Ceria Founder Also Says Non-Alcoholic Beer Market Will Rival Craft Brew Market
June 23, 2022
Keith Villa, the PhD brewmaster who created Blue Moon almost three decades ago
for Coors Brewing, is credited with using that beer to help introduce scores of consumers to more flavorful craft brews. Blue Moon was a gateway brew for light beer drinkers who would eventually consume everything from IPAs to Saisons as craft beer went mainstream during 2000s. In recent years, Villa has been toiling away on his latest gateway project: cannabis- infused and alcohol-free beers. Villa’s company, Ceria Brewing, relaunched its beers with
a new look this month after first introducing the brand in 2018. Villa uses a proprietary process to get Ceria’s beers to 0.0% ABV. Ceria’s lineup includes a Belgian-style white ale called Grainwave (Villa’s latest Blue Moon) and an IPA called Indiewave. Versions of these alcohol-free beers with psychoactive THC and non-psychoactive CBD are available at licensed marijuana dispensaries in Colorado and California, where the recreational use of cannabis is permitted. The beers have less than 100 calories per 12-oz can. A six-pack of Ceria’s alcohol- free beer sells for about $10. THC versions sell at regulated cannabis dispensaries for about $6 - $8 per can, plus taxes. Given the growing interest in low- and no-alcohol beers and cannabis-infused beverages, BD took the opportunity to discuss both segments with Villa, who runs the company with his wife Jodi Villa, who is CEO. The following has been edited for length and clarity...
I’m a skeptic when it comes to non-alcoholic craft beers, spirits, and wines. How big can this market get without the functional benefits of alcohol, especially when sold at about the same price?
I recently posed the question to Athletic Brewing Co-founder and CEO Bill Shufelt during a panel I moderated for Credit Suisse in New York. His non-alcoholic beer brand has raised more than $70 million since launching in 2018 and accounts for almost half of the still-small US non-alcoholic beer market. Shufelt told me that most of his consumers don’t shun alcohol. Sometimes they just need a break and they like beer. He sees lots
One of the big themes BD will mine this year is the new aggressive approach by non-alcoholic beverage powerhouses to find revenue growth in the alcohol beverage market. What appeared last year to be an experiment is quickly looking like strategy.
Of particular interest now are the divergent paths taken by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Monster Beverage, spurred by the fragmented nature of the US alcohol distribution system.
Coke has quickly expanded its Topo Chico licensing test started a year ago with Molson Coors. That deal now includes Simply, a household name in the chilled juice segment. And Coke has partnered with a second brewer and spirits company, Constellation Brands, to create a canned cocktail headlined by Fresca. In both cases, distribution will be handled by the brewers’ networks.
PepsiCo’s go-to-market strategy couldn’t be more different than Coke’s. The company has opted to build its own alcohol distribution and merchandising network around a flavored malt beverage called Hard Mtn Dew. (Be sure to check out our Blue Cloud map published last month and available only to subscribers.) Boston Beer will develop and produce the drink under license from PepsiCo.
Former Coca-Cola Innovation Partner Building Presence for Howie’s Spiked Brand
July 29, 2021
As the crossover between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage distribution and product development heats up, BD caught up with longtime beverage entrepreneur Larry Trachtenbroit to see what lessons he’s learned after making the transition. Trachtenbroit sold a ready-to-drink coffee business to Coke for more than $5 million 20 years ago before going on to create a beverage innovation shop called Brain Twist that counted Coca-Cola as an investor. More than five years ago, he switched fully to alcohol beverages. He co-founded his current venture FS Beverages with former global ocean shipping industry executive Greg Howard, who is president. FS Beverages is building sales and distribution for a line of alcohol-infused cherries, teas, lemonades, and coffees under a brand called Howie’s Spiked. The flagship product, Howie’s Spiked Cherries, is distributed in 15 Midwestern, Southern, and East Coast markets. The distribution network includes at least 30 independent Anheuser Busch-aligned distributors, as well as other independent wholesale distributors. The company generated revenue of $1.5 million in 2020 after growth of +28%, according to Howard. With the introduction of a spiked coffee called Alc-A-Chino later this year, revenue is expected to approach $2 million in 2021...
Ritual Zero Proof Co-founder Marcus Sakey Discusses Burgeoning Category. ‘Mad Cooking,’ Not ‘Mad Science.’
October 15, 2019
In 2015, UK-based Seedlip pioneered a now small but fast-growing category of distilled non-alcoholic drinks that mimic spirits. Sometimes referred to as “alternative spirits,” these drinks have tapped into the growing consumer desire for low- or no-alcohol bar choices. The alternative spirits category is far less defined in the US, which is why startup Ritual Zero Proof caught our attention after its launch last month. According to co-founder and crime novelist Marcus Sakey, Ritual soon will announce “significant” funding from a strategic investor. We reached out to Sakey to learn more about the category. The following interview is edited for clarity and space...
Coca-Cola’s Venturing & Emerging Brands unit is experimenting with a new non-alcoholic adult sparkling beverage called Bar None. VEB created the ready-to-drink product for people who don’t wish to indulge during “occasions when alcohol is usually served,” a spokeswoman said. Bar None is essentially a line of bottled premium “mocktails” that mimic popular cocktails, providing temporary or permanent abstainers with a more interesting alternative than club soda or non-alcoholic beer. A website