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.
Sierra Nevada has filed a counter lawsuit against Matagrano, Inc., the Chico-headquartered craft brewery’s former South San Francisco-based wholesaler, in the Superior Court of the state of California, County of San Mateo. The trademark lawsuit between Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Grupo Modelo over the former’s ability to produce and sell Corona Hard Seltzer will continue, despite Constellation’s motion to dismiss, a federal judge ruled this week.
Minhas Craft Brewery, the second-oldest continuously run brewery in the U.S., is producing Happy Dad Hard Seltzer, which was created by the Nelk Boys, a group of Canadian YouTubers with more than 6.6 million subscribers.
Wine and spirits giant E. & J. Gallo, which makes popular ready-to-drink vodka soda cocktail High Noon Sun Sips, has announced it is building a new production and distribution facility in Chester County, South Carolina. The $423 million facility is expected to generate 496 jobs over the next eight years, according to a press release.
Beer category off-premise dollar sales declined -7% during the two weeks surrounding Memorial Day weekend compared to the same period in 2020, according to market research firm NielsenIQ. The decline was “expected, given the shift back to on-premise establishments,” NielsenIQ vice president of beverage alcohol practice Danelle Kosmal wrote in a report on holiday weekend sales.
Sugar-based hard seltzers are now considered malt beverages in Oregon and will be taxed accordingly, ending the state’s discrepancy with the federal government’s classification of the popular bubbly beverages.
Following an investigation into sexually inappropriate conduct shared on social media, the Cicerone Certification Program announced today it has accepted an employee’s resignation.
After a group of former BrewDog employees called out the Scottish craft brewery for espousing a “culture of fear” and “toxic attitudes towards junior staff” in an open letter, co-founder and CEO James Watt admitted BrewDog has not always “got it right.”
Ball Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum beverage cans, will continue to allocate inventory to customers and import cans from overseas due to short supply throughout this summer, executive vice president and chief financial officer Scott C. Morrison said yesterday during a public session of the Deutsche Bank Global Basic Materials Conference. “In the Northern Hemisphere, both in Europe and U.S. we’ll be on allocation again this summer,” he said. “We’re coming into this summer in North America extremely tight on inventory.”
A nationwide truck driver shortage is causing headaches for several industries, including the beer industry. The U.S. pool of truck drivers with commercial drivers licenses (CDL) is 50,000-60,000 workers short of where it should be.
Newly appointed Duvel USA president Seraf De Smedt and members of the company’s leadership team discussed the path forward today nearly five months after the revelation of a toxic work environment led to leadership changes at the top of Boulevard Brewing Company. “We’ve focused a lot the last few months on collaboration and really having transparent and honest conversations,” vice president of communication and culture Julie Weeks told Brewbound.
The strains on the packaging supply chain that supports the beer industry are showing no sign of letting up. Demand for aluminum cans has far outpaced supply as at-home consumption spiked with the pandemic-forced closure of the on-premise channel last year, and that same rise in home use has also driven up the cost of cardboard packaging.
Craft rollup CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective and Three Weavers Brewing Company founder Lynne Weaver have reached an agreement in which Weaver and her investment group will reacquire the Inglewood, California-based craft brewery, the company announced today.
Consumers used the long weekend to sneak in an extra round with friends and family — and many purchased those drinks online. Sales on alcohol delivery on-demand marketplace Drizly spiked 30% on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, compared to the previous four Sundays in May, the company shared. The hard seltzer segment reached a 28% share of overall beer category sales during the holiday weekend, an increase of 3% over its overall share for the month.
