Japanese brewing giant Asahi announced it has struck a deal to acquire Waunakee, Wisconsin-based contract brewer Octopi Brewing.

Martignetti Companies has closed on its acquisition of Quality Beverage, according to a press release. Financial terms of the deal, which was announced in April 2023, were not disclosed.

Nearly seven months after the dissolution of its proposed merger with Cape May Brewing, Flying Fish Brewing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last month. The brewery listed nearly $9.3 million owed to secured and unsecured creditors and nearly $1.3 million in assets, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the district of New Jersey.

Landing in a wholesaler’s warehouse is a big win for a supplier, but it’s often just the first step in a journey that ultimately ends in a consumer’s fridge. Stone Distributing general manager Brian Fried, Breakthru Beverage California director of beer Sinead Carey and Tryon Distributing director of beer Elledge Davis shared the questions and tasks suppliers need to ask and accomplish along the way during the Brewbound Live business conference last month in Marina del Rey, California.

Overall beer ordering contracted again in December after spending one month in expansion territory, according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI).

Constellation Brands and Molson Coors are expected to annex more shelf and cooler space in convenience stores following the upcoming spring 2024 resets, according to Goldman Sachs Equity Research’s recent Beverage Bytes survey.

Convenience stores were a bright spot for the beer category in 2023, with dollar sales in the channel up +5.2% for the first 11 months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. To share insights on how suppliers can make inroads in the channel, Extra Mile Convenience Stores category manager for alcoholic beverages Michelle Abdollah and Bump Williams Consulting VP of analytics and insights Dave Williams shared the stage at Brewbound Live.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc., parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have finalized a settlement in their dispute over the chain’s participation in the FTC’s investigation of one of its distributor partners.

Craft beer has entered “no to negative growth territory,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during a year-end webinar last week. “We were in double-digit growth as recently as 2014, 2015, and then we moved into kind of a more developed, slow, single-digit growth rate,” Watson said. “COVID hit, and we had the worst year in craft history in 2020 with a partial bounce back in 2021.

Nearly 5,000 Teamsters members across Anheuser-Busch InBev’s U.S. facilities have voted to authorize a strike if a new contract is not in place when the current one expires on February 29.

FIFCO USA-owned Seagram’s Escapes is refreshing its brand family in 2024. Seagram’s Escapes Refreshers will roll out in 15 markets next year, the company announced today. The 5% ABV flavored malt beverage (FMB) is sweetened with cane sugar and fruit juice, according to a press release.

This year will be the first, other than 2020, in which independent breweries’ volume has declined in the modern era of craft beer, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2023 Year in Beer report.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc. (RSSI), parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have reached a tentative agreement in the FTC’s civil investigative demand (CID) against the chain, according to a Law360 report.

Bell’s Brewery flagship Two Hearted IPA is getting some company on shelves. The Comstock, Michigan-headquartered brewery has elevated Hazy Hearted IPA (7.5% ABV) to nationwide distribution and Big Hearted IPA (9.5% ABV) to year-round distribution in select markets.