How is the chain game playing out in a (mostly) post-pandemic environment? Sales leaders from Firestone Walker and JuneShine and a leader of national accounts for Southern California wholesaler Scout Distribution shared their experiences during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica, California.

The vast majority of wholesalers (88%) are seeing drinkers in their markets trade down, or are expecting them to, according to a survey from financial services firm Jefferies. Monday Night Brewing is undergoing a full rebrand after more than 11 years.

We’re still a couple of weeks from the official start of Dry January — the month of abstinence from alcoholic beverages, for some — and we finally received an update from the now 1-year-old trade group the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA).

It’s no surprise that Brewbound readers in 2022 sought out information on the year’s biggest craft brewery sale: the acquisition of Stone Brewing by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo. Brewery deals are always among the most-read stories on Brewbound. However, the sale wasn’t the only thing keeping the San Diego craft brewery in the news in 2022. We’ve rounded up the 10 most-read stories of 2022.

U.S. brewers have now shipped fewer barrels of beer in nine of 11 months this year, with the November 2022 domestic tax paid estimate down -4% compared to November 2021, according to the Beer Institute, citing the latest figures from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

A judge has denied Anheuser-Busch InBev subsidiary Grupo Modelo’s bid for partial summary judgment in its trademark infringement lawsuit against Constellation Brands for the company’s use of the Corona trademark for hard seltzer.

Two weeks remain in 2022 and the reviews are beginning to filter in. Spoiler alert, it’s not been a great year. Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson ran through the trade group’s annual “Year in Beer” wrap up. Plus, for the last-minute holiday shoppers, how about buying a wholesaler?

Andrews Distributing Company of North Texas has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the assets of Price Distributing Company in Ennis, Texas, the company announced Thursday. The transaction is expected to close today.

As 2022 nears a close, middle tier consolidation has yet to slow down. The latest deal involves self-described “consolidator of beverage alcohol distributors” Keg 1 and its Keg 1 River City LLC subsidiary striking a deal to acquire River City Distributing Company in Louisville, Kentucky.

Several big craft beer deals have gone down in 2022, from the sale of Stone Brewing to Sapporo, to Tilray’s recent acquisition of Montauk Brewing. Those transactions have one thing in common: investment bank Arlington Capital Advisors. Arlington director Ryan Lake broke down the state of beverage alcohol M&A during the Brewbound Live business conference.

Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) has restructured its sales force, cutting “a handful” of sales roles, in order to better focus the company’s efforts on off-premise retailers.

The Consumer Price Index for beer at-home increased +7.7% in November 2022 compared to a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Notably, the CPI for beer at-home is now outpacing the CPI for all products.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been nine days since the 2022 Brewbound Live business conference wrapped up. Months of planning, speaker wrangling and preparation finally turned into two days of business chats, networking and parties. Now that Jess Infante, Zoe Licata and I have had time to decompress, our coverage is beginning to roll out on Brewbound.com.

The beer category’s “level set” expected at the start of 2022 never materialized, and the industry now needs to look to the future and stop benchmarking against the last couple years, Mary Guiver, global principal category merchant for beer at Whole Foods, shared last week during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica, California.