The Beer Insights Seminar is coming right up Nov 9-10 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City, and the meeting agenda is now available. So sign up today to reserve your spot! We have a stellar speaker lineup at the 2025 Beer Insights Seminar.

Kirin Holdings is seeking to sell off its Four Roses bourbon brand for "as much as" $1 billion dollars, per the Financial Times. The Japanese conglomerate, which also owns New Belgium/Bell's via Kirin-Lion, has reportedly been working with UBS advisers to gauge interest from potential buyers in recent wks. First-round bids are expected as early as next month, according to "two people familiar with the matter."

Is this the most unified push to close the hemp loophole to date? On behalf of "a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general," the National Association of Attorneys General sent a formal letter to congressional leaders last Fri urging them to clarify the federal hemp definition to prevent exploitation from bad actors. And if it wasn't already, it's now crystal clear on which side of the fence they stand. "We ask Congress to act decisively to clarify the Farm Bill's definition of hemp to ensure intoxicating THC products are taken off the market," they wrote.

"Scale Matters," Said Justin Fisch; 50 Salespeople, Adding More Adding Brooklyn is the cherry on top of recent US Bev craft additions, which also include Rogue, Evil Twin, Captain Lawrence, and Uinta (purchased the brand and brewery in 2022). Including Brooklyn, US Bev's total sales will approach 4 mil cases annually. Craft represents about half its current sales. It also sells a number of imports, including Moosehead, Erdinger, Innis & Gunn plus Woodchuck Cider. "Scale is what matters," US Bev ceo Justin Fisch told CBN. His co is "investing in manpower," with a sales force that is now 50 strong. "We will be adding more." Brooklyn is a "leader," said Justin. "They think big."

Brooklyn Brewery, one of the more storied craft beer brands, will move its sales function to United States Beverage on Nov 1, disbanding its own long-term sales force. Brooklyn Brewery still sells around 800K cases in US, mostly in NY metro area. That's down by almost two-thirds from a peak of 2.3 mil cases in 2014. Yet Brooklyn has kept morphing its business model and its export sales have continued to thrive, driving total Brooklyn volume to nearly 4.7 mil cases in 2024. It's in process of building a new, more retail-focused (huge space) and R&D-focused brewery in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, slated to open next spring. But most of Brooklyn's volume in recent yrs is sold abroad, thru its successful partnership with Carlsberg, plus Kirin in Japan and Australia (Kirin also owns minority stake in Brooklyn). This move towards selling thru partner in US makes it more like what it already does abroad. "The collaboration will bring increased focus and resources to the Brooklyn Brewery portfolio," said release.

Shipments may have dropped double digits in Q3 as Boston Beer rebalanced inventories, but bringing more production in-house and co's other productivity initiatives built margins solidly, freeing up additional cash to raise guidance on annual mktg spend. "Appropriately investing in our brands" thru both natl ads and local efforts is one of personal priorities of founder Jim Koch now that he's back in ceo role, he explained to investors on earnings call last wk. That includes new co-funded program with distribs, for which Boston is committing $60 mil and $3 for every $1 spent by its wholesale partners on local mktg (see Oct 15 issue).

While AB's share gains in off-prem scans have been well documented this yr, it's gaining more share of on-premise sales-to-retailers, according to latest Fintech data presented by NBWA vp of analytics & chief economist Lester Jones and vp of distrib strategy Eric Kiser. In Fintech's measure of $$ sales to retailers (STRs), AB gained 1 share to 33.3. Picked up more share than the next two biggest share gainers combined, Constellation +0.6 and Diageo Beer +0.3.

Consumer price index for beer away from home rose 1% in Sep vs yr ago, per Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down from a 1.5% increase in Aug and continues to lag general inflation, which rose 3% in Sep vs yr ago. Monthly increases for general inflation have been in range of 2.3% to 3% Jan-Sep. Spirits prices up 1.8% in Sep vs yr ago, accelerating vs Aug. Spirits price increases have been ahead of beer for 6 mos running. CPI for wine declined 1.2% in Sep vs yr ago. Wine prices have decreased 6 straight mos. YTD thru Sep, CPI for beer up 1.1%, well below 2.4% increase for general inflation. Spirits prices grew 0.9% YTD while wine prices were off 0.6%.

The Beer Insights Seminar is coming right up Nov 9-10 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City, and the meeting agenda is now available. So sign up today to reserve your spot! We have a stellar speaker lineup at the 2025 Beer Insights Seminar.