Pabst Brewing is one of the few companies that could put Star Wars’ smoothest space traveler, a nationally acclaimed barbecue pitmaster and hundreds of beer wholesalers in the same room without the entire event feeling like an the illegitimate love child of Comic-Con and South by Southwest. Maybe it helped that the scene was in Milwaukee: that’s where the country’s fifth largest beer supplier hosted, for the first time in about three decades, a rather lavish and impressive national distributor convention.
Makeovers ares the name of the game in craft these days, even for relative newcomers like Ninkasi Brewing. The Oregon-based craft brewery, which was founded in 2006, this month will rollout rebranded versions of flagship offerings Total Domination IPA, Tricerahops Double IPA and Dawn of the Red, Red IPA.
The sale of Devils Backbone to beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev has had rapid aftershocks within the industry. Devils Backbone co-owner Steve Crandall, who had served on the board of the non-profit trade association and chaired the group’s market development committee, offered his resignation last Tuesday, the same day his company announced the sale to A-B, Crandall told Brewbound.
It’s a two-edged knife: Like so many emerging craft brewers across the U.S., Spokane’s No-Li Brewhouse has finally reached the point where it needs to spend a few million dollars if it wants to keep growing. It’s just one of many tradeoffs that No-Li is facing as it continues to mature. How much of its impressive per-case margin should it give up as it moves to faster-selling packages? Which territories should it withdraw from to focus on its home base? When it does build a new brewery, how big should it go?
At long last, the Brewers Association has finally added Swedish-Style Gotlandsdricke to its list of officially recognized beer styles. The organization yesterday released its 2016 “Beer Style Guidelines,” a reference of style descriptions and product specifications used by brewers and beer competition organizers around the world.
One million barrels. That’s where Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “High End” craft production is headed in 2016 following the acquisition of Virginia-based Devils Backbone Brewing Company, the company’s eighth craft brewery purchase since 2011 and its sixth in the last 18 months.
Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced it would acquire Virginia-based Devils Backbone Brewing Company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. The move is part of an ongoing march into the craft brewing world by the world’s largest brewery, which has acquired eight craft beer companies since 2011.
It’s been 10 months since the U.S. Senate formally reviewed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA), but the proposed federal excise tax reductions could still hitch a ride through congress thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2016. The Senate will continue its review of S.2658 — a “must-pass” bill that would reauthorize the FAA and specified FAA programs – this week. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking Democratic member of the Finance Committee, first introduced the bipartisan CBMTRA last June. He has hinted that he is considering a beverage-friendly amendment as last-minute addition to the FAA bill.
Pabst CEO Eugene Kashper calls it “gruit.” Forbidden Root founder Robert Finkel calls it “botanic beer.” Executives at Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors and a host of others simply call it “hard soda.” And then there’s at least three New England-based companies, including Boston Beer Company, going after an emerging “hard seltzer” segment. You probably know them all as flavored malt beverages.
Yesterday was National Beer Day and that’s as good an excuse as any to dive into a steinful of the latest U.S. beer statistics. After all, throughout the week, our inboxes overflowed with pitches from every corner of the industry. In the interest of identifying the most important takeaways, we’ve distilled everything into our own Friday 4-pack of stats.
Scottish craft beer maker Innis & Gunn today announced the $3.5 million purchase of the Perth, Scotland-based Inveralmond Brewery. Financed entirely with capital raised via the company’s crowd-funded “Innis & Gunn BeerBond” program last year, the acquisition of Inveralmond gives Innis & Gunn access to a brick & mortar brewing facility, which it lacked, as well as control of more than a dozen labels currently produced and marketed by Inveralmond.
Brown Distributing, a Florida-based beer wholesaler that sells products from more than 60 U.S. craft breweries across the entire state, is in the process of selling the rights to a variety of craft brands in some of its central and northern markets. The company, which lists beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic products from more than 130 suppliers on its website, began informing craft brewery owners of its decision to transfer their brands on Monday night.
The Brewers Association (BA) today released its annual rankings of the top 50 U.S. breweries based on 2015 sales volumes, and once again Ballast Point Brewing emerged as the biggest mover amongst the industry’s largest craft producers. Climbing 20 places from 31 on the “Top Craft Brewing Companies” list, Ballast Point is now ranked as the 11th largest U.S. craft brewery, according to the BA. Although the organization’s official production figures will not be made available until next month, the San Diego-based brewery had projected 2015 volumes to be about 290,000 barrels.
Narragansett Beer CEO Mark Hellendrung, the man who resurrected the iconic 125-year old lager brand in 2005, is making good on his pledge to bring production of the beer back to Rhode Island. In an open letter to drinkers posted on his company’s website, Hellendrung wrote that ‘Gansett was “coming home” to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, about 20 minutes from where the company was founded in 1890.
