Brewbound — Craft Beer News, Events & Jobs

Wachusett Brewing is taking its recently launched outdoor beer garden, dubbed the “Brew Yard,” on the road. In partnership with Delaware North, a hospitality company owned by Jeremy Jacobs, who also owns the Boston Bruins, the Massachusetts craft brewery will pop up in Boston City Hall Plaza the next three Thursdays.

A nearly decade-long debate over how to reform Massachusetts’ controversial beer franchise laws continued Tuesday afternoon, as craft brewers and beer wholesalers packed a basement meeting room of the statehouse to testify before the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.

After five amazing years in sunny San Diego, California, Brewbound today announced that it has relocated its full-day business conference, the Brewbound Session, to another beachside locale with a vibrant and emerging craft beer scene: Santa Monica. The 2017 Winter Brewbound Session will take place on Wednesday, November 29, at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel (1700 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, California).

Over 1,700 exhibitors from 80 countries will be showcasing their wares at Drinktec, the world’s largest beverage trade show, taking place this week in Messe Munchen, Germany. An estimated 70,000 visitors from 183 countries are expected to walk 150,000 square meters of the show floor, and more than 40,000 beverage alcohol professionals will be in attendance.

Melvin Brewing has begun shipping limited quantities of beer to New York, and parts of California’s Bay Area, as part of a plan to build buzz for the brand before officially launching in those territories in early 2018.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Innis & Gunn receives private equity interest; A-B shifts focus from acquisitions to organic growth; Diageo taps A-B for Guinness Distribution in China; and much more.

Brewbound is excited to announce that Brew Talks events will be held during the upcoming Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) shows. Brew Talks, Brewbound’s traveling meetup series for beer business professionals, will gather leading industry brewers and distributors for in-depth discussions about the future of the craft beer segment and intimate networking opportunities.

After adding nearly 2000 workers over the course of acquiring 10 U.S. craft breweries, Anheuser-Busch InBev is doing some cutting.

Fast-growing Lord Hobo Brewing – which launched in 2015 and grew more than 400 percent last year — today announced that it has sold a minority stake to Valterra Partners, a boutique private investment firm with offices in New York and Massachusetts. Specific financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close this month.

As recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey continue in the Houston area, Florida is bracing for category 5 Hurricane Irma, which is slated to hit this weekend. The storm is expected to be more powerful than Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 hurricane that devastated the Bahamas and Florida 25 years ago and is considered the most destructive hurricane in the state’s history. Several Florida breweries are already preparing to hunker down.

Upland Brewing owner and president Doug Dayhoff will sell his minority interest in the company back to existing investors and depart the company at the end of the year, the company announced today. Speaking to Brewbound, Dayhoff, 47, said the investor group would repurchase his minority interest in the company over the next “1-2 years.”

In this week’s edition of press clips: Fred Bueltmann departs New Holland Brewing, Michelle Sullivan leaves Boston Beer and Australian Beer Drinkers say they want ownership transparency, too.

This latest episode of Taste Radio features an in-depth interview with Joth Ricci, a CPG veteran who cut his teeth in the beer business during the early 2000s as the general manager of Columbia Distributing. During his 17-year career in the beverage space, Ricci has served as the CEO of Jones Soda, a managing partner of First Beverage Group and the president of Stumptown Coffee Roasters. He recently took over as the president and CEO of Adelsheim Vineyard, an Oregon-based winery.

San Diego’s Modern Times Beer Company is heading north to Beervana. The southern California craft brewery today announced plans to takeover what will soon be the former Commons Brewery location in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.