Brewbound readers in 2019 gravitated to stories about major craft brewery mergers and acquisitions, hard seltzer launches and reformulations, lawsuits and distribution disputes and brewery closures. The announcement of the $300 million merger between Boston Beer Company and Dogfish Head set the stage for a busy year of M&A activity, as many craft brewers began to form partnerships to weather a more tumultuous competitive marketplace.

Richard Mahoney, the chairman of the board of The Wine Group, is the lead investor in Chicagoland craft brewery Kings & Convicts’ acquisition of Ballast Point Brewing Company from Constellation Brands, according to the ChicagoTribune. Brooklyn Brewery restructures sales force.

Four years after paying $1 billion for Ballast Point Brewing Company, Constellation Brands today threw in the towel on its big craft bet, announcing an agreement to sell the San Diego craft beer brand along with “a number of its associated production facilities and brewpubs” to Kings & Convicts, a little-known Chicagoland craft brewing company.

Constellation Brands is closing another Ballast Point taproom. The New York-headquartered beer, wine and spirits giant plans to close the taproom and restaurant at its Daleville, Virginia, production facility by the end of September, according to the Roanoke Times. Constellation will also cut 25 full- and part-time workers, as well as 16 temporary employees, the outlet reported.

Constellation Brands will shutter two Ballast Point Brewing facilities in Southern California, and back out of a plan to open a brewpub in San Francisco, Brewbound has learned. A spokeswoman with the New York-based beer, wine, and spirits company today confirmed the closure of Ballast Point Brewing’s 80,000 sq. ft. “Trade Street” sour beer and barrel-aging facility, which opened in San Diego in late 2017, as well as its Temecula, Calif.-based brewpub, which opened in 2016.

Constellation Brands reported its fiscal year and second quarter 2019 earnings results today, which were highlighted by a 7 percent increase in net sales, to more than $8.1 billion.

Just in time for spring, San Diego-based Ballast Point, one of the nation’s leading craft breweries, has released new Ballast Point Lager, available now nationwide. Incredibly bright and refreshing, it is the quintessential cooler beer for active adventures and leisurely days.

Ballast Point has released Passing Haze IPA and Brut IPA nationwide, available now for a limited time.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: The Brewers Association shares 2018 packaging trends; High Country Beverage reaches an agreement to acquire a share of a Kansas wholesaler; Allagash to can flagship White; Ballast Point sets opening date for downtown Disney taproom; and more industry news.

This pretty lady will make you pucker. Ballast Point is kicking off a new Trade Street Collection with a barrel-aged version of award-winning sour, introducing a new White Wine Barrel-Aged Sour Wench available nationwide.

Following the signing of a law allowing Illinois breweries to immediately begin selling beer and cider from outside beer companies in their taprooms, several Chicago restaurant and craft beer bar owners expressed concern that new regulations create additional competition for their businesses. However, a couple of Chicago brewery owners told Brewbound that they don’t anticipate major changes in the way they run their taproom businesses.

On the same day that it announced a $4 billion investment into Canada’s Canopy Growth Corporation, Constellation Brands also laid off dozens of employees tasked with selling the company’s craft and specialty beers throughout the U.S. Constellation — whose craft portfolio includes Ballast Point in California, Funky Buddha in Florida and Four Corners Brewery in Texas as well as Mexican import brands Corona, Modelo and Pacifico — terminated around 60 of its 100 or so craft and specialty reps, a source familiar with the situation told Brewbound.

Constellation Brands is continuing to invest behind an own-premise retail strategy for its Ballast Point brand, yesterday confirming plans to open another California brewpub in 2019. The new Ballast Point location – its eighth in California and the tenth in the U.S. — will be located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, where the NBA’s Golden State Warriors are building a new stadium.

Jim Sabia, chief marketing officer of Constellation Brands’ beer division, has been promoted to a newly created role of executive vice president and CMO of the New York-based alcohol company. In a press release, Constellation Brands said Sabia, who joined the organization in 2007 as the vice president of the spirits division, would oversee all aspects of marketing across the company’s beer, wine, and liquor portfolios.