Atwater to Build Two New Breweries in Texas, North Carolina
Atwater Brewery has some major expansion plans on tap, as the company is building out its staff at its Detroit headquarters while ramping up to build two new facilities in other parts of the country. According to ModeledMedia.com, Atwater is still planning to build a brewery in Austin, Texas, a $15 million project that was first announced last February. Next year, the article adds, the company will look to plant another flag in North Carolina and open a third facility. Both out-of-state operations are expected to be up and running sometime in 2016. The ultimate goal is to produce 300,000 barrels of production within five years, brewery owner Mark Rieth told the website.
Shipyard Invests in $4 Million Expansion Plan
After securing $4 million in bank loans, Portland, Maine-based Shipyard Brewing plans to double its bottling speed and adding a permanent canning line, according to Bangor Daily News. Shipyard has no “immediate plans” to expand brewing or fermentation capacity, and will instead continue to explore contract opportunities. The company currently produces some of its beer at Blues City Brewery in Memphis, Tenn. Nevertheless, increased packaging efficiency will enable the company to expand distribution throughout other parts of the country. At home in Maine, Shipyard is pushing for legislative change that would enable it to host up to nine alternating proprietors to contract brew in its facility. “It allows us to fill in some of our slower brewing times and establish relationships with other brewers,” Brandon Mazer, Shipyard’s in-house attorney, told the website. “The industry is very collaborative and very collegial.”
Red Bull Locks Horns with Virginia Beer Company
The Washington Post has the story this week of how energy drink behemoth Red Bull is challenging a trademark application belonging to Old Ox Brewery of Ashburn, Va. In Red Bull’s most recent filing of opposition to the trademark, the company contends, “An ‘ox’ and ‘bull’ both fall within the same class of ‘bovine’ animals and are virtually indistinguishable to most consumers.” As such, the company wants the brewery to change its name. In an open letter to Red Bull, Old Ox president Chris Burns responded by asking, “Do you claim exclusive rights to all things bovine? Do you plan to herd all heifers, cows, yaks, buffalo, bison, and steer into your intellectual property corral, too?” Burns told the Post that Red Bull also objected to its use of the colors red, blue, and silver.
Steve Hindy: “How Illegal Homebrewing in Teetotaling Saudi Arabia Changed My Life”
Those in the beer industry know that, before founding Brooklyn Brewery, Steve Hindy was an Associated Press foreign correspondent and often dispatched to some of the world’s most hostile climates. Although beer pays the bulk of his bills today, Hindy often puts his journalist cap back on, as he did this week in writing for Munchies, Vice’s food and drink affiliate. In his latest article, Hindy relays the story of how one of his primary sources while reporting on “corruption and cronyism in the multi-billion dollar US Aid program in Egypt” got him into homebrewing to begin with. Tired of Egypt’s national brand Stella (no Artois), which was often “undrinkable” and “reputed to have formaldehyde in it,” Hindy’s source convinced him to try a home brew recipe that he picked up in Saudi Arabia, where brewing beer was punishable by beheading. “It was delicious,” wrote Hindy. The rest of the article offers a fascinating history of how Brooklyn Brewery came to be, and is well worth the read.