After just six months, MillerCoors has pulled the plug on Two Hats, a light beer brand that was targeted at 21- to 24-year-old consumers. The company announced the decision to cease production of the beer, which will remain on retail shelves until early 2019, in a letter to employees and wholesalers on Monday.

Midway through 2018, the Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective is outpacing the overall U.S. craft beer segment. The Brewers Association (BA) reported last week that growth for small and independent U.S. brewers had “stabilized,” with production growing 5 percent through the first six months of 2018. The Fireman Capital-backed brewery consortium — whose brands include Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Three Weavers, and Utah Brewers Cooperative (Wasatch and Squatters) — is growing faster than the category, with off-premise sales up 15.4 percent in the total U.S. multi-outlet and convenience store channel year-to-date.

In this week’s edition Last Call: Heineken takes a minority stake in a Chinese beer giant; ZX Ventures makes an e-commerce play in Australia; Toppling Goliath sues its former brewer; and more news from the week.

After being forced to abandon plans for a seasonal beer garden near downtown Boston, Castle Island Brewing today announced it would open a pop-up on Constitution Wharf in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. The new 6,000 sq. ft. space — located in a parking lot overlooking Boston Harbor — is situated across from the USS Constitution and slated to open Sunday, August 5.

MillerCoors continues to battle a pair of high-profile lawsuits — including a trademark infringement case brought by Stone Brewing and another case from a Las Vegas beer wholesaler. Earlier this week, MillerCoors, the U.S. beer division of Molson Coors, responded to Stone Brewing’s motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the sale of Keystone products in which the word “Stone” had been isolated.

Molson Coors Brewing Company today reported its second-quarter earnings, however the financial results took a backseat to news that its Canadian business division had formed a joint venture with a Quebec cannabis company. The JV between Molson Coors Canada and HEXO, a recreational cannabis “sister brand” to The Hydropothecary, a licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis, will be structured as “a standalone start-up company” led by its own board and management team.

A month after a bipartisan group of Congressional members called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate potential irregularities in the aluminum market, Platts, the group responsible for helping set the price of the metal purchased by thousands of U.S. beer companies, has vowed to offer greater transparency into current price assessments. Platts, which is owned by Standard & Poor’s and bills itself as “the leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets,” last week announced that it would begin publishing alternative pricing for non-tariffed aluminum and domestically available scrap, starting August 1.

California lawmakers are considering two new pieces of legislation — one that would expand retail sales privileges for the state’s brewpubs and another bill, backed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, that would allow beer manufacturers to give away glassware to bars and restaurants.

In the latest round of People Moves: Modern Times scales back its taproom staff; North Carolina’s guild director departs; and more beer company changes.

Boston Beer Company’s return to growth continued for a second consecutive quarter. The company — which makes the Samuel Adams, Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea, and Truly Spiked & Sparkling products — yesterday reported its second-quarter earnings results, which were highlighted by a 10.2 percent increase in net revenue to $273.1 million. For the 26-week period ending June 30, Boston Beer’s net revenue was up 13.2 percent, to $463.6 million.

Halfway through 2018, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global revenues are up 4.7 percent despite continued shipment and depletion declines in the U.S. A-B, the world’s largest beer manufacturer, posted global revenue growth of 4.7 percent, to more than $14 billion, as revenue per hectoliter increased 4 percent during the second quarter of 2018. A-B also announced several organizational changes, including moving its “global growth and innovation team,” ZX Ventures, and its marketing department “under a common global lead.”

As the craft landscape has become increasingly competitive and as growth has slowed, some craft brewers are beginning to alter their approaches to expansion. While some companies have restructured their sales and marketing teams and laid off employees, others are starting to reexamine their brick-and-mortar strategies. Take the divergent paths of Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn and Renegade Brewing Company in Denver, for example.

Blue Moon inventor Keith Villa, who retired from MillerCoors in January after a storied 32-year career, isn’t leaving the beer business after all. Much of the press following his departure from the country’s second-largest beer company centered around the launch of Ceria Beverages, a startup focused on releasing a line of non-alcoholic craft beers containing THC. At the same time, however, Villa and his wife, Jodi, had quietly launched Donavon Brewing Company in their hometown of Arvada, Colorado.

Another longtime Ninkasi Brewing executive has left the building. In an email to Brewbound, Ninkasi co-founder and CEO Nikos Ridge confirmed that CFO Nigel Francisco left the Eugene, Oregon-based craft brewery in June, after about a decade, in order to pursue a similar role with King Estate Winery, which is also located in Eugene. In an unrelated move, the craft brewery also laid off three employees in the marketing and communications departments, Ridge confirmed.