The Fourth of July is an occasion that almost always includes cracking open a cold one, whether it’s beer, wine, or cocktails. But this year, it seems many people were sipping on a White Claw.
Of all the beers sold over the holiday season, White Claw accounted for 3 percent of them, according to data sent to the Beer Business Daily from Mike’s Hard Lemonade, White Claw’s parent company. (Because it’s a flavored malt beverage, or FMB, White Claw is technically classified as beer.) To put this figure into perspective, seltzers accounted for 5.2 percent of beer sales from June 23 to July 7, up from 2.2 percent last year. White Claw sales, therefore, accounted for 56 percent of that total.
White Claw was also able to make the top ten list of beer brands in the U.S. for that same two-week period, coming in at number eight. Mike’s Hard Lemonade grew a whopping 77 percent during this period last year, and its total sales are up 60 percent.
Overall, FMB sales grew 37 percent during Fourth of July week. Seltzers accounted for the majority of that, growing 147 percent and accounting for 40 percent of the FMB sales, according to Nielsen data. White Claw also occupied three spots in the Top Ten Growth Brands list from that period: the White Claw variety pack at number one, the White Claw Black Cherry at number five, and the White Claw Mango at number seven.
People may be divided on how they feel about it, but White Claw is dominating.
