Brewscape: The Latest Craft Beer Brand News

42 North, 2085 Brewery Launch Open-Source Collaboration Beer to Support Ukraine

East Aurora, New York’s 42 North Brewing Company and Ukraine’s 2085 Brewery have launched an open-source collaboration beer program called Resolve to support the humanitarian effort in Ukraine, according to 42 North founder John Cimperman.

“As a brewery, we have deep connections to Ukraine and feel pretty helpless in what we can do to help,” he said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, leading millions of Ukranians to flee the country. “If we can raise awareness and funds, it’s the least we can do.”

One of 42 North’s founding brewers, Naz Drebot, is Ukrainian. Cimperman credited Drebot with helping build 42 North during its first three years before he returned to Ukraine and opened 2085 Brewery in Kyiv.

“Not that we need any more reason to support Ukraine, but when one of your own is literally in the middle of it, it really brings it close to home,” he said.

Cimperman said the project is being called Resolve due to the word often being used to describe the Ukrainian people. Resolve follows other open-source collaboration fundraisers such as Resilience, Black is Beautiful, and Brave Noise.

Resolve will be a kellerbier (4.8% ABV) and 42 North will provide the recipe and artwork for breweries who want to join the effort. Proceeds from the sale of the beer will go to Global Empowerment Mission, a not-for-profit that is “providing emergency aid in Ukraine to the fighters and families that have stayed behind, as well as humanitarian aid to the women and children that are trying to cross the border into Poland,” according to the Resolve website.

Other efforts have popped up to support the humanitarian effort in Ukraine. Oregon’s Rogue Ales & Spirits created “F*#k Putin,” a 6.5% ABV Northwest IPA, with 100% of the proceeds going to Global Giving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund to help nonprofits provide access to education, food, medical services and more in Ukraine..

Pravda Brewery, the Lviv-based craft brewery that gained global attention for shifting its beer production to making molotov cocktails, announced its own collaboration beer and fundraising effort, offering the recipes for several of its beers to brewers from around the world to brew with proceeds going to its relief funds.

“As peaceful craft brewers, we want to return to normal life ASAP and enjoy brewing and drinking,” the brewery wrote. “But first, we must kick the cockroaches out of our land.”

Meanwhile, Drinkers for Ukraine has launched a three-pronged effort, including a solidarity beer, online auctions, and fundraising livestream.

JuneShine Launches RTD Canned Cocktails In Next Step Toward Becoming Lifestyle Brand

Ready-to-drink canned cocktails from JuneShine officially launched in Southern California on March 1. The release of the spirits-based RTDs marks the first non-hard kombucha product launch from the San Diego-headquartered company.

Co-founder and CMO Forrest Dein told Brewbound that the launch of the canned cocktails was the next step in his and fellow founder and CEO Greg Serrao’s overall ambition to make JuneShine a branded house built around “better-for-you, better-for-planet alcohol” offerings.

“The first three years were really building that foundation and the platform of the JuneShine brand to be able to launch new products, but we’re still hyper focused on growing the hard kombucha category as well,” Dein said. “That will be 90% of our business this year.”

The goal for 2022 is for the other 10% to come from canned cocktails, Serrao said. It’s all part of JuneShine’s strategy of competing in bev-alc’s fastest-growing segments and becoming a leader within the fourth category of alcoholic beverages.

According to Dein, JuneShine’s entry into canned cocktails is not unlike its genesis in 2017. He and Serrao perused the grocery aisles looking for alcoholic beverages built on “transparency” and organic ingredients.

“We felt like hard kombucha was super disruptive,” Dein said of JuneShine’s 2018 launch. JuneShine was part of a movement that led to more “organic, transparent products now in seltzer, beer, wine, hard kombucha,” Dein said.

However, Dein said the high-ABV, canned-cocktail space still lacks “transparency” with “no nutrition facts [panels]” and offerings “still loaded with sugar.”

“We felt like there was a gap in the high-ABV, canned-cocktail market for the JuneShine brand that we could solve,” he said.

JuneShine’s 8-10% ABV cocktails do not feature artificial ingredients or added sugar. The first wave of JuneShine canned cocktails will feature three flavors — Classic Tequila Margarita, Tropical Rum Mai Tai, and Passion Fruit Vodka Soda — each sold in 4-packs at $12.99. The company is also offering a variety 12-pack for club stores.

Additional flavors will roll out in April: Tequila Ranch Water and Vodka Mule. Look for special releases and collaborations with different distilleries and JuneShine ambassadors in the future.

“We’re really proud of the fact that we made a canned cocktail within the JuneShine ethos,” Serrao said. “What I mean by that is that it is high ABV, two shots per can. But there’s zero grams of added sugar, all the sugar that we have is from fruit juice and spices. So it’s all natural ingredients.”

Scout Distribution and Stone Distributing will take the product to market in Southern California. Additional states will follow in May. In the meantime, JuneShine will offer e-commerce sales to 47 states (excluding Alaska, Mississippi, and Utah).

Stone Brewing Invests $2.7M in Virginia Facility

Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing has expanded its East Coast operations, increasing annual capacity at its Richmond, Virginia, facility from 150,000 barrels to 200,000 barrels.

The company has invested $2.7 million in the project, installing four new 1,000 barrel tanks that will help increase production of Stone beer and hard seltzer for distribution east of the Rockies and internationally. A 10-barrel pilot system is also being installed to produce Richmond-exclusive offerings starting in May.

Stone first announced the planned expansion in August 2021. At the time, chief operating officer Sean Monahan told Richmond Times-Dispatch the facility had room for 40 more tanks for future expansion.

Stone opened the Richmond distribution center and brewery in 2016, two years after announcing the $74 million project. This year, the brewery added a “Live Buena” food trailer to the location, to serve San Diego-inspired food alongside Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime lager and Buenavida Hard Seltzer.

Speaking to Brewbound, Stone CEO Maria Stipp said the company is refocusing on its core beers in 2022, led by its Buena brand family. Stone launched the Buena family nationally with Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager in August 2020. Since then, the Mexican-style lager has grown to be Stone’s third-largest brand in overall sales, and No. 1 draft brand, as of November. Monahan said the growth of Buenaveza Salt & Lime lager “is a major contributor” to the capacity investment.

In April 2021, the brewery added Buenavida Hard Seltzer in four flavors — Mango, Black Cherry, Mandarin, and Watermelon Lime — packaged in glass bottles and initially distributed only in Southern California. Stone rolled out Buenavida nationwide in January.

Juice Force Hazy Imperial IPA on Pace to be Top 4 Voodoo Ranger Brand in 2022

New Belgium Brewing Company is making its biggest investment yet behind a Voodoo Ranger brand with the launch of Juice Force, a year-round hazy imperial IPA.

Dave Knospe, Voodoo Ranger brand manager, told Brewbound that New Belgium is investing more than $1 million in media for Juice Force (9.5% ABV), which is rolling out now.

“We eclipsed 15,000 barrels before we even ran $1 media on this brand, which is crazy,” he said. “It seems like this is going to be a really, really big launch for us.”

New Belgium’s initial projection for Juice Force was 50,000 barrels in Year One, which has since been revised to around 70,000 barrels. That would make it the biggest Voodoo Ranger launch ever, Knospe said.

If Juice Force reaches the 70,000-barrel threshold, it would rank within the top four brands in the Voodoo Ranger portfolio, trailing Voodoo Ranger Imperial, Juicy Haze, and IPA.

Juice Force is off to a strong start. Within its first four weeks on the market, Juice Force 19.2 oz. cans are a top-five selling craft beer single-serve package in the convenience store channel, and the second fastest turning single-serve, behind Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, according to NielsenIQ total U.S. convenience store data for the four weeks ending February 26, shared by New Belgium.

The early success is likely due to the brand playing at the confluence of two of the fastest growing style subsegments — hazy IPA and imperial IPA.

In 2021, hazy IPA and imperial/double/triple IPAs were the two fastest-growing style subsegments, increasing off-premise dollar sales 10.4% and 9.7%, respectively, according to NielsenIQ total U.S.xAOC + liquor plus convenience data shared by Bump Williams Consulting. Both hazy and imperial increased their dollar share of craft by a little more than 1% last year. Helping drive that growth is Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, which was the second best-selling craft brand in 2021 and the top-selling IPA in the beer category. Through the first two months of 2022, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA increased its share of the beer category by more than 1%, to 3.48% share, and has grown its off-premise dollar sales more than $5.3 million compared to the same period in 2021.

Knospe said while there are parallels to be drawn between Voodoo Ranger Imperial and Juice Force, the new release brings a more fruit-forward composition. The beer is brewed with Mexican orange, mango and passionfruit, and Chinook, Mosaic, Pahto, Galaxy, Lotus, Sabro and Strata hops.

Knospe admitted releasing a hazy imperial IPA wasn’t a “novel idea” from a brewer known for IPAs, however, when the Voodoo Ranger team looked at the market, they didn’t see a widely available option.

“The hazy imperials that everyone knows and loves are generally made by much smaller brewers but aren’t available at some of the channels where Voodoo Ranger is distributed,” Knospe said. “So we were talking about it and, ‘Oh, hazy imperial. Of course everyone does one of those. Wait, does everyone do one of those? Does a competitor on a national scale make a really good successful hazy imperial?’ And the answer is really no, even if we are drinking them just as consumers at our favorite local breweries.”

In addition to 19.2 oz. single-serve cans, Juice Force is available in 6-packs nationwide. Those packs are being line priced with Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA 6-packs, Knospe said.

Boston Beer and PepsiCo Launch Hard MTN Dew in Florida, Iowa and Tennessee

Hard MTN Dew – the partnership project between Boston Beer Company and PepsiCo Beverages – launched in late February in three states: Florida, Iowa and Tennessee.

The product will expand into 13 more states by May, Boston Beer president and CEO Dave Burwick said during the company’s Q4 earnings call.

The 5%-ABV, 100-calorie flavored malt beverage (FMB) is available in four flavors – original MTN Dew, Baja Blast, Black Cherry and Watermelon – in 24 oz. single-serve cans and 12 oz. variety 12-packs. Unlike the original soda inspiration, Hard MTN Dew has no caffeine and zero added sugar.

Boston Beer and PepsiCo announced Hard MTN Dew in August. Boston Beer developed and produced the FMB and will market it, while PepsiCo has set up a new wholesale entity – Blue Cloud Distribution – to sell, deliver and merchandise it.

Boston Beer founder Jim Koch recently said PepsiCo planned to get into the alcohol industry with or without his company, but wanted to work with them due to Burwick’s connection to PepsiCo and the MTN Dew brand.

“Dave turned it into what you know today, so they felt very comfortable doing business with us and having us do the marketing, frankly, because he’s the best marketer Mountain Dew’s ever had,” Koch said during the Beer Industry Summit.

“The core demographic for Mountain Dew now is 30 years old, 30 to 35,” he continued. “About 80% of the consumers and Mountain Dew are legal drinking age. We’ve got to remember it came of age in the ’90s, so a lot of the people who adopted it then and in the first part of the century are still drinking it because it is a very strong brand, a unique brand. There’s nothing else like it in soft drinks.”

While Hard MTN Dew will join a “relatively crowded market” of malt beverages,” PepsiCo believes the product will offer “a differentiated flavor with a very unique brand,” Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo CEO, said during the company’s Q3 earnings call in October.

During the company’s Q4 earnings report, Laguarta added that Pepsi would “like to participate in a consistent and structural way,” via licensing brands to beer manufacturers. He hinted that in the future the company could leverage its Blue Cloud Distribution infrastructure, and assets “to provide capital distribution and consistent execution across the country” for alcoholic beverages from third-party brands.