In the episode “Doug’s Last Birthday” of “Disney’s Doug,” an extension of the Nickelodeon’s “Doug,” the title character Doug Funnie laments all the changes taking place in his town and his friends leading up to their first day of middle school. Despite his reservations, Doug realizes the positives that can happen when one is open to change. U.S. beer consumers also are showing their openness to change as they explore the beyond beer segments.

 Due to a number of factors, hard seltzers were embraced by U.S. consumers, particularly the beer centric seltzers. However, beer centric seltzers have begun to contract with case sales down 15% and dollar sales down 10.4%, totaling $4.1 billion, for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 1 in total U.S. multi-outlets, according to Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI).