🎶 A Round With Rhythm Brewing's Alisa Bowens-Mercado

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• 🎶 A Round With Alisa Bowens-Mercado
  
• 👨‍💼 Zach Keeling Officially CEO of Sapporo-Stone
• 📉 Spirits Downturn Hits Brown-Forman
• 🗣️ Bonus Pod: Jack’s Abby, Von Ebert & Julie Rhodes
  
• 🎙️ ICYMI: Anchor, Monster and Boston Beer
• 🍺 BeerBoard: Draft Beer Memorial Day Trends
• 📣 New Brewbound Live Speakers Announced

Alisa Bowens-Mercado is on a mission to make Rhythm Brewing the first nationally distributed beer brand owned by a woman of color. She discusses that goal and all the stops along the way, including a pop-up summer beer garden in the brewery’s hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, and ready-to-drink espresso martinis, in the latest installment of Insider-exclusive A Round With. 

In addition to being the founder, brewmaster and CEO of Rhythm, Alisa is a founding board member of the National Black Brewers Association (NB2A) and Change in the Air (CITA), a Connecticut-based foundation that aims to diversity craft beer.

Here’s a snippet of the Q&A: 

You presciently founded Rhythm Brewing in 2018 after realizing there was a gap in the craft market for easy-drinking lagers. What was your selling story back then? Did you ever think the rest of craft would catch up to you in realizing drinkers were looking for lager?

Alisa: In 2018, immediately after the launch of Rhythm Brewing Co., our selling story was “it’s local and it’s the new taste of lager.” In the midst of the New England IPA craze, we were passionate about offering consumers a renewed or newfound appreciation of traditional lager styles.

Many in the industry said we were taking a risk in launching an all lager brand. Our response was: "We'll see about that – everyone's palate needs a break.” Sure enough, after attending several craft beer festivals and hosting tastings, we realized beer drinkers were craving styles that were easy drinking with a lower ABV. That’s when we knew we had gotten ahead of the curve.

You’re a founding member of the National Black Brewers Association’s (NB2A) board of directors. What has this experience been like? 

Alisa: Building more seats to bring to the table is a philosophy that I live by. This experience has been life-altering. I'm a part of an association that will live on through the efforts of many to follow.

What else does Rhythm have planned for the back half of 2024?

Alisa: We are looking forward to more than a dozen beer festivals, tri-state tastings, and extending our distribution in the Northeast. We're on a mission to become the country's first nationally distributed beer brand owned by a minority woman founder. We are dedicated to tapping into an untapped demographic. 

We will be producing additional lagers, and we have an espresso martini RTD launching at the end of this month.

Insiders can read more from Alisa, including how family members’ love of lager inspired her to start Rhythm. 

Sapporo-Stone Brewing is officially making Zach Keeling its new CEO. 

Keeling was appointed interim CEO in January when then-CEO Maria Stipp stepped down from the role after guiding the Escondido, California-headquartered brewery through its 2022 acquisition by the Japanese brewing giant and through its integration. 

Keeling previously served as CFO and VP of strategy. The company credited him with establishing the integrated company’s “long-term strategic plans.”

In the announcement, Keeling said: “Sapporo-Stone is on an impressive trajectory, and I’m honored to lead this talented team toward becoming a top 10 brewery by volume in the U.S. I’m committed to driving our growth while prioritizing people and culture.”

In 2023, Sapporo-Stone ranked as the 12th largest U.S. brewery by volume. 

Insiders can dig into Sapporo-Stone’s trends.

Brown-Forman announced Wednesday an -8% decline in reported net sales to $1 billion in Q4 FY 2024, driven by lower volumes of tequila and whiskey, and the broader slowdown in the spirits industry.

For the full year, the company’s reported net sales decreased -1% to $4.2 billion compared to the same prior-year period. 

Reported gross profit increased +1% for the full year with gross margin expansion of 150 basis points to 60.5%. The increase in gross margin was driven by price increases and lower supply chain costs, which helped counter higher material costs such as agave and wood barrels.

RTDs overall delivered net sales growth of +2% for the full year. Sales of the Jack Daniel’s RTD portfolio declined -6% driven by lower volumes of Jack Daniel’s & Cola RTD, partially offset by the switch out with the launch of the Coca-Cola collaboration.

Insiders can go deeper into Jack Daniel’s trends, Brown-Forman’s tequila performance and other spirits brands.

On a special bonus episode of the Brewbound Podcast, we talk a lot about lagers and marketing.  

First, Jack Hendler and Joe Connolly discuss their book – Modern Lager Beer: Techniques, Processes and Recipes – and producers’ growing interest in craft lagers. Hendler is one of the co-founders of Jack’s Abby, a Massachusetts-based lager brewery, and Connelly is the brewery’s sales director.

Then, Von Ebert Brewing’s Sam Pecoraro dishes on the Portland, Oregon brewery’s increased focus on lager, takeover of the former Ecliptic Brewing space and its five taproom locations.

The show wraps with an interview with Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions’ Julie Rhodes talking shop on marketing, including the importance of personal connections and native digital marketing campaigns.

Listen here or on your podcast platform of choice.

In the episode released earlier this week, the Brewbound team recaps the latest major headlines, starting with the billionaire founder of Chobani acquiring Anchor Brewing. Justin, Jess and Zoe share whether they foresaw this scenario playing out.

Following the Anchor talk, they dig into the rumors of a potential acquisition of Boston Beer by Suntory. 

The news wraps with a conversation on Monster Brewing’s shutdown of the Deep Ellum brewery and taproom in Texas. 

The show also features a 3-pack of interviews with:

• Monday Night Brewing co-founder and CEO Jeff Heck on operating multi-state taprooms;
• Dan Imdieke and Jason Pratt, the new owners of Cicerone, on their future plans for the certification program;
• And Rob Day on the importance of marketing, especially in a maturing craft beer market. 

Listen here or on your podcast platform of choice.

Draft beer recorded gains in both volume (+12%) and dollar sales (+32%) year-over-year (YoY) during Memorial Day weekend, on-premise data firm BeerBoard reported. 

BeerBoard wrote: “Despite less-than-desirable weather across most of the U.S. over 2024 Memorial Day weekend, on-premise performance data shows a promising increase in not only the amount of draft beer consumed, but also overall sales when compared to last year.” 

Craft beer accounted for a plurality of draft dollar sales (44%), while light lagers were the most poured by volume (41%). Molson Coors’ Blue Moon Belgian White was the most poured craft offering overall, and New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA was the most poured IPA, BeerBoard wrote. 

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) Michelob Ultra was the No. 1 draft beer overall and recorded volume gains of +13.8% compared to Memorial Day weekend in 2023. 

Molson Coors’ Miller Lite and Coors Light swapped places, ending the weekend at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Miller Lite’s volume declined -5% YoY, while Coors Light’s volume dropped -14.5%, according to BeerBoard. 

Draft volume of Constellation Brands’ Modelo Especial increased +13.8% to make it the No. 4 beer on draft, the best-selling import and No. 2 beer overall, when packaged sales were included. 

Draft volume for A-B’s Bud Light declined -6% YoY, dropping one spot to the No. 5 draft beer overall during the holiday weekend.

Brewbound is excited to announce three additional speakers for the Brewbound Live business conference December 11 and 12 in Marina del Rey, California. 

The two-day conference will bring together leaders from all three tiers for business-focused conversations on driving the bev-alc industry forward, data presentations, networking and brand building at the Marina del Rey Marriott. 

Joining the speaker roster are:

• Arthur Moye, owner and CEO of Full Circle Brewing;
• Kaleigh Theriault, director of thought leadership, beverage alcohol vertical, NIQ;
• Brian “BK” Krueger, VP of business development and portfolio strategies, Bump Williams Consulting.

They join previously announced speakers include: 

• Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner, Russian River Brewing;
• Peter Skrbek, CEO, Deschutes Brewery;
• Lester Jones, chief economist and VP of analytics, National Beer Wholesalers Association;
• Jennifer Hauke, founder and president, Draftline Technologies.

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. Interested in speaking? Follow this link to see our speaker guidelines. 

In addition to the mainstage programming and networking parties, Brewbound Live will feature opportunities for one-to-one conversations between brewers and bev-alc brands and retail buyers from chains such as Whole Foods Market. Registered attendees will be considered for meetings with buyers, as space is limited. Find out more details here.

Brewbound Live tickets are available now.