Cider education, quality craft, and fresh branding position Angry Orchard as a category leader, year-round, in a typically seasonal category. By Courtney Iseman While much of the beverage alcohol industry is facing pressure, cider is stretching its branches. In 2025, cider volume grew by 1.7% and dollar sales by 2% in off premise channels, per…
How Firestone Walker Balances Legacy with Innovation and Growth. By: Courtney Iseman Firestone Walker Brewing Company turns 30 in 2026 and boasts some of craft beer’s most seminal staples. Simultaneously, they continue to reach new audiences with a focus on flavor and lifestyle-driven beers. There tend to be two different roads to success for businesses:…
Sierra Nevada Builds Balanced Momentum Through Its Core and Innovations. By: Kate Bernot Sierra Nevada occupies rare air within the American beer landscape. It’s the third-largest craft brewery in the country by volume, with the Grossman family still at the helm after 46 years. It’s a trailblazer and pioneer, introducing American palates to expressively hoppy…
By embracing familiar seasonal flavors, Great Lakes creates nostalgic beers with cross-generational appeal. By: Joshua M. Bernstein Few breweries toil as tirelessly as Great Lakes Brewing to make beer that brings festive cheer. To meet massive demand for its spiced Christmas Ale, the Cleveland, Ohio, brewery begins making the honey-infused holiday beer in late July,…
A strategic balance of flagship focus and innovative energy has streamlined Lagunitas’ lineup. By: Courtney Iseman Breweries across the country faced growing challenges in 2024. Consumer interest – and spending – continued to shift toward other categories, especially non-alcoholic beverages, while the cost of doing business kept rising. Against that backdrop, the success of Lagunitas…
A transformative year for the shore’s favorite brewery. By: Courtney Iseman Fourteen years is an impressively long tenure in the tumultuous American craft beer market. New Jersey’s Cape May Brewing Co. has not only survived an explosion of breweries across the United States and the subsequent contraction, but they’ve also been able to count themselves…
Allagash celebrates 30 successful years. By: Courtney Iseman In 1995, Rob Tod set out to give American beer drinkers a new experience. And he succeeded with Allagash White. This beer was (and still is) a satisfyingly bready wheat beer punched up with signature Belgian touches of spicy coriander and bright Curaçao orange peel. Tod hit…
Powered by Winter Seasonals, Great Lakes Delivers Big Holiday Profits By: Joshua M. Bernstein Spring and summer are typically the biggest sales seasons for breweries. For Great Lakes Brewing Company, though, sales go up as the temperature goes down. The Cleveland, Ohio, staple produces an industry-leading portfolio of winter-friendly seasonal beers led by the spiced…
How the hop water category leader continues expanding its audience and innovating. By: Courtney Iseman Hop water is a satisfying scratch for the hop itch during Sober October, but clearly, consumers are clamoring for this product year-round. The category is the second fastest growing in all of craft beer. And much of that growth is…