Smirnoff (+8.5%), Cayman Jack (+14.5%), Clubtails (+12%), Four Loko (+4%), Ritas (+20%) and BeatBox malt (+75%). But continued double-digit drops from Mike's Hard, Seagram's Escapes, Redd's, Simply Spiked, and Fireball malt plus low-single-digit dip from Mike's Harder offset those gains.

Beer Stronger in MULC Thru Q1; 12 of Top 20 Cos Growing $$; What's Driving Premium & FMB Drops?

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