Last month, an exploding plastic keg that killed a Redhook Brewery employee sent shockwaves through the brewing industry, prompting many craft brewery owners to revisit their own safety procedures. On April 24th, twenty-six-year-old Ben Harris was pressurizing a keg as part of a cleaning process when it exploded.
Last November Boston Beer introduced the Single Batch Series, a limited-edition collection of the Samuel Adams brewers’ favorite beers. Initially launching with four beers — Griffin’s Bow, Tasman Red, Third Voyage and The Vixen — the series has been extended and rebranded at the “Samuel Adams Small Batch.”
In last week’s Q1 earnings call, Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) briefly mentioned a nationwide rollout of its new gluten-free offering, Omission Beer. Today’s press release from the company indicates that it will be available across CBA’s entire distribution footprint by mid-June.
Finally a beer company has creatively used a QR code. Guinness recently began distributing pint glasses that, when filled with Guinness (or any dark beer), reveals a special QR pattern. After scanning, the code reportedly can tweet your pint, update your facebook status, check you in on foursquare and download special coupons and promotions.
Harris Interactive, a market and research firm headquartered in New York recently released the results of its annual poll, which examines the health of over 1,500 brands and analyzes responses from over 38,000 consumers across multiple consumer goods categories.
Brad Hittle, a former Pabst CMO and founder of Two Roads Brewing, believes a “looming shakeout” of the craft beer category could lead to more business for his start up contract brewing facility. “As the industry evolves and as the looming shakeout occurs, capacity will be released,” he said. “Smaller brewers will suffer. I don’t… Read more »
These days, nearly every regional brewer is announcing major expansion plans. We’ve seen announcements from Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Victory Brewing, Lagunitas and most recently Oskar Blues. So what does the founder of a 23-year old brand think about it all?
It’s not just craft brewers who are expanding. Vermont Hard Cider Company, maker of Woodhcuck Hard Cider, is getting ready to break ground on a reported $22 million build-out which will double its current capacity to 600,000 barrels.
The Scotland based craft brewery, BrewDog, recently posted a blog on its website alleging that the world’s largest producer of spirits, Diageo, threatened to pull sponsorship of the annual BII Scotland awards if BrewDog were awarded the prize for “Bar Operator of the Year.”
While there was plenty of excitement in the air last week at how large the annual Craft Brewers Conference had become, a few of the more seasoned attendees had some cautionary words when asked to reflect on various challenges facing craft brewers in today’s growing market.
Another week went by and yet another brewery announced big expansion plans. This time it was the Eugene, Ore. based Ninkasi Brewing. The rapidly growing company, currently ranked 32nd on the Brewers Association list of top U.S. craft breweries by volume, announced during last week’s Craft Brewers Conference that it would be investing between $15… Read more »
Greg Koch says he’s an introvert. Recently, Greg Koch, introvert, has held a book tour, where the Stone Brewing Co. CEO has been known to stand atop a barstool with a megaphone, shouting this rallying cry: “If you are with me in sending the message to the man that says ‘no longer – no longer… Read more »
Brooklyn Brewery President and co-founder Steve Hindy had one more bomb to drop on the final day of the Craft Brewers Conference: Hindy is selling his voting shares in Brooklyn Brewery. “I am very happy,” Hindy said in an interview with Brewbound. “You can own a company and not really benefit financially, particularly a startup… Read more »
The 2012 Craft Brewers Conference has been underway for less than five hours and already people are buzzing, and it’s not from the beer. A fedora-wearing Steve Hindy, the Brooklyn Brewery President, gave this year’s keynote address to a packed room of roughly 4,500 craft industry members. Sporting a fedora is necessary, of course, if… Read more »
