Monster Energy hard seltzer *WHEN*
Plus: Brothtail taste test, craft brewing divestments, counterfeit bourbon + more!
*extremely Penny Lane voice* It’s allllllll happening, Fingers Fam.
Yesterday, news broke that Monster Beverage Corporation planned to buy CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective for $330 million. The move will put big craft beer brands like Oskar Blues and Cigar City at the energy drink heavyweight’s disposal, and with the stroke of a pen (or the click of a DocuSign link, no idea how people Do Deals these days) establish the firm as a major player in a beverage-alcohol industry tilting towards its flavor-forward sweet spot.
To which I say: it’s about damn time.
Like many industry observers, your fearless Fingers editor has been waiting on Monster’s entry to the hard drink category for quite some time. Back in the hot vaxx summer heyday of June 2021, when PepsiCo’s Rockstar Energy filed for trademarks to make branded beer and hard seltzer, I laid out the case for “the energy drink-to-hard seltzer pipeline” for boozeletter readers:
It m…