Hard juice is worth a squeeze

Editor’s note The column below was originally published March 2023, when Fingers was much smaller. I’ve adapted it slightly to reflect some recent developments, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way this call held up.

Programming note: I’m on a couple deadlines and on the road, so no Weekender this Sunday. Fingers returns to your inbox next week!—Dave.

I’ve noted many times before that the beverage-alcohol business is racing towards a “total beverage” singularity where every brand is available both soft and hard format. I think that’s still mostly true, though there have been many failures and missteps along the way. (Looking at you, Monster.) But I’ve mostly envisioned that singularity as a deluge of hard seltzers, alcopops, and canned cocktails that look and drink like soda, seltzer, etc.

That evolution has already put traditional brewers at a disadvantage, because traditional beer can’t be alchemically turned into a crystal-clear tabula rasa to be infused with flavor extracts further down the manufacturing line. Many of them have tried to pivot into hard seltzer, hard tea, hard kombucha, even spirits-based canned cocktails, with mixed results. But there’s another type of drink that has a lot more compositional and flavor overlap with beer (especially popular craft styles like hazy India pale ale, and the criminally under-appreciated shandy/radler family) and savvy brewers are starting to take it seriously.

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