(Boulder, CO) – Some notes from yesterday’s Brewers Association conference call discussing the first half of the year in beer…

Recall that craft beer is up 14% YTD. Here is drilldown further into what is happening in craft beer and the larger beer segment, in general.

MACROS:

Supermarkets is where we get some of the more interesting data…

• AB InBev is down -1.6%, MillerCoors is up 0.2% and Boston Beer Co. is up 2.8%. Yuengling, underdeveloper in this channel, is up 12.3%.

• Blue Moon is now in top 15 brands overall, up 16.2% in dollar sales. The majority of the top 15 brands are down in sales.

• Modelo, Stella and Dos Equis are all having stellar years in the import segment. Category leaders, Corona and Heineken, are down.

• Top 15 new beer brands are really weak relative to past years. Shock Top Raspberry Wheat is the top new brand with MGD Light 64 Lemonade, the #2 beer, already being discontinued.

CRAFTS:

Again, all this is pertaining only to supermarkets…

• Top 10 craft breweries: Stone Brewing up 23%, jumps into top 10. Bell’s is up 30.5%. Boston Beer Co. sales pretty stagnant while other crafts are up into single/double digits.

• Top 15 craft brands: Perhaps the key takeaway from the whole session is this: case sales of Blue Moon and Shock Top are growing even faster than their super regional craft counterparts (which include Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, etc.). Even though, news of Bud Light and Miller Lite sales drops dominate the headlines with these large companies, their craft portfolios are doing just as well as those of small brewers.

  Also of note, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is now outselling Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

• Kona’s variety pack is the top new craft beer “brand” by Symphony IRI Group definition. (More on Kona’s epic rise here). Bridgeport Kingpin is the top new craft beer brand by Brewers Association definition.

• Top 10 new craft beer packages: Ninkasi 6-packs are top dog.

• Top 10 craft styles: IPAs and variety packs are up 30-40% in dollar sales from a year ago.

• Across all channels (supermarkets, convenience, food and drug), AB is kicking MillerCoors’ butt in “innovation,” with 4x the sales from new products this year. Ninkasi Brewing is the leader among craft breweries in new product sales, topping the likes of even Sierra Nevada and Boston Beer Co.

• Finally, in Chicago ‘food and drug’ stores, the Goose Island brand family is up 24% in case dollars and up 20% in case volume. The AB InBev acquisition has had virtually zero negative effect on that brewery according to the data.