Justin Kendall provides daily coverage of the beer industry on Brewbound.com, conducts live-streamed interviews during Brewbound’s events and co-produces the Brewbound podcast. Kendall is a nearly 20-year career journalist who led alt-weekly newspapers in Kansas City, Missouri, and Des Moines, Iowa.
In the latest Legislative Update: Maryland’s Reform on Tap Act dies in committee; the Massachusetts Senate revives franchise law reform bill; and more state news.
Despite initially reaching a verbal agreement to sell Smuttynose Brewing to a New Hampshire entrepreneur, Provident Bank has found another buyer for the distressed craft brewery. Runnymede Investments, a North Hampton-based venture capital and investment firm, has agreed to purchase the struggling brewery and restaurant for an undisclosed sum. The deal for Smuttynose comes exactly one week after the Portsmouth-area beer company was sold at a public auction to Provident Bank, its lead lender, for $8.25 million.
After announcing plans last summer to open a Brooklyn fermentation facility, the founder of Stillwater Artisanal is attempting to raise $1.8 million via a revenue-sharing crowdfunding campaign and an equity sale for a new side project. Slated to open inside a 6,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Greenpoint this fall, the offshoot, called Production, will serve as an “experimental fermentation facility,” bar, restaurant, event space and music venue, Stillwater founder Brian Strumke told Brewbound.
Concerns over potential price gouging are mounting after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last Thursday to impose a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. In a letter sent yesterday to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, four beverage trade groups — the Beer Institute (BI), Brewers Association (BA), Can Manufacturers Association (CMI) and American Beverage Association — cited “major concerns about how the 10 percent tariff could cause price-gouging within aluminum markets.”
After completing its annual “beer review,” popular craft beer restaurant chain Yard House said it will tap 427 new beer brands across its more than 70 U.S. locations beginning March 26. The California-based restaurant chain’s four-month assessment of its beer list concluded with it swapping out about 20 percent of the more than 9,800 tap handle placements.
A pair of Michigan-based MillerCoors distributors are consolidating their beer businesses. Kalamazoo-headquartered Imperial Beverage today announced that, after five months of negotiating, it had acquired Bayside Beverage, the beer division of Highland Park-based Great Lakes Wine & Spirits.
How much is a distressed craft brewery worth in 2018? Somewhere north of $8.25 million, if the scene at New Hampshire’s Smuttynose Brewing earlier today is any indication. An auction run by James R. St. Jean Auctioneers for Smuttynose ended with the company’s banker, Provident Bank, reclaiming the brewery for $8.25 million on Friday afternoon. Immediately after the auction concluded, Norman Rice, a local tech entrepreneur, approached the bank about purchasing the Portsmouth-based company.
In this week’s Last Call: President Trump imposes tariffs on steel and aluminum; Heineken attempts to acquire a majority stake in United Breweries; Three Floyds’ expansion plans are approved; and more.
Pearse Lyons, the founder and president global biotech company Alltech, died today at the age of 73.
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) CEO Andy Thomas repurposed an old presidential metaphor during Thursday’s 2017 financial results call with investors and analysts to illustrate the publicly traded company’s health.
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) officially announced its 2017 earnings today, which fell in line with preliminary financial results shared on February 1. Those results were again highlighted by net sales increasing 2 percent to more than $207.5 million and 10 percent depletion growth for the Hawaiian-themed Kona brand.
After pulling distribution from two states last year, Santa Fe Brewing Company is re-focusing its efforts on growing sales in its home state of New Mexico and seven other core markets. Santa Fe director of sales and marketing Jarrett Babincsak told Brewbound that the company decided to dig deeper in its eight-state footprint due to the increasingly more difficult challenge of selling beer away from a home territory.
After two consecutive years of single-digit sales declines, Sierra Nevada Brewing is refocusing its efforts on selling its flagship Pale Ale while also telling its story to consumers.
In the latest Legislative Update: Sunday sales are now legal in Indiana; South Dakota is on the verge of increasing its barrel cap; tensions run high in Maryland; and more state news.
