Those who think that hard seltzer is just a US-thing and will never sell elsewhere, are those who still believe Starbucks is just a passing phase.

If hard seltzer isn’t selling in your neighbourhood today, it will soon enough. The only question is for craft brewers: Will you be left at the gate?

According to a report from VinePair, hard seltzer is most definitely here to stay and has moved well beyond the ‘fab’ stage.  In 2019, U.S. drinkers bought more hard seltzer by volume than vodka. To be exact, we purchased 82.5 million 9-liter cases, or almost 2.1 billion 355-milliliter cans, according to global data firm IWSR.

While all the big brewers – and many who aren’t big – are coming out with their own hard seltzer, last year three brands in the USA controlled somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of the market. These are White Claw, Truly and Bon & Viv.

Sales were so strong last summer that White Claw suffered from a nationwide shortage. This led White Claw fans to come up with their own term for the situation. Stores which had run out where declared “declawed”.

“White Claw and Truly are always going to be massive,” Nico Enriquez, founder of Willie’s Superbrew, an independent hard seltzer maker based in Charlestown, Mass., told VinePair. But he believes that just as a very small number of large-scale brands dominate the beer market, craft hard seltzer brands can capitalize on the remaining market share. “We expect the category to mature very quickly and people will soon start trading up towards premium drinks,” he says.

For the full report, go here.