More than 12,000 beer industry professionals converged on Philadelphia last week for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, organized by trade group the Brewers Association. The weeklong event featured nearly 80 educational seminars, 835 trade show exhibitors and hundreds of brand activation events around town — including our very own Brew Talks meetup with Dogfish Head.
Christopher Jackson, whose father Jess Jackson created the well-known Kendall-Jackson wine label in 1982 and built a global wine empire before passing away in 2011, is in the process of constructing a 25,000-barrel craft brewery to open this summer in California’s Sonoma County. In an interview with Brewbound, Jackson described his new $8 million Seismic Brewing Company project, which will be located at 2870 Duke Ct. in Santa Rosa, Calif., as an independent venture.
About six months ago, headlines were suggesting that Dogfish Head was struggling to grow as fast as its competitors. Speaking to a crowd of 300 beer industry professionals at last week’s Brew Talks meetup, held on May 4 at World Café Live during the 2016 Craft Brewer Conference in Philadelphia, Calagione provided some context.
In the midst of last week’s Craft Brewers Conference, and on the heels of disappointing first quarter earnings from the country’s largest publicly traded craft outfit, Boston Beer, a trio of beer companies last week released their Q1 financial results. All three companies — Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors and Craft Brew Alliance — each posted first quarter depletion declines.
San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing has announced plans to begin national distribution of its aluminum packages. The company will begin selling three year-round offerings in 12 oz. cans next month. 6-packs of the company’s Jibe Session IPA, Passion Fruit Kicker and Sea to Sea Zwickel Lager began shipping to U.S. distributors today, according to a press release.
Craft beer brands that are bought out by private equity firms remain closer to their independent roots than those that are sold to large beer companies, according to Brewers Association director Paul Gatza. Speaking at this morning’s ‘State of the Industry” presentation during the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia, Gatza told attendees that the difference maker in the white-hot transactional market is independence from the beer establishment.
The 2016 Craft Brewers Conference — happening May 3-6 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center — officially kicks off in about 48 hours and, if you’re anything like us, you probably still haven’t finalized all of your plans for the week. We’ve got you covered. Brewbound has hand-picked seven can’t-miss seminars for anyone attending this week’s conference. Want to hear some of the industry’s most successful brewery owners, retailers, entrepreneurs and executives read from a few pages of their playbooks? Then don’t skip these seven talks.
Although it missed out on a chance to be included as an amendment in the final version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2016, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) has still garnered support from more than 200 members of the House. The bill, H.R. 2903, had 202 sponsors in the House as of press time. A senate companion bill, S.1562, currently has 38 co-sponsors.
Presenting to a group of eccentric innovators and entrepreneurs who gathered in Carmel, Calif. for the “e.g” conference, Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch today revealed plans to launch a new $100 million fund for investing in “real” food and beverage companies. Beginning with an industry he knows well, craft beer, Koch said he’s secured $100 million from a group of “independent investors,” that will be used to acquire “minority, non-controlling” stakes in craft breweries.
Retailers in California will be soon be required to inform customers of potential exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), a structural component in many food and beverage packages that has been said to increase the risk of cancer and interfere with normal reproduction. Beginning May 11, companies that manufacture, import or distribute food and beverage products in California will be required to provide a warning about exposure to BPA, which last year was added to the state’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Oskar Blues is going down under. The Colorado-headquartered brewery yesterday announced plans to begin exporting its six core beers — Dale’s Pale Ale, Mama’s Little Yella Pils, Pinner Throwback IPA, Oskar Blues IPA, Old Chub Scotch Ale and Beerito Mexican lager — to Australia in July.
10 Barrel Brewing is making its first major push outside of the western region since selling to Anheuser-Busch InBev 18 months ago. Previously distributed in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and Montana, 10 Barrel has partnered with about 20 A-B wholesalers in a handful of new craft-centric markets, including New York City, Boston and Minneapolis, co-founders Chris and Jeremy Cox told Brewbound.
When the millionaire owner of the fifth largest beer supplier in the U.S. stands on stage in front of hundreds of beer distributors and describes his company as a “small, upstart, underdog brewer,” it’s extremely hard not to roll your eyes. But that doesn’t mean Kashper, who together with TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm with offices in San Francisco and New York City, purchased the 172 year-old Pabst Brewing Company at the end of 2014, isn’t thinking like an entrepreneur.
Talk about having your finger on the pulse: Anheuser-Busch InBev will wholly acquire one of Italy’s most popular craft breweries, Birra del Borgo. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and Birra del Borgo founder Leonardo Di Vincenzo will continue to serve as CEO.
