Citing "growing concern" about what the next edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) will say about alcohol, the country's leading alcohol-focused public health advocacy group took matters into its own hands this week. "There is no safe or healthy level of alcohol use," the US Alcohol Policy Alliance (USAPA) wrote in its self-published "Alcohol Consumption Guidelines for the American People." Though the language appears under the heading "What the Science Says," it is not. And other parts of the document disregard its own scientific "resources." Yet the group seeks "to generate as much awareness and visibility for our guidelines as possible," tearing a page out of the playbook used by allies in Canada who successfully misled media all over the world about that country's drinking guidance.

Manna Bev, which was known to be rethinking its commitment to acquired Nor-Cal Beverage, appears to have abruptly shut copacker's doors in Sacramento and Anaheim, Calif, over past day, from what we've been hearing this afternoon. Tho there doesn't seem to have been any formal announcement nor WARN termination filing with Calif employment authorities at press time, we're hearing that some suppliers' ingredients have been getting turned away at gates, with employees advised that co was no longer in operation, starting with night shift last night. One source indicated that all 600 operations employees in Calif have apparently been terminated. Manna execs had not so far acknowledged any change in status of copacker, a longtime force in energy, hydration and other NA categories. Like other copackers, Nor-Cal is believed to have been hit hard by steep decline in Prime Hydration even as significant monthly leasing payments kicked in last month as part of earlier financial restructuring.

Mark Anthony is the 4th largest beer/malt bev supplier and still sells over 100 mil cases/yr despite tuffer stretch in the last 5 yrs, prexy David Barnett shared to lead off co's distrib meeting in Chicago yesterday. It has 4 of the top 30 brand fams - White Claw (#7), Mike's Harder (#16) and Cayman Jack (#24) are 3 of just 9 brand fams growing $$ among top 30 overall, while Mike's Hard #29 is having a tuffer yr - plus MXD is rising to a top 100 brand fam. MAB is gaining 2d most share of $$ this yr behind only STZ, and remains the leader of the pack in flavored alc bevs by far, David noted. That's all built from the ground up on innovation thruout co's ~26 yrs in biz, skyrocketing from just 21 mil cases in 2015 behind the advent of White Claw, which still sells a whopping 68 mil cases/yr on its own. Plus, Cayman Jack surged to 12 mil cases this yr, boosted by Cayman Jacked launch while Mike's Harder fam is still around 14 mil cases.

With another summer in the books, it's "an understatement to say that this year's results were a little disappointing," Bump Williams Consulting wrote in its latest monthly letter, and craft beer sales were no different. In fact, craft segment is "on pace to incur its largest Volume and Value sales declines of the last three years in NIQ Off-Premise data." That's sayin' something as last few years haven't exactly been pretty. But reduction in longtail brands is a big piece of the puzzle, BWC shows, reiterating that more focused craft suppliers tend to outperform off-prem.

Only 3 brands in the last half century reached #1 by volume in the US beer industry. All 3 are made by Anheuser Busch and all 3 are still top 10 brands today: First Bud, then Bud Light and now newly anointed Michelob Ultra. But the differences between the trajectories of each of the 3 illustrate how the industry has changed over time, i.e. it's become more fragmented and less dominated by AB. That includes some huge shifts in just the last few years.