Brewbound announced its 2022 Award Winners and class of Rising Stars during the multimedia trade publication’s Brewbound Live business conference today in Santa Monica, California.

With its 2022 Pitch Slam competition just days away, the Brewbound team caught up with past winners of the Shark Tank-like competition — Lunar Hard Seltzer and Crowns and Hops — held annually at the Brewbound Live business conference.

The Brewbound team rounds up the latest news heading into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, including Allagash’s 2023 plans, layoffs at Odell Brewing, Molson Coors exiting a pair of partnerships, and much more.

We’re excited to reveal the Brewbound Pitch Slam 13 semi-finalists and judges. We’ve narrowed down the semi-final pool to 12 companies. The chosen semi-finalists produce a wide range of alcoholic beverages.

Nearly four months after the completion of the sale of Stone Brewing to Sapporo, Stone CEO Maria Stipp joins the Brewbound Podcast to share how the integration process is progressing, when the first Sapporo beers produced at Stone’s U.S. facilities will hit the market, the expansion of the Buena family into spirits-based canned cocktails, and what’s next in 2023.

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) has taken a minority stake in non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing Company, following a $50 million investment in the brand. Athletic co-founder Bill Shufelt shares why KDP was the right partner, what the investment will go toward, and how the company is pacing toward the end of 2022.

Following the Winking Lizard Tavern’s annual announcement of its beer menu for 2023, founder John Lane shares how the event shook out, who left the day happiest, the one beer that is untouchable on the Winking Lizard’s menus, the inflationary pressures on draft beer, changes to its Tour of Beers program and much more.

Our next virtual networking event is on Thursday, November 10th from 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET. Beer and beverage-alcohol brands have the opportunity to learn from CPG investors, hard-to-reach retail buyers, and other experts providing advice on topics like packaging, branding, and PR strategy.

Chicago brewery incubator Pilot Project recently acquired the former Milwaukee Brewing Company (MKE) facility in Wisconsin. Pilot Project’s Dan Abel and Glenn Allen share their plans for the production facility and how the expansion will affect the bev-alc producers they work with and open the door to additional suppliers.

National accounts managers from Odell Brewing, Athletic Brewing, Dry Dock Brewing and JuneShine share how they’ve built their teams and grown sales through chains. This conversation took place in Denver during a live Brew Talks event prior to the Great American Beer Festival.

Kroger has announced a definitive agreement on a $24.6 billion deal to acquire Albertsons, bringing the country’s two largest grocery chains together.

3 Tier Beverages consultant Mary Mills and NielsenIQ’s VP of alcohol industry thought leadership Jon Berg discuss the 2022 summer selling season and look ahead to the remainder of the year. They share thoughts on craft’s recent struggles, style and format opportunities and more.

Regional ciders are taking share, while hard seltzer is headed for rationalization, 3 Tier product team consultant Stephanie Roatis shares in the latest 3 Up, 3 Down analysis for Q3 2022.

How do you innovate at scale beyond the IPA juggernaut? With the various IPA sub-styles accounting for nearly half of off-premise craft beer sales, leaders from Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada, Atrevida Beer Co. and 3 Tier Beverages explore where the opportunities for growth are in other beer styles and how they’re building their product mix during a Brew Talks conversation in Denver. Plus, we break some news.