Like the old days at the Great American Beer Festival, Boston Beer "dominated" at the World Beer Awards in UK last week. It won a buncha awards for best light (Sam American Light), best low-and-no alc beer (Just the Haze), best amber lager (you guessed it) and Best Golden Ale (Sammy Summer). This comes just after new ceo Michael Spillane acknowledged that Boston didn't emphasize its beers enuf in recent yrs (especially on draft) as it rode Truly and Twisted to new heights (More recently Boston declined as Truly sank at such steep rates). Can these awards help Boston regain its footing in craft beer? That of course is foundation company originally built on. But beer only about 10% of Boston volume now.

A couple of months after Gallo bought Montucky Cold Snacks, it has chosen to go with "the region's largest total alcohol distributor," Columbia Distributing said in release, for the Montucky brands. But Columbia's words clearly no accident. With Gallo going more and more into a total alc bev model itself, Columbia clearly seeks to reap more rewards and an expanded partnership down the road. "We're proud that GALLO has trust in our Total Beverage Platform," said Columbia ceo Chris Steffanci, "built to grow brand awareness and reach new consumers." Gallo quietly moved Montucky Cold Snacks in many other mkts across the country since acquiring the brand in May.

Reliably, a little less than 2/3 of American adults age 18+ say they "have occasion" to drink. This year, just 58% said so, results of annual Gallup poll show. That's just 5 points off the long-term average of 63%. But it's the first time since 1996 (and just the 14th out of 66 surveys since 1939) that the reading has fallen outside the 8-pt range of 59-67%. And it's entirely almost driven by young adults, age 18-34. Just 50% of those folks said they drink, down 8 pts from last yr. A much larger 70% of 35-54 yr olds say they drink, up 4 pts.

As for Molson Coors, at least some "Atwater, Hop Valley, Revolver and Terrapin employees will transition to Tilray," cco Michelle St Jacques wrote in communication to distribs, along with others exiting the co from Tenth & Blake and supporting functions. "Among those leaving the company will be Jeff Agase, VP of Tenth & Blake" who spent over 14 yrs with MC. In a corresponding move, AC Golden will also close, "and we will wind down operations by the end of September."

Erythritol has just gotten another bad rap from respected researchers at Cleveland Clinic. This time it concerns doubled risk of blood clotting, via pilot study that involved 10 healthy people, as CNN Health and other outlets reported. The concern is that clots can break off blood vessels and travel to the heart, triggering a heart attack, or to the brain, triggering a stroke, as CNN noted. That's on top of earlier study at Clinic that linked the ingredient to a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and death. Tho that study drew burst of attention last year (BBI, Mar 1 2023), it didn't appear sustained, tho some brands, like Lemon Perfect, abandoned sweetener at time that stevia alternative continues to log improvements. As modest as it is in scope, will new study bring renewed assessments by food/bev marketers? Certainly, initial observations by research team seemed alarming. "What is remarkable is that in every single subject, every measure of platelet responsiveness (clotting) went up following the erythritol ingestion," said lead study author Dr Stanley Hazen, who directs Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics & Prevention at Cleveland ClinicLerner Research Institute. Since consuming a bev with an equal amount of glucose didn't affect blood platelet activity in another group of 10 people, "glucose doesn't impact clotting, but erythritol does," Dr Hazen said.

Dr Lance Li, who worked closely with VPX Sports' Jack Owoc on successful brands like Redline and Bang Energy before that co spiraled into bankruptcy and a forced sale, has launched a product line of his own: collagen shot brand called My Liquid Youth Collagen Elixir. Unusually for ecomm brand, it's packaged in 50-ml glass bottles and contains clean formulation of 5 mg of marine collagen peptides and hyaluronic acid, which helps keep skin flexible. Brand's liposomal tech is claimed to double its bioavailability. With sweetening by erythritol and stevia, it comes in at 50 calories per shot. It's initially being offered on Amazon and as DTC item in Very Berry and Passionfruit flavors at price of $59.90 per 10-pk. "Discover your true youth," as website exhorts.

Congo Brands, which is wrestling with steep decline in demand for Prime Hydration even as it's landed in court over alleged failure to honor take-or-pay contract with mega-copacker Refresco (BBI, Aug 5), has been shipping some wholesalers short-coded product, we hear. One distrib reported that all but newest flavors are entering his warehouse with only a couple of months code left on them. Congo is instructing its distrib partners to sell thru the old flavors first, then switch retail customers to the newer ones. "Like that's so easy," he joked. That seems particularly true since newer items seem to continue to be embraced by shoppers, even as legacy flavors move more slowly . . . Activist investor named Starboard Value has taken minority stake in beleaguered Starbucks, upping pressure on management team led by new CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who's presided over sagging sales in US and China. Word of investment, first reported by Wall St Jnl, follows earlier move by Elliott Management into SBUX shares. It's been reported to have been in discussions with gigaroaster's board over settlement that would give it a board seat or two while maintaining Narasimhan in leadership role for now. Note that while Starbucks has suffered from onerous comparisons to fast-growing insurgent chains like Dutch Bros, Dutch Bros shares too have lately been tanking in turbulent market, despite turning in solid Q2 performance that saw same-store sales growth and little of price resistance Starbucks claims to be encountering.

Turnover continues in top leadership role at coffee giant JDE Peet's, with board appointing CFO Scott Gray to serve as interim CEO for departing interim CEO Luc Vandevelde, who abruptly stepped down "due to unforeseen matters that require his immediate attention." Vandevelde, who stepped in for Fabien Simon, who departed abruptly in late Mar without public explanation (BBI, Mar 8), isn't vanishing from scene: he'll take role as senior advisor to controlling shareholder JAB "with the time he does have available," per JAB chmn Peter Harf, who now picks up Vandevelde's chmn role on interim basis. Gray joined co in early 2020 after 11-yr run in finance roles at Anheuser-Busch InBev. As for Simon, his LinkedIn profile lists him as "self-employed" since Apr. JDE had commenced search for successor immediately after his departure and co today said review of both internal and external candidates is "nearing completion, and the company intends to provide an update to the market later this year." Meanwhile, Harf assured investors that despite the turmoil, "JAB has strong conviction in the long-term growth prospects of JDE Peet's, and we are fully committed to our investment in the world's leading pure-play coffee and tea company" . . . As Zevia natural soda gropes its way toward DSD strategy, CEO Amy Taylor has reached out to a former Red Bull colleague who was steeped in distribution issues to sit on her board. Hopping aboard last week was Alexandre Ruberti, a 16-yr Red Bull North America vet who served as chief commercial officer and prexy of its in-house Red Bull Distribution Co. Since Apr he's been serving as managing dir for Americas and US gm for hydration cube marketer Waterdrop. In Mar he departed board of Celsius after 3-yr run. Among bev-specific experience that made him attractive addition to board Amy cited "his depth of knowledge and experience in distribution and in designing competitive route-to-market partnerships." As we've been chronicling, after relying for 16 years on multipacks sold warm in grocery, Zevia has been aiming to better penetrate the nooks & crannies of bev retail and foodservice without undermining price point that's not too much higher than conventional CSDs.