Leaders of the National Black Brewers Association (NB2A) shared their experiences as Black brewery owners during the final Tap Talk of the California Craft Beer Summit last week in Sacramento.

In the latest installment of Brewbound’s A Round With – a weekly Insider-exclusive Q&A series with industry leaders – Karen Hertz dishes on running a brewery that’s defying the trends. Hertz is the founder and chief brewista of Golden, Colorado-based Holidaily Brewing, the country’s only certified gluten-free, woman-owned craft brewery.

Founder Ray Daniels has sold the Cicerone Certification Program to Dan Imdieke and Jason Pratt, the organization announced today.

California craft breweries may soon have an easier time selling their beer at special events beyond their taproom walls, thanks to the California Craft Brewers Association’s (CCBA) sponsored bill in 2024. AB 2174 would “authorize a licensed beer manufacturer to apply for, and the department to issue, a beer caterer’s permit for the sale of beer manufactured by or for the licensee for consumption at specified locations and events, including, among others, conventions, sporting events, and trade exhibits.”

Draft beer volume declined -20% during St. Patrick’s Day weekend, due in part to this year’s misalignment of the drinking-centric holiday and March Madness, according to on-premise data firm BeerBoard.

Monster-owned Cigar City will shift the Tampa, Florida-based craft brewery’s production hub to a cross-category innovation center; as a result of the change, 12 positions have been terminated, Brewbound has confirmed. The company also eliminated the position of long-time and original brewmaster Wayne Wambles on February 9.

Could the luck of the Irish be with bev-alc producers this month? Nearly one-third (32%) of consumers plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, according to consumer research firm Numerator.

A year and a half post-merger, Sapporo-Stone is hitting its stride.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) Teamsters voted this week to ratify the union’s new five-year contract with the world’s largest beer manufacturer, the union announced yesterday. The contract was approved with 86% of the vote, which began on Sunday and went on for three days.

Two New England craft-centric distributors are expected to merge operations. Craft Collective and Homegrown Distribution, which both have statewide coverage in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, “have reached a tentative agreement to combine operations, subject to regulatory approval,” leaders from both wrote in a letter to suppliers dated today obtained by Brewbound. “The purpose of our… Read more »

Non-alcoholic beverage crossover partnerships have created “rapid depth” for beverage-alcohol producers in recent years, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s (BWC) latest monthly report.

Pontoon Brewing has officially divorced from Bevana Partners as part of its reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract that the union said will raise pay, improve health care and retirement benefits and provide job security for its members at A-B’s U.S. 12 breweries, the Teamsters announced on social media Wednesday evening.

Boston Beer Company reported its 2023 full-year and fourth-quarter earnings amid a flurry of news, including that CEO Dave Burwick will retire, a Nike exec will supplant him and that its Hard MTN Dew brand will shift to beer wholesalers from PepsiCo’s erstwhile Blue Cloud Distribution.