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 westward expansion of Atlanta’s SweetWater Brewing Company under Canadian cannabis firm Tilray continues. After adding distribution in Colorado earlier this year, the company will go deeper in the Centennial State with the acquisition of a 32,450 sq. ft. production facility, taproom and restaurant in Fort Collins that previously housed the U.S. operations of Canada’s Red Truck Brewing Company since May 2017, and Fort Collins Brewery before it.
Consulting firm BW166 reported that label approvals for seltzer and seltzer-like products are accelerating, with approvals trending at 334 per month compared to the 228 per month in 2020. More than half (53%) of on-premise visitors went to a bar or restaurant during the July 4 weekend, according to CGA, an on-premise market research firm.
More than two years after making a splashy acquisition of Houston-based Silver Eagle Distributors, Redwood Capital Investments will acquire another independent Anheuser-Busch wholesaler. This time, the private investment firm is set to acquire Pepin Distributing in Tampa, Florida, Brewbound has confirmed with multiple sources.
In a year when craft beer volumes declined for the first time in the modern craft era, drinker interest in craft beer did not abate, Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during his presentation of the trade group’s annual consumer poll.
Constellation Brands executives tackled a number of issues, from supply “tightness” to Modelo Especial’s growth, and their hard seltzer ambitions during a first quarter 2022 call with investors and analysts today.
Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and sister brand Springdale Beer Company have signed with Sheehan Family Companies to distribute its offerings statewide in Massachusetts, the company announced today. Sheehan subsidiaries Craft Massachusetts (Boston, central and western Massachusetts), L. Knife & Son (southeastern Massachusetts), and Seaboard Products (northeastern Massachusetts) will begin distributing Jack’s Abby products starting today.
Six new alcohol laws will go into effect in Virginia starting July 1 — and a seventh on January 1, 2022. The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) recently explained those laws, from the extension of cocktails to-go sales, to “low-alcohol beverages” sales in ABC stores, with the state of emergency, which was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to expire on June 30.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ended the state’s state of emergency on Thursday, which meant the expiration of delivery and to-go privileges granted to breweries, bars and restaurants during the pandemic. The New Jersey bill (S.B. 3452) that would have brought the state excise tax rate on spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails in line with beer has been pulled from consideration for now, sources confirmed with Brewbound.
U.S. brewers shipped an estimated 15 million barrels of beer in May 2021, an +8.9% increase (more than 1.2 million barrels) compared to May 2020, according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing unofficial estimates of domestic tax paid shipments from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
New Lord Hobo CEO Brian Walsh says his goal is to bring stability to the Woburn, Massachusetts-based craft brewery. Walsh, an industry veteran who most recently helped lead the post-bankruptcy business Smuttynose Brewing Company in New Hampshire, was introduced last Thursday as CEO, taking the reins from founder Daniel Lanigan, who remains a member of the company’s board of directors.
Iconic Denver craft beer bar the Falling Rock Tap House will permanently close on Sunday, June 27, after 24 years in business. Owners Chris, Steve and Al Black made the announcement Saturday in a blog post titled “So long and thanks for all the beers.”
Lord Hobo Brewing Co. has appointed industry veteran Brian Walsh as the Woburn, Massachusetts-based craft brewery’s new CEO. The company informed employees today that Walsh, who last served as CEO of Smuttynose Brewing Company, has assumed the post from Lord Hobo founder Daniel Lanigan, who will remain a member of the company’s board of directors.
