Craft brewers’ collective production declined 4% in 2024, to 23.1 million barrels of beer produced, the Brewers Association (BA) shared today in the release of its annual craft brewing production report. The trade group representing small and independent craft breweries described 2024’s numbers as “highlighting the new realities of a maturing market in a rapidly evolving environment.”

The craft-on-craft partnership trend has reached the Bay Area. San Francisco-based Fort Point Beer Co. and Sonoma County-headquartered HenHouse Brewing Company are merging to form Fort Point HenHouse Inc.

Gavin Hattersley will retire at the end of 2025 after six years as CEO of Molson Coors Beverage Company. Molson Coors’ board of directors will begin a search for Hattersley’s successor, tapping “a nationally recognized search firm” to review internal and external candidates.

Family-owned, boutique craft distributor VT Beer Shepherd has sold part of its portfolio, including the distribution rights to Lawson’s Finest Liquids, and has ceased operations. Baker Distributing in Colchester, Vermont, has acquired the distribution rights to Lawson’s Finest and other brands from VT Beer Shepherd.

Tilray Brands will cease operations at Hop Valley Brewing in Eugene, Oregon, in July, and transfer production of Hop Valley beers to other breweries owned by the global cannabis and U.S. craft brewing company, Brewbound has learned.

Sierra Nevada’s Big Little Thing IPA is getting a second act. The imperial IPA has been reformulated as a juicy hazy IPA with the ABV amped up to 9.5% from 9%. Although Big Little Thing has been a top-30 craft brand in off-premise scans, the brand’s trends have trended down since 2023.

A foreclosure filing against Lakeland, Florida-based Brew Hub caught some people by surprise last week … including Brew Hub’s CEO. Brew Hub CEO Tim Schoen cited “miscommunication” between the contract brewery’s majority investor, private equity firm Yucaipa Companies, and Live Oak Bank, for the foreclosure filing, according to an email sent to Brew Hub clients on Thursday.

President Donald Trump’s reveal of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday included a 25% tariff on all imported beer and empty aluminum cans. Those tariffs are expected to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday, April 4.

Hand Family Companies made a splash Monday with a deal to enter the Southern California market through the acquisitions of Stone Distributing and Classic Beverage, creating a new subsidiary, Sunset Distributing. Speaking to Brewbound, HFC president and CEO JR Hand said he expects Sunset to “be the dominant wholesaler in the craft space in Southern California.”

Hand Family Companies (HFC) has made a blockbuster deal to add Stone Distributing Company and Classic Beverage in Southern California to its newly formed Sunset Distributing subsidiary, the multistate independent Anheuser-Busch distributor announced today.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) continues to reshuffle its craft brewing operations. The world’s largest beer manufacturer announced a $1 million investment in Wicked Weed’s Asheville, North Carolina-based operations that coincides with the winding down of operations at its 104,000 sq. ft. production facility in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, “over the next few months.”

Constellation Brands chief customer officer Bill Renspie is no longer with the company, Beer Marketer’s Insights reported Wednesday, citing a note to distributors from beer division president Jim Sabia.

More Minute Maid Spiked ready-to-drink (RTD) options are on the way from Coca-Cola’s “firewalled” bev-alc subsidiary, Red Tree Beverages.

A majority of U.S. consumers support expanding direct-to-consumer shipping of beer, according to the fifth annual Direct-to-Consumer Beer Shipping Report, a Harris Poll survey commissioned by Sovos ShipCompliant and the Brewers Association.