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.

Mass Bay Brewing Company’s search for a CMO is over. The Boston-headquartered craft beer company today announced the hiring of Jon London, who will take the post on September 3. London, who spent a decade at Boston Beer Company between 2006 and 2016, will be tasked with overseeing Mass Bay’s portfolio of brands, which includes beer brands Harpoon, UFO and Clown Shoes, as well as Arctic Summer hard seltzer and City Roots hard cider.

Mass Bay Brewing Company’s release of Arctic Summer hard seltzer also coincides with a search for the company’s first chief marketing officer, something co-founder and CEO Dan Kenary considers to be “the most important external hire” the 33-year-old company has ever made. Speaking to Brewbound, Kenary said interviews for a CMO are underway, and he hopes to hire someone who can “roll up their sleeves” and not “ask someone else” to do their work by the end of the summer.

ondo Brewing and Crafted Exports, the leading international distributor for American craft beers and spirits, have partnered to bring the best of Boston and New York beers to London.

Dunkin’ and Harpoon Brewery have collaborated to create the ultimate summer sipper. Following their first partnership last fall, the two beverage brands are back together, now introducing a new, limited edition coffee-inspired beer – Harpoon Dunkin’ Summer Coffee Pale Ale – just in time for warmer weather.

Boston’s Harpoon Brewery is latest craft brewery jumping into the hard seltzer space. The new product line, a collaborative effort with Worcester, Massachusetts’ Polar Beverages, is called Arctic Summer.

Searching for something more social than water after your flag football game? Feeling like you have earned something special after that 10K? Harpoon Brewery knows the feeling.

Samuel Adams might be the official beer of the Boston Red Sox, but it was cross-town competitor Harpoon Brewery that scored a prominent World Series commercial, a first for the company, just days before the start of Game 4. In between the singing of the National Anthem and the first pitch on Saturday night, Harpoon Brewery co-founder and CEO Dan Kenary could be heard on televisions across the greater Boston area.

Dunkin’ and Harpoon Brewery, New England staples with millions of fans across the country, have come together for the first time to combine the taste of Dunkin’s Espresso Blend Coffee with Harpoon’s famous craft beer, launching the new Harpoon Dunkin’ Coffee Porter.

Brewbound is excited to announce the launch of its namesake podcast series, which will feature interviews with the beer industry’s top founders and executives, as well as promising newcomers. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, will be published every Thursday.

As the U.S. brewing industry inches closer to a record 7,000 craft beer companies in operation, hundreds of distressed breweries are expected to close in 2019 and many of those failed enterprises will turn to asset auctions as a way to pay off debt. Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson told Brewbound during a live-streamed interview at last week’s California Craft Brewers Association Summit that he anticipates as many as 300 brewery closures by the end of 2018. According to Watson, he expects the gap between openings and closings to shrink over time, and there could be as many as 500 closures in the next couple of years. The increasing number of brewery closures has also meant an uptick in business for auction houses.

Beer, Boston and baseball are coming together like never before, thanks to Harpoon Brewery and retired baseball legend Kevin Youkilis. Announced today, Harpoon will contract brew two beers from Youkilis’ award-winning California-based brewpub Loma Brewing Company: Greek God of Hops Double IPA and Appeasement IPA, for distribution in Massachusetts and Rhode Island this fall.

In this week’s Last Call: Red Brick reverts back to Atlanta Brewing Company; Coronado closes the Monkey Paw brewpub; Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective announces cross-platform mixed pack (and its GABF presence); Harpoon says it will brew, distribute a former Red Sox Player’s beer offerings.

An exciting new Flavor Adventure is here just in time for summer: UFO Blueberry Lemonade, brewed with the essence of Polar Seltzer’ade Blueberry Lemonade.