Atlanta's New Realm Brewing Co closed its Savannah location this wk, just over a year after it initially opened. Recall, the 12K sq-ft, 3-story space included New Realm's first "dedicated" distillery, as well as a brewery, restaurant and more (see Mar 5, 2021 issue). But co also has distilling operations at other outposts and began selling spirits products on-site at its HQ in 2019. While the idea "seemed like a good one" for a popular ATL brewery to open in downtown Savannah, "I don't ever recall seeing it at anything close to capacity," per local report. Article includes image of a sign on the door that reads: "Sorry. This location is now closed. We appreciate your business." No mention made of the 100 employees that New Realm expected to add to the local mkt.

Louisville-based Goodwood Brewing and Spirits has been making craft beer since 2005, branching out to barrel-finished bourbon and rye in 2019. But despite a few bumps in the road, co is still wielding some big ambitions, with 5 current locations, another 5 in planning and a rapidly shifting distribution footprint. Goodwood's beer output swung significantly over last several yrs, and Covid cut production "substantially," ceo/co-founder Ted Mitzlaff told CBN. Yet co's up about 30% yr-to-date, on track to finish 2022 around 8K bbls, he added. And while it still sells far more beer than bourbon, the latter is "growing like crazy."

Tilray is reintroducing Green Flash brand "nationally" via new, revamped West Coast IPA year-round lineup, co announced yesterday morn. New lineup includes flagship West Coast IPA plus "two all-new beers," Imperial West Coast IPA and Hazy West Coast IPA, sold in 12oz cans. Initially, Green Flash is expanding thru CA statewide plus AZ, CO, GA, MN, OH, PA, VA, WI and MN. In Dec, co will launch West Coast IPA variety 24pk at select wholesalers. Then it plans to add 9 additional mkts in early 2023, including AL, CT, DC, IN, MD, MI, NC, SC and TN. And "Green Flash remains focused on bringing its specialty craft ales to new communities from coast to coast," according to release.

Craft brand and SKU counts continue to decline in scan data this yr, according to Nielsen data shared by BWC. There are 379 fewer brands and 720 fewer SKUs YTD thru Oct 1, according to report. That's a 2% decrease in craft brands and 3% dip in SKUs vs last yr. Yet there are still 16,929 brands and 21,576 SKUs total. And there are key outliers. BWC tracked 82 more IPA brands vs last yr altogether. So all other craft brands decreased by 461. Similarly, # of can SKUs increased by 352 while # of bottle SKUs dropped 1,102. Cans now 65 share of craft $$ YTD nationally. Closer to 74 share in Northeast region.

Aside from New Belgium, non-alc co Athletic Brewing has been consistent #2 craft growth family for the better part of the last two yrs, according to separate Nielsen data shared by Bump Williams Consulting in latest Q3 Craft Review. Athletic $$ grew 110% to $32.2 mil in Nielsen AOD data YTD thru Oct 1. That's now larger than Golden Road craft (-3%), Hop Valley (-16%), Karbach craft (-11%) and Wicked Weed (+19%), making it 21st-largest craft brand family in Nielsen channels. It's also neck and neck with Victory, which grew 5% to $33.25 mil. Athletic has 3 of top-13 craft growth brands YTD including Run Wild +86%, Upside Dawn +110% and Free Way +225%. And Athletic Lite is top-25 new craft brand.

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Once again, plaintiffs attys appealed to Supreme Court, hoping to overturn state laws that bar out-of-state retailers to ship wine to in-state consumers. In recent filing, atty James Tanford made much of scathing dissent in case rejected by 4th Circuit over constitutionality of NC cross-border retail shipping ban (see June 2 issue). Recall, similar arguments on behalf of similar plaintiffs made by same attys have been rejected by 3 circuit cts and most recently by OH district ct (see Sep 15 issue), where judge declined to "bake this cake from scratch." But in filing seeking Sup Ct to hear the NC-based case (called "writ of certiorari"), Tanford argues those decisions weren't working with all the ingredients. It emphasized picking up on the high court's language in TN Wine case that defense of state law requires "concrete evidence" of its link to "public health and safety."

Major ecommerce players seek paths to expand their alc bev bizzes, while negotiating evolving regulatory landscape. Last wk, DoorDash announced new alc bev capabilities for its DoubleDash feature, which allows delivery of multiple products from multiple retailers on same consumer order. With new add-on called Drinks, users can now add an alc bev purchase from convenience, grocery or liquor stores to a restaurant food order. Launch follows DoorDash's decision to mandate ID scanning on all orders with alcohol a few mos ago, TechCrunch reminded. Meanwhile, also last wk, competitor Grubhub announced partnership with Gopuff, allowing users to place orders for products, including alc bevs, from the latter's frontless "stores" on the former's familiar digital platform, PYMNTS reported. The moves follow Drizly's launch of in-house ad service and multi-day alc bev delivery service ReserveBar's launch of on-demand delivery, same piece points out. So competition heats up at same time alc bev ecommerce biz works to get back to and grow beyond pandemic highs. And a growing number of states still toil over building best regulatory mechanisms for this evolving piece of the industry.

Big ad in weekly circular for at least some TN stores in Food City chain included all manner of Mountain Dew: Mountain Dew case for $8.99, Mountain Dew Kick Start 5 for $5, Hard Mountain Dew 12-pack for $16.99 and more. And ad made no mention at all that Hard Mountain Dew contains alcohol. Weirdly, just below the Mountain Dew ad, Food City's School Buck$ Challenge appears for the only time in the lengthy circular. "Link your value card online at Foodcity.com/Schoolbuck$ to start earning cash for your school." Hmmm. Don't think Pepsi or Food City mean to be linking Hard Mountain Dew with School Buck$. But it can be confusing what's alcohol and what's not, as several speakers noted at NBWA. Shouldn't there be clearer lines between a soft drink and an alcoholic variant?