As hop growers adjust for new mkt realities, US hop acreage is forecast at 44,543 acres in 2024, down 18% vs last year, US Dept of Agriculture recently shared. WA, the largest acreage state, is expected to slip 15% to just under 33K acres. Idaho is bracing for the steepest decline rate, down 31% to just under 6K acres. And OR growers have 5.6K acres, down 18% vs year ago. USDA organic hops dropping 25% to just 476 acres.

It's a little over a month since BrewDog co-founder James Watt stepped down from his role as CEO to pursue "a few new ventures of my own" to "help nurture fantastic start-ups," among other things. The first of those new endeavors has been revealed. James will launch a new company called "Social Tip, a platform that allows users to become 'influencers' and earn money for promoting brands," reported City A.M. James is already putting his BrewDog Punk fundraising skills to work as Social Tip "secured" about $760K in seed funding from Haatch investment fund along with other angel investors.

Brooklyn Brewery hired industry vet Robert Hodson as its new VP of Sales, co announced this week, marking "a homecoming for Robert" as he returns to Brooklyn "after more than 20 years." Robert started his career with Brooklyn running NYC-based distrib operation, Craft Brewers Guild, initially established and operated by Brooklyn Brewery before it was sold to Sheehan in the early 2000s. Robert's worked at Sheehan Family Cos ever since, transitioning to Union where he "started their craft division as Sales Director," before moving up to corporate brand manager of L. Knife and Son, a position he held for the last 12 yrs. His "extensive experience at CBG, Union Beer, and his corporate role with The Sheehan Family Companies has equipped him with an unparalleled level of knowledge and expertise," wrote Brooklyn in the announcement. "He brings tremendous knowledge and experience to help us navigate the opportunities provided by today's rapidly evolving marketplace," said prexy Robin Ottaway.

Seasonal trends for onsite brewery sales remained relatively consistent since Jan 2021, but they're down slightly in real terms when accounting for inflation and dropped 6% for the first qtr of 2024. So wrote the Brewers Assn's recently hired staff economist Matt Gacioch (who joined team led by BA's Bart Watson in Feb) in first of a 3-part series deep diving into onsite trends via Arryved data. Yet even as gross sales are down, draft beer is gaining share of onsite sales.

Schilling Hard Cider, with ops in Wash State and Ore, is having another strong growth year, up 23% YTD, as exec team shared with our sibling newsletter Craft Brew News last week. The eponymous cider is the biggest part of that story, and the new Schilling Hard Lemonade has come on so strong since its soft launch in Feb that it could prove to be bigger than core line, given that category's scope. But also doing its share is the co's key non-alc play, Schilling Vita Mate, getting greater focus as a key growth avenue in adjacent category where co is "really trying to not compete with ourselves," in words of co-founder/CEO Colin Schilling. All told the co produces over 100K bbls/yr, including its contract-production cider partners.

In more than a few years covering financial news we'd not seen anything like it: a quarterly earnings release that contained not a single number. But that's how can copacker Wildpack Beverage reported its Q1 on Jun 4, in terse release whose only data point was quick note that director Joe Bubel had departed co "to avoid any potential conflicts," whatever that was about. The co had issued the hiding-in-plain-sight release at time LinkedIn has carried postings - some since deleted - about unreliable performance, echoing comments we've heard privately from our own contacts. So how bad was the period for co that trades in Canada under CANS symbol?

James Watt, who recently departed Brewdog after 17 years at helm of renegade brewer he founded, has hung out a shingle as Social Tip, new platform that allows users to become influencers and earn money for promoting brands, with Huel and Dash Water among brands that were quick to sign up. In LinkedIn post, Watt thumbnailed the concept this way: (1) Someone buys something from one of our partner brands, (2) They then post about it positively on social media, (3) Social Tip's proprietary technology works out the value of that post and (4) That person is then rewarded in real cash." He notes that, while BrewDog made a lot of noise, "none of the wildest campaign, craziest stunts or cleverest advertising even came close to the brand building power of genuine peer to peer recommendations." City AM reported that Social Tip has secured £600K in seed funding from British tech early-stage investment fund Haatch and several angel investors . . . John Herman has recruited one of his key C4 Energy colleagues for the new NA beer he's helming in partnership with Imaginary Ventures and yet-undisclosed celeb. Declan Duggan, a Philadelphia-based Guinness and High Brew Coffee vet who spent nearly 6 years at C4 marketer Nutrabolt, has come aboard as svp sales & distribution reporting to Herman, who's based at other end of state in Pittsburgh. Declan, who was encountered at BevNet Live conference in NY last week alongside marketing & commercial vp Jackie Widmann, said team is hopeful they'll be ready to unveil concept in coupla months.

Aluminum-can leader Ball Corp is forecasting 2-3% volume growth and 4-6% operating earnings growth globally from now thru 2030 amid efforts to grow earnings per share 10% yr-over-yr each yr and reach $30 bil mkt cap, execs laid out at its 2024 investor day this afternoon. Co's embarking on its "next chapter" as a "pure play" in aluminum packaging, chmn/CEO Dan Fisher declared. "We believe volumes are returning to normal and growth is returning." But even if volume stabilization takes longer, co has efficiency plans in place to save $500 mil over next 4 yrs while expecting to reduce capex to $650 mil/yr and maintain ~2.5X net debt to EBITDA. As for shorter-term concerns, one that bears watching: the recent slowing in energy drinks in US.

Fresh off making a foray into RTDs, Davids Tea reported a Q1 in which its CPG items struggled even as its remaining base of retail stores rode higher register rings to sales gains in mid-single-digits. The solid gains, for 2d qtr in a row, lend further support to co's plan to double store footprint over next 3 years after radical downsizing in 2020 that included 82 Canadian stores and all 42 US stores. Co currently operates 18 stores, with leases signed on 2 new units in Montreal for this fall.