UK sales of low- and non-alcoholic beers almost doubled but will remain niche

United Kingdom | Sales of low- and non-alcoholic beers have almost doubled in five years, thanks in no small part to the Big Brewers launching 0.0 versions of their flagship brands. The category now accounts for 3.1 percent of the UK’s beer market, IWSR said, compared with 2.7 percent globally.

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Beer Strategies Round Table: Getting the future right through Big Data

Europe | In an ideal world, a marketer knows what her customers want even before they do. Beer marketers think they have got closer to this, thanks to the clever use of data. As they see it, the world contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information. This makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done: provide fresh insights, spot business trends, unlock sources of economic value.

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Jim Koch of Boston Beer has high hopes for hard seltzers

USA | It was kind of unsettling to hear Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer, only talk about hard seltzers at the US industry gathering, the Beverage Forum, which was held in May. Is beer on the way out, and its continued decline taken for granted, that everybody is painting the future of hard seltzers and a host of Alternative Adult Beverages in glowing hues?

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White Claw’s owner: Hard seltzers could capture 30 percent of US beer

USA | Disruption may be such an overused term. But it perfectly describes what hard seltzers did to the US beer market. At the Beverage Forum, organised by the Beverage Marketing Corporation and conducted online in early May 2021, Anthony van Mandl, 71, the owner of Mark Anthony Brands and maker of White Claw, explained which trends boosted the category.

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Brewers of Europe Forum: Make beer more sustainable, innovative, diverse and responsible

Belgium | It was a big event by any standards. Though conducted virtually over four days, the Brewers of Europe Forum (1–4 June 2021) attracted an unprecedented number of delegates: nearly 2 500 industry members attended the Forum’s 19 sessions, which covered a wide range of topics, from recycling and recovery to innovative brewing techniques, beer styles, marketing and packaging.

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Sour is the new bitter

It’s hard to imagine that the corporate fat cats, aka members of the global business elite, who read Bloomberg Businessweek, regularly go for a sour beer. I mean, can you envisage the Coke-swilling super-investor Warren Buffett ever allowing a Rodenbach Grand Cru to touch his lips?

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Blame it on the consumer for being an enigma

So PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi is “puzzled” by her younger consumers because they seem “confused”? Consumers “confused”? That’s a bit much. But Ms Nooyi would say that, wouldn’t she, as Millennials obstinately refuse to fall for her marketing spin.