Hulk Hogan has publicly detailed his negative relationship with alcohol, culminating last year in a media tour promoting his recent sobriety. In interviews with Men’s Health, TMZ, and others, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, quit drinking after attending a New Year’s Eve party in 2023.
In the interviews, Hogan talked about his history of drinking multiple beers before and after matches and his long, intense relationship with alcohol. The 70-year-old Hogan told interviewers that his alcohol usage caused strife in his first two marriages and in his current relationship, and that he used drinking to help manage pain and injuries from his long wrestling career.
Of that New Year’s Eve party, Hogan told an interviewer:
“I was around people who believed and behaved differently from me, and I just said, ‘I’m out,'” he continues. “It feels much better to be so clear-headed. I’m no longer tempted to drink alcohol. I don’t have an addictive personality. I mean, with anything. It can be business or people or alcohol or drugs. When I’m done, I’m done.”
Today Hogan announced the release of “Real American Beer,” becoming the latest sober celebrity to try and capitalize on the alcohol business.
Real American Beer promotes itself as “a premium American-style light lager meticulously brewed with 100% North American ingredients.” It will be distributed to 17 states this summer. Additional details about the brand are scarce. The Real American Beer website provides little information about the brand or product, a search of a federal label approval database returned no results, and the accompanying press release didn’t mention where it is brewed.
Alongside Hulk Hogan, Real American Beer is led by former beverage and CPG sectors leaders, including CEO Terri Francis, a former Vice President of the investment and innovation group within Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).
The message of a sober celebrity releasing and promoting an alcohol brand is hardly new, but it’s a category that often comes in for criticism. Recent examples include non-drinkers Blake Lively releasing Betty Booze, a series of alcohol mixers, and Jennifer Lopez launching a series of ready-to-drink offerings, as well as sober model and actor Cara Delevingne with her Prosecco brand, Della Vite. Each of these celebrities has come in for a serious roasting, with claims of hypocrisy, inauthenticity, or just bad optics.
Actor Kelsey Grammer famously released his Faith American beer brand despite being sober. Grammer spoke about his decision to release a beer with All About Beer editor John Holl about last year on his Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast.
In Hogan’s case, the decision to release an alcohol brand is hard to reconcile with his recent personal statements about his troublesome relationship with alcohol.
“I just got tired of it,” Hogan told Men’s Health. “It got to be a way to kind of numb me a little bit because I had a bunch of crazy business problems and personal stuff going on at the time. I caught myself, after I would train, getting too aggressive once again with the alcohol and I just decided to stop.”
“I don’t drink alcohol at all. I just don’t drink, don’t take Tylenols,” Hogan told the publication. “I don’t do anything besides drink really good water.”
