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Monster plans to launch its first flavored malt beverage RTD alcohol product at the end of the year, promising a drink that will ‘carve out its own unique space’ in the increasingly crowded sector. And the company signals that this will be more than a one-off, with several other product lines in development.

At-home drinking is here to stay, according to a new report from IRI Beverage Alcohol Research. With inflation concerns and on-premise challenges, consumers are opting to indulge at home – and these conditions are impacting growth opportunities, putting a premium on innovation, and affecting everything from e-commerce strategy to packaging and premiumization.

This month Japas Cervejaria Co-Founders Maíra Kimura, Yumi Shimada, and Fernanda Ueno will travel the United States together for the first time on a whirlwind east-to-west coast trip that includes pop-up events, beer collaborations, and distributor meetings. This all-female, Nipo-Brazilian trio hopes to share its passion, craft, and culture with the United States and beyond.

Ongoing disruptions to breweries’ supply of carbon dioxide have made national news on the heels of a decision by Massachusetts-based Night Shift Brewing to outsource most beer production in part because it was unable to source the gas needed to carbonate its beer. Combined with higher costs breweries are already paying for items like aluminum, malt, and packaging materials, the burden of having less CO2, paying more for it, or not being able to carbonate and sell as much beer as planned represents a crisis for breweries’ profit margins.

As consumers face higher costs for nearly everything they buy, there have been reports of shoppers trading down to cheaper brands in different food and beverage categories, including beer. But not all beer makers are seeing a wholesale switch to economy brands.

Breweries have already been facing higher costs for raw materials like aluminum and barley as a result of inflation. Craft breweries across America have been on the front lines of businesses facing higher material costs because of inflation. Now, many are confronting a shortage of a key ingredient: carbon dioxide, the gas that gives beer its crisp, effervescent taste. And one brewer has already said it plans to shut down a key manufacturing plant and lay off workers as a result.

The Malaysian government has formally gazetted new restrictions on the labeling of zero alcohol beverages and updated specific ingredient contents and nutrition claims for all food and beverages.

WISEACRE Brewing Company today announces its plans to launch statewide distribution throughout Texas in August 2022. Thanks to a new distribution partnership with Austin-based Dynamo Distributing, three of WISEACRE’s year-round beers, Bow Echo Hazy IPA, Gotta Get Up to Get Down Coffee Milk Stout, and the Great American Beer Festival Bronze Medal-winning Tiny Bomb Pilsner, as well as a rotating seasonal beer lineup (which currently features Oktoberfest), will be available at throughout Texas, including close to 200 H-E-B locations in the four major metro areas of the state.

Canpack S.A., part of the Canpack Group, will increase its manufacturing capacity of aluminum beverage cans with a new production facility in Poços de Caldas, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Royal Unibrew will acquire Toronto-based company Amsterdam Brewery Co. Ltd. for $44m CAD ($34m USD); helping boost production in North America.