Brewbound — Craft Beer News, Events & Jobs

Less than a year after it was acquired by Dutch beer maker Bavaria N.V., Latis Imports has announced plans to mutually end a sales agency agreement with Radeberger Gruppe USA (RGUSA) that began in January 2014. In a press release, Latis Imports, which was founded in 2007 and imports products from Palm Belgian Craft Brewers and Rodenbach, said the partnership with RGUSA would conclude on September 30, 2017.

Rich Pascucci, who most recently served as the chief growth officer for Pabst Brewing Company, has been tapped to help lead Evolution Spirits, makers of Monkey Rum. Pascucci joined Evolution Spirits earlier this month and will serve as its chief growth officer and head of sales. The company was co-founded by television personality Zane Lamprey and is backed by Vita Coco co-founder Mike Kirban, former Vitaminwater CMO Rohan Oza and other notable beverage industry insiders.

Brian “BK” Krueger will join the Boulder, Colorado-headquartered company as director of sales and marketing. Krueger, who has plenty of experience in the Colorado market after a 16-year career as sales executive with New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, will fill the role being left by Dustin LeMoine, who the company is promoting to Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately.

Colorado-headquartered New Belgium Brewing Company is said to be opening a taproom at Mohegan Sun next month, according to a press release issued by the Connecticut casino and resort. Meanwhile, Southern California’s The Bruery today announced that it would open a brick-and-mortar store in Washington, D.C., in November.

Green Flash Brewing Co. announced plans today to open a third brewery — this time in the Midwest. The San Diego-headquartered company has acquired a 10,000 sq. ft., 10,000-barrel production facility with a tasting room and restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska.

New data from market research firm Nielsen confirms what many beer executives have long feared: The beer category is continuing to cede sales to wine and spirits. On-premise volume sales of beer over the 52-week period ending June 17 were down more than 2 percent, according to a new Nielsen report outlining the latest beverage alcohol trends.

In the latest Press Clips: Magnolia founder discusses brewery sale; Stone’s Berlin business profiled; Modern Times inches closer to Encinitas taproom; Guinness hires head brewer for Maryland facility; and more.

A handful of notable craft brewery expansions aimed at expanding the availability of small-batch offerings from companies based in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wisconsin are moving forward.

Nearly a year after launching its “Equity for Punks” USA crowdfunding scheme, Scottish craft beer company BrewDog PLC has announced that it raised $7 million, falling considerably short of a stated $50 million target.

In an effort to find a different use for spent grain — a byproduct of the beer brewing process – Anheuser-Busch InBev, via its ZX Ventures ‘global disruptive growth group,’ has backed a non-alcoholic beverage startup hoping to turn leftover malt into a drinkable product. A-B is hoping that a proprietary fermentation process, developed internally, can transform at least some of the nearly 8 billion pounds of spent grain produced across the beer industry each year into an isolate that will be used in a new line of plant-based barley beverages called “Canvas.”

Four craft breweries have shuttered in less than two weeks, the most well-known of which, Rubicon Brewing Company, had operated in Sacramento for nearly 30 years.

Constellation Brands has acquired fast-growing Florida-based craft beer producer Funky Buddha and, in the process, formed a new “High End Craft and Specialty” business group specifically tasked with overseeing the company’s present and future craft brewery purchases. Financial terms of the deal, which closed yesterday, were not disclosed. The structure is similar to Constellation’s 2015 purchase of San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing, which was worth $1 billion, Brewbound understands. A sale price was not disclosed, but the all-cash deal is for 100 percent of the company, according to KC Sentz, who co-founded the brewery with his brother Ryan Sentz.

A group led by New Belgium Brewing Company today announced it would acquire San Francisco-based Magnolia Brewing Company as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.

Constellation Brands today announced the acquisition of Florida-based Funky Buddha Brewery. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.