Under the specter of Constellation Brands potentially forcing additional sales of its distribution rights in California, leaders from the National Beer Wholesalers Association stressed the importance of protecting state franchise laws to thousands of wholesalers and industry professionals attending the trade association’s annual convention in San Diego. NBWA chairman Jim Matesich, without naming Constellation Brands, pointed to trade press headlines from June when the beverage alcohol company forced Markstein Beverage Co. to sell its distribution rights in northern San Diego County to Reyes Beverage Group. “Terminations without cause, particularly of distributors that took risks and helped build those brands create distrust in trading partners,” he said.

During Boston Beer Company’s annual Great American Beer Festival breakfast, founder Jim Koch unveiled a new series of Samuel Adams ads and announced a new grant program that will give $1 million to early stage food and beverage companies. Koch said the new series of folksy ads, which highlight hop selection in Germany for Samuel Adams’ flagship Boston Lager, focus on “craftsmanship” and “artisanal values.” The ads end with the tagline: “Brewed inefficiently since 1984.”

In this week’s Press Clips: Anheuser-Busch plans to feature NBA and MLB athletes in ad campaigns; Celis Brewery assumes sales responsibilities for Uncle Billy’s and Pedernales brands; the Beer Institute releases domestic tax paid estimate for August; and more news.

Massachusetts Beverage Alliance (MBA) today announced the official launch of Homegrown Distribution, a boutique wholesaler focused on overlooked craft brands not currently getting enough attention from a network of five pre-existing wholesale partners across the state. As an offshoot of MBA, Homegrown Distribution will assume statewide sales and delivery responsibilities for several brands.

Surging freight costs, a shortage of long-haul truck drivers and new laws restricting the number of hours that drivers can be on the road are cutting into profits of beer companies and other major corporations throughout the United States. Although increased transportation costs are affecting all consumer goods industries, Beer Institute chief economist Michael Uhrich told Brewbound that they’re disproportionately affecting the beer industry because the vast majority of beer sold domestically is shipped. Last year, beer companies shipped 2.9 billion cases of beer, according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

This week’s Middle Tier Headlines include: Ska Brewing exits Texas; Cigar City begins exporting to Scandinavia; Maine Beer Company adds Georgia distribution; the NBWA releases the latest Beer Purchaser’s Index; and more news.

Wine and spirits brands are cutting into the growth of the craft beer segment, according to Patrick Livingston, director of client insights for market research firm IRI. Livingston, who led yesterday’s Power Hour presentation hosted by the Brewers Association (BA), said craft beer dollar sales were up just 1.7 percent in IRI’s multi-outlet off-premise U.S. retail universe (excluding convenience stores) through July 8. Livingston added that craft has begun to plateau in off-premise channels, with volume sales leveling off since late March.

Several beer companies throughout North and South Carolina have temporarily halted operations in preparation for Hurricane Florence, which is set to make landfall over the next 24 hours, bringing with it wind gusts exceeding 74 mph and days of storm surges, flooding and double-digit rainfall. States of emergency have been declared in the Carolinas, and the governors in those states have urged more than 1 million residents of coastal towns to evacuate. Georgia, Virginia and Maryland have also issued emergency orders. Palmetto Brewing Co., which was acquired in late 2017 by Catawba Brewing Co., shut down on Wednesday, with its 20 employees being encouraged to evacuate the area.

As the U.S. brewing industry inches closer to a record 7,000 craft beer companies in operation, hundreds of distressed breweries are expected to close in 2019 and many of those failed enterprises will turn to asset auctions as a way to pay off debt. Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson told Brewbound during a live-streamed interview at last week’s California Craft Brewers Association Summit that he anticipates as many as 300 brewery closures by the end of 2018. According to Watson, he expects the gap between openings and closings to shrink over time, and there could be as many as 500 closures in the next couple of years. The increasing number of brewery closures has also meant an uptick in business for auction houses.

Nearly two years after publicly declaring an interest in opening a farmhouse brewery in Connecticut, popular Massachusetts craft beer maker Trillium Brewing Company has purchased a farm in North Stonington, about two hours outside of Boston. In a blog post, JC and Esther Tetreault, the husband-and-wife team that co-founded Trillium in 2013, said they bought the farm in order to fulfill their dream of opening a farm brewery near where they were married in the pastoral region of Connecticut.

Thousands of California beer industry professionals met in Sacramento last week for the California Craft Brewers Association annual three-day Craft Beer Summit, Expo and Beer Festival. As an official media partner of the event, Brewbound hosted 10 hours of live streamed interviews, and sat in on a variety of seminars during the show. Here’s what we learned.

A record 7,000 breweries will be in operation in the United States in 2018, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson shared Thursday during the opening session of the California Craft Brewers Association’s Craft Beer Summit, Expo and Beer Festival in Sacramento. Watson called it a “virtual certainty” that the industry will reach that milestone this year, and more breweries are on the way with more than 9,000 active permits filed with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau at the midway point of 2018.

In the latest distribution roundup, Left Hand Brewing opens Idaho, Funkwerks goes to Nevada, Heavy Seas hits Virginia and more.

The continued growth of All Day IPA has Founders Brewing Company staring down nearly 600,000 barrels of beer in 2018, according to the brewery’s co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens. “We’re clipping along at around 30 percent growth,” Stevens told Brewbound. “I see next year about the same.”