Coors Light Signs as Official Beer Sponsor of IU Athletics

Indiana University Athletics announced a new partnership with Molson Coors Beverage Co. that will make Coors Light the exclusive domestic beer sponsor of IU Athletics beginning with the 2022-23 season.

The multi-year sponsorship agreement was secured by IU Athletics multimedia rightsholder Learfield.

As part of the agreement, Molson Coors will be able to utilize IU’s script mark in its promotion, and it will be a visible part of the gameday experience at various IU athletics venues, including Memorial Stadium. The Rooftop at the Rock presented by Indiana Kitchen, located in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium, will include a Molson Coors branded beer garden. In addition to those facility-related items, IU Athletics’ new partner will also have increased visibility on IU Athletics’ official social and digital platforms, and on the IU Radio Network.

Molson Coors has also established a $10,000 annual grant earmarked to support Indiana University and Bloomington community campaigns and initiatives centered on responsible drinking.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Owner to Buy Wigle Whiskey

Bob Nutting, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ogden Newspapers Inc., has agreed to buy Wigle Whiskey and its sister company, Threadbare Cider & Mead from the Meyer family.  Terms weren’t disclosed.

Wigle Whiskey is among the biggest 10% of craft distilleries nationally and sells whiskeys, other spirits and ready to drink cocktails in Pennsylvania and nine other states.

Nutting has prior food and beverage experience, having owned and operated Seven Springs Mountain Resort and its sister resort, Hidden Valley.  Those properties were sold in December to Vail Resorts Inc. for $121 million.

Another long-time Pittsburgh firm, Penn Brewery, also announced its sale this week.  Stefan Nitsch, a real estate operator, is the buyer. The current owners are retiring.  Terms weren’t disclosed.

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MurLarkey Distilled Spirits to Invest $8.1 Million to Expand Output 8-Fold

MurLarkey Distilled Spirits will invest nearly $8.1 million to move from Bristow, Va., to a new facility in Manassas  where it will expand production eight-fold.

The large new distillery and tasting room will be on the campus of Farm Brew LIVE in Innovation Park, Manassas. The 12-acre entertainment area, owned by Marcus Silva of Villagio Hospitality Group, is home to 2Silos Brewing, the Black Sheep restaurant, and a live music venue, drawing over 10,000 visitors weekly.

The company sources 100% of its grain from Virginia farms and over the next three years this project will lead to an additional $429,860 (885,000 pounds) in purchases of Virginia-grown grains.

“What started as a second career / family business has evolved into something which truly touches people, something broader reaching; much more than a craft spirits brand,” said  said MurLarkey CEO Thomas Murray.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with Prince William County and MurLarkey Distilled Spirits to secure this project for Virginia with a $250,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which Prince Williams County will match with local funds. This is Prince William County’s first ever AFID Facility Grant award, an economic development tool to help localities support new and expanding agriculture- and forestry-based businesses.

Founded in 2013 by brothers Mike and Jim Larkin and their cousin Tom Murray, MurLarkey Distilled Spirits is a family-owned business using exclusively Virginia-grown corn, rye and barley to produce award-winning spirits representative of the founders’ Irish heritage.  Through the work of Jim Larkin their COO and Master Distiller George “Papi” Zwetkow, MurLarkey has earned dozens of top awards for their spirits and their visitor experience.

The company also received Prince William County’s 2020 Human Rights Award for providing more than 3,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to the community during the pandemic. In addition to supporting Virginia farmers through a major increase in production, the company will continue to offer all its spent grain to local farmer’s free-of-charge for use as cattle feed.

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Why We’re Seeing Those Studies About the Cost of Drinking Now

As all corporate communicators know, there are times when you have a better chance of getting your message into the media and, more importantly, having it noticed.  And there are times to put out bad news.  For example, Washington politicians and corporate officials put out bad news late on Friday afternoons because no one reads Saturday morning papers and viewership is way down on TV and digital media on Friday afternoon and late Friday.

Same thing is true at this point in the summer.  We just about at the point where kids will be returning to school, so a lot of families are at the beach or heading to the beach.  Congress is rushing to head home. In short, there’s going to be little “hard” news.  So it’s a great time to get better play for a story such as one that appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was picked up by newspapers in Minnesota.

The study concludes that the “societal cost of alcohol use in Minnesota in 2019 was nearly $8 billion or $1,383 per resident.”  That works out, the study tells us, to $2.86 per drink.  It notes that “excessive drinking is the most harmful, incurring substantial costs owing to premature death, injury and violence, crime, property damage, disease, and lost productivity. Binge drinking, the costliest form of alcohol consumption, continues at high rates. A recent study estimated that over 17% of U.S. adults self-reported binge drinking weekly and consumed an average of 7 drinks per binge drinking episode.

It goes on the promote “evidence-based prevention strategies to reduce alcohol use include increased alcohol taxes, enhanced enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to minors, and electronic screening and brief intervention.”

One of the points of this study is that “the economic burden from excessive alcohol use for state and local governments far exceeded the alcohol tax revenue collected. In 2019, Minnesota collected $97,716,000 in liquor gross receipt taxes (2.5% of sales) and $93,553,000 from alcoholic beverage taxes (also called excise taxes) for a total of just over $190 million.  This tax revenue is about 10% of the costs estimated to be borne by the state and local governments in Minnesota owing to excessive alcohol use. ” This sort of calculation, of course, is used to justify attempts to raise bev/al taxes.

What we found particularly interesting was the statement, buried at the bottom of the study, that adult rates of alcohol use and binge drinking have increased nationwide over the past decade, which would seem to be an attempt by antialcohol forces to respond to the demonstrated dramatic drop in underage consumption over the past 40 years.

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What We’re Reading —

Wine Comes for Whiskey’s Indian Crown

Whiskey has always been king in India, but Covid sparked changes in this huge, untapped market. (Wine-Searcher)

CEO Corner: A Sparkling Conversation With Veuve Clicquot’s Jean-Marc Gallot

Why he decided to celebrate the brand’s 250th anniversary with a VIP trip aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, and the other surprises in store for the 250th.

Power couple: How premium lights and hard seltzers work together at retail

Premium lights and hard seltzers work together, growing basket size and bringing in new consumers. Three-quarters of consumers buy across segments, and a third of premium light buyers also purchase hard seltzer. (Molson Coors Beyond the Beer)

 

 

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Walsh Whiskey Redesigns Packaging as it Rebrands The Irishman Whiskey

The goal of the half-million-dollar-plus rebranding — which includes a new bottle design, brand redesign, production and marketing initiatives — is to double The Irishman’s sales across its 50-plus U.S. markets within five years.

“As the Irish whiskey category continues to develop with increasing variety, it is important that we are clear in our proposition to whiskey consumers and this redesign is testament to that dedication. Our message is simple: The Irishman will always be single malt focused and that it will always be triple distilled to leave a lasting impression,” said Bernard Walsh, founder.

“We respect and honor Ireland’s great distilling heritage, while also exploring exciting new innovations using rare and unusual woods and finishes, as well as cereal varieties, to influence the single malt spirit. In the generational pursuit of whiskey excellence, our quest for the perfect dram, or taoscán [tay-scawn] of single malt, is just beginning and this redesign in the next step in our ongoing journey,” he added.

The most striking change in The Irishman rebrand is the introduction of a bespoke, tall, tapered bottle with the addition of a cork seal, affirming the super-premium nature of the whiskeys. The bottle has strong whiskey cues, including broad ‘shoulders‘ and a tapered base. A significant feature of the bottle is a series of embossed phrases around the lower part of the bottle that capture the essence of The Irishman’s focus and purpose, which is ‘to pursue a lifelong journey in search of the perfect dram, while respecting past traditions with ambition for future possibilities.’

Additional highlights include:

  • New bespoke bottle design introduced across the entire range
  • Founder’s Reserve expression renamed The Harvest
  • Caribbean Rum Cask Finish added to core expressions in portfolio
  • A new brand icon is one of three very distinctive features on the label and product packaging. The icon, which features a capital letter ‘I’ (for Irishman) inside two-tone staves of a barrel, signifies The Irishman’s journey to learn from the past while creating the future.
  • A new color palette of understated cream, green, grey, blue, and burgundy is applied to the labels of the six core expressions of The Irishman range.

Other unique and notable features of the new labels are the addition of braille for the visually impaired and nutritional information on e-labels positioned on the back of the bottle and online. The braille highlighting The Irishman’s brand name, is also a personal tribute by Bernard Walsh to the memory of his own grandfather, Jack Walsh, whose loss of vision made a lasting impression on his grandson.

There are also changes to the composition of the range, with a change of name for one core expression and the addition of a limited edition to the core of the portfolio.

The Founder’s Reserve blend (70% Single Malt & 30% Pot Still) has been renamed The Harvest. This expression, a truly unique blend of two premium styles of whiskey, started life as the first ever whiskey created by Walsh Whiskey’s Founder. The renaming of this core expression as The Harvest honors the great contribution of the farming community in the whiskey-making process. The whiskey is crafted entirely from a mash bill of 100% Irish barley.

First released as a limited edition bottling in 2018, The Irishman Caribbean Cask is being added to the portfolio’s core expressions which also include The Harvest; Single Malt; 12-Year-Old Single Malt; 17-Year-Old Single Malt & the Vintage Cask Strength. The Irishman Caribbean Cask Finish is a rare vatting of Single Malt and Single Pot Still whiskeys finished for 6 months in Chairman’s Reserve Rum casks from the tiny tropical Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia, before being bottled at 46% ABV.

The Irishman Single Malt Whiskey has an ABV of 40% with a suggested retail price of $54.99. The new bottle is now shipping, rolling out nationally over the summer.

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