The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed concerns raised over Craft Brew Alliance’s (CBA) sale of Kona Brewing’s Hawaii operations to private equity firm PV Brewing, according to a March 17 response brief to public comments filed by the state attorney general and Maui Brewing Company founder and CEO Garrett Marrero.

Ballast Point will push forward with a once-planned brewpub in San Francisco, while permanently closing its Chicago location.

Independent San Diego wholesaler Scout Distribution will add statewide distribution in Arizona, starting April 5. The company will start operations from a warehouse in Phoenix, with plans to add a second in Tucson in the next 12 to 18 months.

If you’re getting into the $4 billion hard seltzer segment in 2021 with a glut of new offerings, you better go hard. For New Belgium Brewing Company, that amounts to the biggest investment behind a brand launch in the company’s history for Fruit Smash, the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery’s irreverent seltzer line, which began hitting retailers earlier this month.

On the verge of Night Shift Brewing Company’s ninth anniversary, the Everett, Massachusetts-based craft brewery is investing in its first “real advertising campaign.”

Molson Coors Beverage Company said the Topo Chico line will begin hitting store shelves in nine states starting March 29, giving the company yet another hard seltzer brand to compete within the more than $4 billion hard seltzer segment that has thus far been dominated by two brands: Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer.

Boston Beer Company executives believe Truly Punch could be the next big thing in hard seltzer, rivaling the brand’s Lemonade and Iced Tea offshoots.

A consortium of investors has reached a deal to acquire 100% ownership of City Brewing, the largest beverage alcohol co-packer in the U.S., and also acquire the former Molson Coors production brewery in Irwindale, California, from Pabst Brewing Company.

Stone Brewing Company has agreed to pay a more than $1.8 million offer in compromise to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for alleged violations related to tax reporting and payments.

The launch of Dogfish Head’s ready-to-drink canned cocktails into near national distribution marks the culmination of what brewery founder Sam Calagione described as “the single longest R&D project” of his career.

Congress passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which now advances to President Joe Biden for an expected signature.

“We obviously had grown so quickly that I just knew there was going to be an extent at how much we could realistically scale the business on our own, just due to our existing infrastructure, our own resources, and, quite frankly, even our kind of experience,” Far West Spirits founder Katie Beal Brown told Brewbound.

The May 1 launch of a line of hard seltzers branded with fast-food chain Sonic’s name and proprietary beverage flavors has the potential to make Oklahoma City craft brewery COOP Ale Works a player in the $4 billion hard seltzer segment, president Sean Mossman told Brewbound.

Diageo has acquired fast-growing hard seltzer maker Far West Spirits LLC, which produces the Lone River Ranch Water brand.