Our Top Beer Stories of 2020

10/8/21, 3:57 PM Our Top Beer Stories of 2020 | SevenFifty Daily
BEER
Our Top Beer Stories of 2020

This year’s most-read beer articles focused on breweries’ pandemic
pivots and hard seltzer innovations
written by
SevenFifty Daily Editors

published
December 28, 2020
Photo credit: iStock.
Brewers large and small were forced to radically adapt this year as the COVID-19
pandemic shuttered taprooms, decimated draft beer sales on-premise, and
https://daily.sevenfifty.com/our-top-beer-stories-of-2020/ 1/9
changed consumer purchasing habits. Our most-read features—from the rise of

the Crowler can to the spotlight on creative pandemic-inspired beer labels—
explored these pivots. The beer industry has also made some impressive strides in
sustainability, and readers wanted to know more. And, as the reign of hard seltzer
continues, Joshua Bernstein’s report on how breweries are taking the category in
new directions was a top performer.
5. How Beer Brewers are Embracing Sustainability
Photo courtesy of Sierra Nevada.
From new energy sources to landfill diversion, craft beer is transforming into an
environmentally-friendly industry
If you speak with people in the beer industry about sustainable practices, one
thing quickly becomes clear: Brewing, in general, is not an environmentally
friendly business. [Read more]
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4. Hazy Session IPAs on the Rise
Left: Redhook’s Atomic Robot (photo courtesy of Redhook). Center: Deschutes’s WOWZA! (photo courtesy of
Deschutes). Right: Five Boroughs Brewing’s Juicy Tiny IPA (photo courtesy of Five Boroughs Brewing).
Brewers are finding success with low-ABV versions of a typically higher-proof style
Five Boroughs Brewing faced a seasonal conundrum. Toward the end of Summer
2018, the brewery, based in Brooklyn, New York, needed a beer to bridge warm
days and fall’s coming cool. Maybe a sustaining saison? A midstrength
stout? Another double IPA?
Staffers batted about ideas until a sales guy suggested revisiting Tiny. It was one
of Five Boroughs’s launch beers, offering a hazy IPA’s fruit-charged fragrances,
cloudy hue, and smooth body—but minus the knee-buckling alcohol. “We
decided to go after a hazy session IPA with a ton of flavor but 4 percent ABV,”
says Kevin O’Donnell, the cofounder and chief operating officer of Five
Boroughs, who notes that many hazy IPAs regularly reach 7 percent or 8 percent
ABV. [Read more]
3. How Crowler Cans are Saving Breweries
Photo courtesy of Crowler Nation.
Sales of the large-format beer cans are skyrocketing—a lifeline for businesses now and
in the future
Wild East Brewing Co. started brewing beer in Brooklyn in late December
2019. It distributed a small amount of beer to local shops through February while
working toward opening a taproom in the late spring. And then New York City
shut down.
The new brewery was stuck with kegs of fresh beer and no taproom for people to
drink it in. So Wild East pivoted almost entirely to Crowler sales. By filling 32-
ounce Crowler cans by a draft line and sealing them with a Crowler machine on-
site, the brewery was able to open to the public despite the inability to serve on-
premise. In those first weeks of business in March, Wild East was selling as many
as 250 Crowler cans a weekend. [Read more]
2. Hard Seltzer’s Race to Differentiate
From left to right: Truly (photo courtesy of Truly), White Claw (photo courtesy of White Claw), and Barefoot (photo
courtesy of Barefoot).
How beer and wine producers are pushing the category in new directions
This winter’s NFL playoff season featured a different kind of Budweiser

commercial: Randy Diaz, the fast-talking fictitious mayor of Seltzer,
Pennsylvania, professing affection for Bud Light, as well as another beverage
inside a slim, lanky can.
Surprise! It’s Bud Light Seltzer, a 100-calorie spinoff sold in four fruity flavors
that “taste great,” irrespective of your opinions on low-calorie lager. “If you don’t
love Bud Light, you’ll love Bud Light Seltzer,” promises the mayor.
Within weeks of its launch, the Bud Light–branded seltzer became the third
largest brand in the exploding hard seltzer category. “The seltzer craze is on,” says
Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing for Bud Light. Instead of simply surfing
the wave, he said, “we’re bringing our biggest brand into the category to really
help it grow.”
Brewers large and small are beginning to see seltzer’s potential to “bring people
back into beer from spirits and wine,” says Bud Light’s Goeler. Because the
federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) classifies malt- and
sugar-based hard seltzers as beer, they are taxed and distributed like beer (rules
vary by state). Facing declining sales for its workhorse, Bud Light, Anheuser-
Busch InBev (ABI) has leaned hard into seltzer, with Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer,
Natural Light Seltzer, and now Bud Light Seltzer, which was in development for
18 months. Goeler hopes it has a halo effect on the entire company, reengaging
Bud Light drinkers. He does not see hard seltzer as a soon-to-fade beverage trend
such as alcoholic sodas or root beer: “It’s a reestablishment of the industry.”
[Read more]
1. A Generation of Pandemic-Inspired Beer Labels
From left to right: FVCK COVID beer (photo courtesy of Ale Asylum), 6 Feet Apart beer (photo courtesy of Keg &
Lantern), and Survivalist beer (photo courtesy of Proclamation Brewing).
How breweries are highlighting social distancing and stay-at-home orders

with creative packaging
Back in mid-March, Ale Asylum cofounder Otto Dilba began cursing
the pandemic. “I was walking around with the staff joking that we
should make a beer called Fuck COVID,” says Dilba, whose brewery
taproom in Madison, Wisconsin, was closed to help slow the novel
coronavirus’s spread.
The joke became a call to action. On April 13, the brewery started
statewide distribution of a light-drinking pilsner labeled FVCK
COVID. Profits from beer sales will be donated to charity. Shortly after
release, the brewery received unprecedented demand for its beer,
including requests to ship cans countrywide. “Very, very rarely in life
do you get 100 percent of the population behind something,” Dilba
says.
Over the past few months, breweries have been using beer can labels
to highlight our ongoing epidemiological uncertainty, stay-at-home
orders, and social distancing. [Read more]
tags
Beer
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10/8/21, 3:57 PM Our Top Beer Stories of 2020 | SevenFifty Daily

SevenFifty Daily Editors

December 28, 2020

Photo credit: iStock.

changed consumer purchasing habits. Our most-read features—from the rise of

5. How Beer Brewers are Embracing Sustainability

Photo courtesy of Sierra Nevada.

4. Hazy Session IPAs on the Rise

3. How Crowler Cans are Saving Breweries

Photo courtesy of Crowler Nation.

2. Hard Seltzer’s Race to Differentiate

This winter’s NFL playoff season featured a different kind of Budweiser

1. A Generation of Pandemic-Inspired Beer Labels

How breweries are highlighting social distancing and stay-at-home orders

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