An effort to maintain reduced federal excise taxes (FET) on all brewers an importers could take a major step forward tonight. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to extend tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers as part of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 3301) extender bill.

In this Distribution Roundup: Popular Vermont craft brewer Lawson’s Finest Liquids is partnering with Remarkable Liquids for statewide distribution in New Jersey; Republic National Distributing Company forms a joint venture with Young’s Market Company; MillerCoors’ Revolver brand adds distribution in three states; and more.

A month away from its eighth anniversary, Cape May Brewing Company is quickly growing into one of New Jersey’s largest craft breweries. Last year, Cape May achieved “regional brewery” status — those breweries making between 15,000 and 6 million barrels of beer annually — increasing production by 75 percent, to 16,269 barrels, according to the Brewers Association. Speaking to Brewbound, Ryan Krill — who co-founded the brewery with his father, Bob, and friend Chris Henke in 2011 — said the company is on pace to sell as much as 23,000 barrels in 2019.

An Illinois-headquarter maker of industrial, commercial and residential kitchen appliances has bought into the brewing equipment business. The Middleby Corporation today announced the acquisition of CM Brewing Technologies LLC, the parent company of California-based brewing system maker Ss Brewtech.

In the latest Last Call: Michigan’s Axle Brewing is searching for a buyer, as the company prepares to close its Ferndale-based taproom at the end of June. Also, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to sign beer-to-go measure into law on June 15, and more industry news.

The on-again, off-again effort to improve category health through an industry-wide campaign for beer is on once again. During the Beer Institute’s annual meeting, held Tuesday in St. Louis, president and CEO Jim McGreevy said the industry’s three top trade associations — the BI, the Brewers Association (BA) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) — have agreed to launch a pro-beer marketing campaign this summer. Category health was just one of several themes to develop during the two-day meeting, as multiple speakers touched on the growth opportunity in home delivery of food and booze, as well as the growing number of jobs open in the manufacturing and hospitality industries.

The Brewbound team hit the 2019 SAVOR event to ask several brewery owners — including James Beard Award winners Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Company — and other industry stakeholders how SAVOR and events like it help elevate the beer category.

The discussion of several headwinds facing the industry dominated the Monday afternoon session at the Beer Institute’s annual meeting in St. Louis. Beer Institute president and CEO Jim McGreevy opened Monday’s General Session and discussed several issues currently facing beer companies, including the effort to make permanent federal excise tax relief in the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, as well as the impact of tariffs on beer companies, and competition for market share with wine and spirits companies.

In this week’s Last Call: Heineken makes a minority investment in Amsterdam’s Oedipus; Bumble announces plans to open a brick-and-mortar bar in SoHo; the SEC lifts its ban on alcohol sales at sporting events; the future of Breckenridge’s brewpub is uncertain; and more news.

Alcohol producers’ efforts to make excise tax relief permanent reached another milestone today, as a majority of Congress now supports the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA). In a joint announcement, seven alcohol industry trade groups said a bill to permanently enact tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers now has 218 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The the latest Legislative Update: Pennsylvania brewers are on the verge of a sales tax compromise; Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs an alcohol reform bill; Maine brewers and wholesalers seek franchise reform; Illinois’ governor seek beer tax hike; and more notes from the states.

Fast-growing Night Shift Brewing has expanded distribution into another New England state. The company’s products just hit Connecticut, and launch parties are planned this week, including a meet-the-founders night Thursday at the Celtic Cavern in Middletown.

More than half of the top 50 Brewers Association-defined craft brewing companies didn’t grow in 2018, according to data published in the May/June edition of the not-for-profit trade group’s New Brewer magazine. It’s the third consecutive year that at least half of the top 50 regional craft brewing companies — those producing between 15,000 and six million barrels of beer a year — didn’t grow. In 2018, 28 of the top 50 small and independent breweries either declined or remained flat. In fact, just seven companies in the top 20 posted mid-to-low single-digit growth.

The Texas Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional challenge brought by three craft breweries to a 2013 state law that stripped beer companies of the ability to sell their distribution rights to wholesalers. The Institute for Justice, a law firm representing the three craft breweries, called the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case today “a blow to the economic liberty of all Texans.”