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.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week left at least one craft brewery scrambling heading into last weekend. Castle Island Brewing Co. found its bank accounts “completely frozen” as of Friday, as federal regulators assumed control of the bank’s operations, founder and CEO Adam Romanow told Brewbound.
For only the second time in its 43-year history, Sierra Nevada has invested in another beverage company, albeit for a minority stake. The Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery announced it has made a minority investment in Riot Energy, a Venice, California-based energy drink maker.
As Stone Brewing begins a new era under the ownership of Sapporo, the Escondido, California-headquartered craft brewery is focused on driving growth of Delicious IPA by building out the brand as a family in 2023.
After seven years at Boston Beer Company, CFO Frank Smalla will exit in mid-April, the company announced in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The next popular non-alcoholic beverage brand to crossover into alcoholic beverages is SunnyD. Plus, new offerings from Molson Coors’ Simply Spiked, Bud Light Seltzer, and Jim Beam and Boston Beer.
U.S. brewers shipped more than 11.1 million barrels of product in January 2023, a decline of -4.4% year-over-year (YoY), according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing domestic tax paid shipment estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
21st Amendment Brewery has “reimagined” its 120,000 sq. ft. production facility in San Leandro, California, into a canned beverage co-packing facility capable of producing beer, non-alcoholic beer, FMBs, seltzers, canned cocktails, energy drinks, juices, sodas and more, the company announced this week.
Craft brewers have been living in turmoil for a few years now. Slowing growth, increasing competition, a pandemic, shifting consumer focuses, a consolidating middle tier, shrinking retail shelf space, supply chain turmoil, inflation, layoffs, increased minimum wage, skyrocketing rents have all taken a toll. So craft brewers continue to try to figure it out.
The Lost Abbey will vacate its original San Marcos, California, space and embark on its next journey via either contract brewing or forming an alternating proprietorship.
The end of 2022 delivered a soft finish for the world’s largest beer manufacturer. In the U.S., Anheuser-Busch InBev’s depletions (sales-to-retailers) and shipments (sales-to-wholesalers) declined -7.6% and -8.6%, respectively.
D.G. Yuengling & Son beer is now rolling out in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma as part of the Pennsylvania brewery’s joint venture with Molson Coors for westward expansion.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) owned Platform Beer Co. has ceased operations in Ohio, according to a Cleveland.com story citing “several sources.” However, the Platform brand will live on as three IPAs, according to a Platform spokesperson.
In a heavy Boston Beer Company news week, I wouldn’t blame you if you missed out on some of this week’s headlines. Chief among them: I believe we have our first craft-on-craft deal of the year.