Woodchuck wants consumers to know that its cider comes from a real cidery, and it’s spending more than $2 million to drive the message home. In its first ever-advertising campaign, entitled “Why Woodchuck,” the company squares its sights on competition from large beer companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors and even Boston Beer, all of which have rolled out their own cider offerings in recent years and cut deep into Woodchuck’s share of the small but fast-growing cider market.

Just in time for Father’s Day, Illinois-based Small Town Brewery today announced the nationwide rollout of its signature Not Your Father’s Root Beer line of soda-inspired beers. In a press statement, the company said it signed a distribution agreement with Pabst Brewing Company, which began selling the product earlier this year. Specific terms of the arrangement were not disclosed and representatives from both Pabst and Small Town Brewery were unavailable for comment.

Idle Hands Craft Ales, a small Boston-area microbrewery that got its start on a 1 ½ barrel nano-brewing system in 2011, today announced it has been forced to vacate its facility in Everett, MA. Idle Hands’ current space sits just blocks from the proposed site of a new $1.3 billion Wynn Everett resort and casino. In order to make room for a construction access road, Idle Hands and a handful of small businesses must be out by June 30.

After years of debate over how to best reduce the federal excise tax rate on brewers, two of the beer industry’s leading organizations — the Brewers Association and the Beer Institute — have finally come together in support of a single bill. At a press conference hosted at Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Ore. on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) addressed industry and media members and unveiled the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, a comprehensive tax reform bill aimed at modernizing “outdated regulations” imposed on craft brewers and other alcoholic beverage manufacturers.

The TTB has formally announced Battle’s retirement from the U.S. Treasury, which is tasked with monitoring and enforcing compliance for the expansive beverage alcoholic category. “Battle’s departure marks the end of an era at TTB,” a statement read. The end of an era indeed — Battle processed over 60,000 malt beverage labels in 2013 and 2014 alone. Since just last October, he had already reviewed over 25,000 labels.

In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy. Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.

For the second year in a row, Colorado’s Odell Brewing Company topped Tamarron Consulting’s annual Craft Brewer Performance Survey. With an average performance score of 4.19 (out of 5), Odell led a group that featured seven of the country’s leading craft breweries, including Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head, Great Lakes Brewing, Stone Brewing and Summit Brewing.

Less than one year after selling a partial ownership to private equity firm The Riverside Company, Uinta Brewing today announced that it has hired former Duvel Moortgat USA and Boulevard Brewing sales chief Steve Mills as its new chief financial officer. Mills takes over for Uinta founder Will Hamill, who had been acting as CEO and will now focus on brand development and brewery innovation in his new role as a company board member.

The Beer Institute, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying group that represents the interests of domestic and international brewers, today announced a pair of key new hires. The group has hired former MillerCoors research analyst Michael Uhrich as its new chief economist. Also joining the BI as the group’s new director of federal affairs is Joe Heaton, who has spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill and most recently served as Rep. Jon Runyan’s (NJ) deputy chief of staff.

The Beer Institute has announced the hiring of Joy Dubost, a food scientist and registered dietitian who will help lead the group’s lobbying efforts and develop regulatory positions. Dubost will serve as the organization’s new senior director of science and external affairs, working closely with those on Capitol Hill to help shape scientific policies that impact brewers.

99 Bottles of beer on the wall? For craft, it’s actually about 11,727 — and that’s not a great thing. The bigger number is the total amount of craft brands being sold at bars and restaurants, according to on-premise data supplier GuestMetrics, which tracked those SKUs through the first quarter of 2015. In two years, the number has increased by nearly 50 percent, from 8,027 in the first quarter of 2013.

Here’s a bold prediction: 25 craft brewery transactions in the next 12 months. At least, that’s what Bill Anderson, the founder and CEO of investment and advisory firm First Beverage Group, believes is the inevitable short-term future for craft.

It took just six months for Anheuser-Busch InBev to expand distribution for 10 Barrel Brewing, the Bend, Ore. craft brewery it purchased last November. The company today announced it would launch in Colorado this month, the fourth state where its beers are currently sold.