The first dedicated contract brewing company west of the Mississippi, Sleeping Giant Brewing Company is the brainchild of Matthew Osterman, a former compliance and operations manager for Boulder-based New Planet Beer. Now the president of Sleeping Giant, which launched in January, Osterman is at the helm of the country’s latest contract brewing outfit hoping to cash in on the growth of craft and the entrepreneurial exuberance of startup beer brands without a home base.
For the second straight year U.S. craft brewers increased production volumes at a double-digit clip, growing 18 percent in 2014 according to new data from the Brewers Association. As part of its annual “Growth in the Beer Category” report — which highlights market share, production and brewery opening statistics, among others – the BA emphasized a key milestone for craft: for the first time ever, craft brewers achieved double-digit volume share of the marketplace.
Craft breweries in Texas could soon be allowed to sell beer directly to consumers for off-site consumption. A pair of companion bills introduced into the Texas Senate and House of Representatives would give manufacturing breweries producing less than 225,000 barrels annually the right to sell as much as two cases (576 oz.) of beer, every month, to a single consumer. Currently, only brewpubs are allowed to sell beer packaged for off-site consumption.
The future ownership structure of Full Sail Brewing, an employee owned beer company based in Hood River, Ore., could be known as early as Friday afternoon. Last week, Full Sail CEO Irene Firmat and executive brewmaster Jamie Emmerson told The Oregonian that 78 current and former employee-owners would vote on a possible sale to Encore Consumer Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.
If you ask Alan Newman what it’s like to build a craft brewery in Miami, expect to hear a few expletives. Newman, the president of Alchemy & Science — a craft beer incubator and wholly-owned subsidiary of Boston Beer — has been trying to pry open the doors to Concrete Beach Brewery for nearly 18 months but the company, Newman said, has encountered a myriad of confusing permitting and zoning regulations along the way.
Next week Harpoon will officially expand its wholesale operations when it begins distributing San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. The company would like to add more brands to its portfolio throughout 2015 as well. Harpoon President Charlie Storey told Brewound that it had the room in its warehouse and the space on the company’s delivery trucks to enable the company to explore a more fully-developed distribution division.
The Saint Louis Brewery, makers of the popular craft beer Schlafly, has brought on a new chief executive officer. James Pendegraft, a Saint Louis native and the former vice president of sales & marketing for North American Breweries, a subsidiary of Florida Ice & Farm Co., will take over as Saint Louis Brewery’s CEO. He replaces co-founder Dan Kopman.
Over the next three weeks, Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery will miss out on an opportunity to bottle about 15,000 barrels of beer. The 27-year-old craft brewery is in the process of installing a new Krones bottling line that is capable of filling more than 560 bottles per minute, 47 percent more than Deschutes’ current system.
The executive shuffle continues at Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing. The company today named current director of business development Per Nielsen as its new vice president of sales. The announcement comes more than one year after Ninkasi parted ways with former national sales director Marty Ochs.
Trillium Brewing co-owner Jean-Claude Tetreault is one step closer to realizing his dream of owning a true farmhouse brewery in New England. The Boston-based beermaker today announced plans to expand with a second production facility in Canton, Mass., about 18 miles south of the company’s tiny, 2,300 sq. ft. outpost in the up-and-coming Fort Point neighborhood of Boston.
Another top five craft brewery has found itself embroiled in a trademark dispute. New Belgium Brewing, the country’s fourth-largest craft brewery, recently rolled out its latest year-round offering, Slow Ride Session IPA, without — the brewery says — knowledge that a startup based in Austin, Texas, had recently begun producing a pale ale under the same name.
Diageo, the world’s largest spirits producer and maker of popular import beers like Guinness and Red Stripe, is finally making its foray into craft with the launch of Thump Keg Brewing Co. The spirits-minded beer brand is intended to offer consumers a range of styles brewed using the same base ingredients as its distillery counterparts.
There are two types of malt beverages in Iowa: there’s “beer,” which is defined by the Alcoholic Beverages Division as a product that does not exceed 6.25 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). And then there’s “high alcoholic content beer,” which the state currently defines as malt beverages ranging between 6.25 percent ABV and 15 percent ABV.
Millercoors today announced that its 56-year-old CEO, Tom Long, plans to retire this summer. His last day with the country’s second-largest beer company will be June 30.
