Who is Drinking All The Cold Snacks?

The rise of local and regional lagers has been impossible to ignore in 2024. Wine and spirits juggernaut Gallo recently acquired Montucky Cold Snacks, the originator of this new wave of modern nostalgia. This acquisition highlights the growing trend of hip, new approaches to marketing lager in today’s transitioning market. Despite the brand name blending "Montana" and "Kentucky," Montucky Cold Snacks are actually brewed in Wisconsin. Interestingly, none of these three states play a significant role in the brand's ascent into the Top 40 independent “craft beer” brands. That begs the question…

Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist is already seeing their new light lager climb to #2 in their portfolio by volume and #3 in dollar sales year-to-date, just one year after its launch (per Circana). Despite being the #22 largest independent craft brewery by volume, with distribution in nine states, Cincy Light was branded after its hometown and in partnership with the University of Cincinnati’s NIL collective. Consequently, Rhinegeist employs a strategy opposite to Montucky's, focusing on deep local penetration rather than regional expansion.

Perhaps that’s what made Montucky so intriguing to Gallo, who enters the beer category for the first time after striking gold nationally with High Noon. Despite being relatively small by national standards, producing just 63,560 BBLs of Cold Snacks in 2023, Montucky has achieved significant sales in a variety of states without a strong home market. To understand who, as the title of this post states, drinks all these Cold Snacks, I reached out to my friends at 3 Tier Beverages. Their NIQ scan data allowed me to rank Montucky’s Top 10 Markets and determine the percentage of business each contributes using NIQ scan data. The results are fascinating:

Data Generously Provided by 3 Tier Beverages. Note: This post got delayed so the data is about 2 months old.

With distribution now widespread across much of the United States, Montucky has gained some degree of traction in certain markets, notably in Colorado, Texas, and Minnesota, which form an unusually disconnected top three. Currently, ten states account for 87% of the business, while the Eastern seaboard remains untapped. This presents significant growth potential for Montucky as a national brand, which Gallo must be eager to capitalize on.