Atomic Brands has been in the ready-to-drink spirits game since before it was cool. Back when co first launched its Monaco canned cocktails in 2012, plenty of folks "thought we were crazy" or "laughed in our face," founder/ceo Don Deubler told INSIGHTS in a recent chat. But since then it's become a top RTD supplier, continuing to grow and increasingly riding on beer trucks in the process.

Welcome news from National Highway Traffic Safety Admin (NHTSA) last wk as final 2023 data and early estimates for 2024 suggest 2 straight yrs of 4% declines in total motor vehicle crash fatalities. Further, over 1,000 fewer individuals lost their lives in crashYou es that involved an alcohol-impaired driver in 2023, a decline of 7.6%, NHTSA reported. That relatively sharp drop in alcohol-impaired fatalities represented over half of the total 1,820, 4.3% decline in motor vehicle crash deaths that year. With total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) up 1.6%, the rate of alcohol-impaired crash deaths per 100 million VMT declined 9.5% from 0.42 to 0.38. Alcohol-impaired driving deaths declined in 38 states in 2023, down by double digits in 22. Alcohol-impaired totals increased by double-digits in just 3 states plus DC, and all were relatively small population states.

Mich Ultra Zero rapidly became 3d largest NA beer brand in total Fintech data (tracking on and off prem). Sales reached an incremental 7.5 share of NA beer putting it behind just Heineken 0.0 (21.9) and Athletic Run Wild (8.7). It's not all incremental for AB. Mich Ultra Zero appears to be cannibalizing other top AB NA beer brands as Bud Zero (-2.6), Busch NA (-1.6), O'Douls (-1.4) and Stella 0.0 (-0.1) collectively dropped over 5 share of segment. But several of those brands are still growing sales, just losing share of the fast-growing NA beer category. AB's back to gaining share of NAs overall in Q1 2025 thru Mich Ultra Zero and remains the largest NA beer supplier.

TX-based Blue Owl Brewery has been sold to brothers/consultants Ian and Tony Norris, who plan to aggressively market brands locally in bid to raise sour beer specialist's profile among Gen Z, Austin Business Journal reports. Sale price wasn't disclosed. But former owner Jeff Young will stay on as executive brewer, while Norris bros plan to increase marketing for co's Bob's Fine Beers line of non-sour beers "without diluting the Blue Owl brand," per ABJ. Vast majority (90%) of Blue Owl's products are sold through distribution at TX retail stores including H-E-B, Twin Liquors and Thom's Market. Remaining 10% are from taproom but revenue is roughly an even split between the two channels.

Consolidation on the Cape as fast-growing Orleans, MA-based Hog Island Beer agreed to buy Plymouth, MA's Mayflower Brewing. "We are absolutely stoked," Hog Island founder Mike McNamara told Boston 25 News. Mayflower founder Drew Brosseau was looking to retire and feels co is in good hands, he noted to Cape Cod Chronicle. Mayflower operates 2 locations near Plymouth, just across bridge from Cape, which will stay open, and McNamara "doesn't anticipate many changes" to brand. Brosseau is descendant of Mayflower (boat) settlers, who brought first beer to Americas, and Mayflower Compact was written in Provincetown, where McNamara said new location would possibly open to honor history. But otherwise no expansion planned. Was simply looking for complementary space, Mac sez, "and we found it."

Private label beer has never before gotten much traction, but a new round of recent brews appear to have more promise and are getting lotsa media attention. The WSJ looked at trend of private-label beers with brewer's name attached, starting with deep dive on Costco's Kirkland Signature Helles-Style Lager from OR's Deschutes Brewery, which debuted in Nov and immediately became brewer's best-ever seller. Peter Skrbek, CEO of Deschutes, said: "If we tried to tilt this up on our own, it would have taken us 20 years." Fan quoted in article called 4.5% ABV brew "incredible," called cost-to-value "insane." Prior Costco PL offerings didn't "quite hit the mark," sez Russ York, co's alcohol buyer for beer/wine/spirits, despite strong sales and good rep, with exception of Kirkland Signature Light 48pk, nixed in 2018.

Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione will throw out first pitch at Fenway Park today for Red Sox's Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary Night in honor of Rex Foundation, Dead's philanthropic organization. Dogfish's Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale is currently the #10 new 6pk in total beer, co shared citing Circana multioutlet + convenience scans YTD thru Mar 30. It's also the #1 innovation item within Craft Domestic Specialty in the Mid-Atlantic Region over the last 4 wks.

On top of Left Hand's crowdfunding efforts that helped lead to merger with Dry Dock (see above), two other CO cos are lookin' to crowdfunding to help finance future expansions, Axios Denver article pointed out earlier this week.

A couple weeks after announcing their merger, Left Hand and Dry Dock co-founders Eric Wallace and Michelle Reding highlighted the complementary nature of their portfolios and oppy to expand Dry Dock into many more mkts thru Left Hand's network in recently published Westword article. Dry Dock produced approximately 9K bbls in 2024, wrote Westword. That's down nearly 50% vs 2023, per Brewers Assn stats. Significantly impacted by the transition to (and from) Great Divide's facility for production, it seems. "Not having ownership with Great Divide, it caused some problems crossing state lines because we were still our own brand," Michelle told Westword.