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.
Craft brewers’ sales improved during the third quarter of 2020, but are still far off from where they were in 2019, according to a new analysis by Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson. Combining several datasets tracking on-premise sales, Watson found that Q3 sales fell 22% below baseline, a marked improvement over Q2’s 45% below baseline.
Tourists and a pandemic don’t mix. Salem, Massachusetts-based Notch Brewing announced Wednesday that it would close its biergarten for on-site service beginning Friday through November 1, as its hometown faces a deluge of tourists in the lead up to Halloween.
After six years of contract brewing with partners in the far corners of Massachusetts, Springfield-based White Lion Brewing now has a space to call its own at the city’s Tower Square development. “It’s been a journey, but through perseverance, a good team and good support, we are where we are right now,” White Lion founder Raymond Berry told Brewbound.
Following the announcement yesterday that Danish brewer Mikkeller has shuttered its brewery at the New York Mets’ home Citi Field, Fountain Beverage and EBBS Brewing Company will take over the 10,000 sq. ft. space.
In its first analysis of the U.S. packaging industry, financial services firm Credit Suisse said its medium-term outlook of the industry is “bullish.” The can industry is being strained from several directions, as the COVID-19 pandemic’s restrictions on the on-premise channel has shifted a chunk of Americans’ beer consumption from draft to cans and new product introductions, including those in the $3.49 billion hard seltzer industry, lean heavily toward cans. Additionally, can production has slowed over several years.
Founders of three of Massachusetts’ oldest craft breweries shared insights and advice for the next generation of Bay State craft brewers during the virtual Mass Brewers Guild conference earlier this month. “Expect to work your ass off,” said Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer.
Miami-based Biscayne Bay Brewing has filed a lawsuit against La Tropical Holdings B.V. and Cerveceria La Tropical USA LLC, alleging that they and their parent companies, Heineken N.V. and Heineken USA, have no basis for their claims of trademark infringement. Those claims, the company alleged, cost Biscayne Bay a commercial relationship with Major League Soccer franchise, team Inter Miami CF.
Next Glass, the tech parent company of beer-centric social media app Untappd and online beer community and event producer Beer Advocate, announced today it has reached an agreement to acquire e-commerce platform Oznr, formerly known as CraftCellr.
Ballast Point Brewing Company today announced the indefinite closure of its Chicago brewpub, effective October 24, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rob Tod, the founder of Portland, Maine-based Allagash Brewing, cautioned attendees of the virtual Mass Brewers Guild conference that they’ll need to lean on each other for support. “Are we going into a time of headwinds and has COVID accelerated it? I would argue yes,” Tod said. “But I would argue also that it’s more important than ever to stick together right now.”
The Brewers Association (BA) has published the complaint process for violations of the code of conduct its board of directors approved over the summer and named the three members of the complaint review board.
The Boston Beer Company has added Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione and Snap Inc. (Snapchat) chairman Michael Lynton to the company’s board of directors. Philadelphia-headquartered GoPuff, essentially an on-demand delivery service for products ranging from snacks to alcohol, recently completed a $380 million funding round that takes the company’s valuation to $3.9 billion. And more news bites.
Buellton, California-based Figueroa Mountain Brewery has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to take on new investment from New York-based private equity firm Creekstone LLC.
Minneapolis-based Surly Brewing’s hospitality employees will not be unionizing after their election to join Unite Here Local 17 failed this week. “We began this journey hoping for a different outcome,” the organizing employees wrote on their Unite Surly Workers Instagram account.
