Jessica Infante joined Brewbound in 2019 after nearly a decade in a variety of marketing roles in the craft beer industry. Prior to that, she was a daily newspaper reporter at the Jersey Shore. Jess holds a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communication from Emerson College. She is a certified Cicerone and lives in Salem, Massachusetts.
With the help of technology from Austin, Texas-based Earthly Labs, the Denver Beer Company is launching a program to share the excess carbon dioxide produced during fermentation with the Clinic, a cannabis company, to stimulate marijuana plant growth.
Super Bowl draft beer consumption declined 1.3% in 2020 compared to last year’s game day, according to technology company BeerBoard, which tracks on-premise sales. At on-premise accounts Beer Board tracks, Michelob Ultra volume sales increased 28.7% over last year; total IPA volume was up 28%.
Stoudts Brewing Company will cease operations at the end of the winter, as founder Carol Stoudt retires after 33 years, according to a press release. The California Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control has suspended San Francisco-based Seven Stills Brewery and Distillery’s operating license for 90 days for violating the state’s tied house laws, according to a report from SFGate.com.
Cider category dollar share shrank in 2019, however, the growth of regional and local producers proved to be a bright spot, Danny Brager, senior VP of market research firm Nielsen’s beverage alcohol practice, shared Thursday during the American Cider Association’s (ACA) annual CiderCon conference in Oakland, California.
Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in Miami marks the first major beer-drinking occasion of 2020. In 2019, U.S. consumers spent $1.2 billion on beer at off-premise retailers in the two weeks leading up to the game between the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots, according to market research firm Nielsen. Those sales were roughly flat, though, down 0.5%, compared to 2018.
A bill introduced in the Michigan Legislature earlier this month would allow breweries producing up to 2,000 barrels annually to self-distribute their products in the state. Currently, Michigan breweries producing up to 1,000 barrels can self-distribute. According to national trade group the Brewers Association, the majority of Michgian’s craft breweries produced fewer than 1,400 barrels in 2018, the last year in which data was available.
East Coast gas and convenience store chain Cumberland Farms’ attempt to change Massachusetts’ off-premise retail chain licensing processes is being met with opposition from the state’s alcoholic beverage package stores.
Beer depletions (sales from wholesalers to retailers) in 2019 were mostly flat compared to 2018, although there were a few spikes around summer holidays, National Beer Wholesalers Association chief economist Lester Jones shared during a webinar hosted by Fintech, a data, analytics and invoice processing platform for wholesalers.
After posting a 6% decline in volume in 2019, Durango, Colorado-based Ska Brewing has refreshed its packaging and launched a hard seltzer line, with plans to to release a low-calorie IPA and open a brewery and distillery in Boulder, in an effort to find new avenues to grow the business.
Molson Coors Beverage Company’s craft arm, Tenth and Blake, has reached an agreement to acquire Detroit, Michigan-based Atwater Brewing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the deal is expected to close in the next couple of months.
Scottish craft beer maker BrewDog’s U.S. operations posted strong growth in 2019. Production at the Scotland-headquartered craft brewery’s facility in Columbus, Ohio, increased nearly 46%, to 53,000 barrels, chief revenue officer Adam Lambert told Brewbound.
For decades, professional sports sponsorships were the domain of the biggest beer companies, and in 2020, that’s mostly still the case. However, craft brewers have been making inroads.
The CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective shipped 14% more beer to distributors in 2019, bringing the total volume for all seven brands to 480,000 barrels, the company announced.
Coronado Brewing Company is poised for “planned strategic growth” in 2020, the company’s new CEO James Murray told Brewbound. According to Murray, the company’s projections for the year include 5% to 10% depletions (sales to retailers) growth. In 2019, Coronado sold 35,100 barrels, an 8.1% increase from the 32,471 barrels sold in 2018.
