Beer Marketer's Insights - Voodoo, Athletic Over 1/2 of High-ABV, NA Craft and Gaining; Big Brand Fams Growing in NA

Mid-strength craft brands may still dominate the segment, but they're losing ground quickly to high-ABV and non-alcoholic entries, 1st qtr review of NIQ off-premise data by Bump Williams Consulting illustrates. Over 63 share of craft $$ remains in the 4-7% ABV range, BWC deck shows. But that majority of the segment shed 2.7 share on a mid-single-digit decline YTD thru Mar 30. In high-ABV, 9% is the sweet spot. Craft brands between 9% and 9.9% ABV grew 25% in Q1, grabbed another 2.5 share of segment $$ to 12.1. All stronger craft brands collectively down a little bit, but holding at about 1.4 share. On the other end of the spectrum, non-alc craft jumped 61% in 1st 3 mos of the yr, picking up 1.6 share of craft $$ to 4.1. Recall, total craft $$ off a slight 0.3% YTD in this data. Assorted ABV pkgs (i.e. vty pks) make up most of the rest of the segment, -10% at about 12 share.Leaders in craft's bifurcation are well known at this point. The 4 largest New Belgium Voodoo Ranger brands grew 37% as a group in Q1 NIQ scans and neared 70% of NBB $$ (+11.3 pts). They're also 53 share of total craft high-ABV $$ (9% ABV and up), BWC deck shows. Gained 5.7 share of high-ABV craft already this yr. Meanwhile, Athletic sports similar dominance in craft NA. It gained 1.8 share to 53.7 share of craft NA $$ YTD, including co's Daypack seltzers.NA Already 10% of Sam Adams, Lagunitas $$; Sierra, Blue Moon Biggest Craft NA Share Gainers Movement into non-alc by some of biggest craft brand fams is noticeably impacting their bizzes so far this yr. Led by Just the Haze IPA, Sam Adams is easily the #2 craft brand fam in craft NA, +52% to $4.7 mil in Q1. Total Sam Adams brand fam up 0.5% to $44.3 mil. So tho Sam Adams lost share of craft NA, non-alc is already 10.6% of brand fam $$ for 3 mos. Lagunitas, #3 in craft NA at just over $4 mil in Q1 sales, is in a similar boat. Its NA biz is up just 4.5%, with Hoppy Refresher more than doubling, offsetting losses for IPNA. So co shed 4.3 share of craft NA $$ to 7.9, but NA is now 10% of its biz.Consider 2 even bigger craft brand families overall, both making bigger splashes in NA early this yr. Sierra Nevada's total biz is up 3% in NIQ off-premise scans so far this yr. And its NA biz is up 236% to $2.5 mil, about 3% of brand fam $$. Almost 60% of its NA $$ are brand new Trail Pass brands, IPA and Golden, boosted by strong growth for Hop Splash hop waters. So Sierra picked up 2.6 share of craft NA to 4.9, now the #4 player there. And the non-alc version of Blue Moon got close to $2.2 mil in 3 mos, an incremental 4.3 share of craft NA. In next tier, #6 player HOP WTR (+103%) and #7 Best Day (+212%) each picked up significant share. Tho lots of NA brand fams grew quickly, other share gainers in the space include Fremont (mostly incremental 0.7 share) and Industrial Arts (+119% at 0.3 share).High-ABV More of a Mixed Bag: Monkeys Over 85% of Victory $$; Ups and Downs Behind NBB's Voodoos, AB's Goose Island Beer Hugs are the other big gainers in high-ABV craft brands, BWC deck shows. A pair of the Goose variants grew about 44%, to 5.4 share of total high-ABV craft $$ (9+% ABV). That's about the same share held by 4 of Victory's Monkeys, tho that group collectively dipped 1.2% for 3 mos, shedding 1.3 share of high-ABV craft. For Sierra, Big Little Thing is still #5 high-ABV brand, down almost 20%, but Atomic Torpedo is rising quickly, +120% and more than making up for BLT's drop. Lagunitas Maximus is #6 high-ABV craft brand, +16%, another bright spot in that brand fam's portfolio.Trends for other top high-ABV brands are all over the map. Dogfish Head 90 Minute (#9) declined 9% by $$, while New Holland Dragons Milk (#10) slipped 3.6%. Behind some NBB, Victory and Goose brands, Pelican Beak Breaker (-10%), North Coast Old Rasputin (-9%) and Hop Valley Alpha Centauri (-14%) struggled. But 10 Barrel All Ways Down (+42%), Ninkasi Megalodom (+172%), Devils Backbone 16 Point (+17%) and Stone Delicious Double IPA (+114%) found strong growth.

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Voodoo, Athletic Over 1/2 of High-ABV, NA Craft and Gaining; Big Brand Fams Growing in NA

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