Harpoon Brewery

Liquidity options are plentiful for owners of craft breweries: strategic sale, private equity, management buyout, family transfer, leveraged recapitalization. Which path should you take? Harpoon, New Belgium, Odell, Left Hand and many others walked a different path. These breweries chose to implement an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). ESOPs can be a great exit strategy for craft brewers. Outlined below are the top five reasons why craft brewers should consider an ESOP.

At some point, every brand needs a facelift. Even the iconic Harpoon IPA. First introduced in 1993, Harpoon IPA hasn’t changed its look in more than 20 years, except for a few subtle tweaks back in 2009. But with new category entrants challenging the stalwart New England craft brewery’s position on retail shelves, Harpoon executives decided it was time to evolve.

Even after leaving the craft beer industry more than a decade ago, Russell Heissner always imagined himself returning. Now, after three years of planning, that time has finally come.

This October, Harpoon and Deschutes will release a collaboration called EHOP – beers brewed by employee-owners in celebration of brewing independence.

Harpoon is proud to introduce the 54th installment of the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series: Nordic Saison. Anders Kissmeyer of Kissmeyer Beer & Brewing, Will Meyers of Cambridge Brewing Company, and Jaime Schier of Harpoon Brewery created this effervescent golden Saison using local honey and cranberries, rosehips, yarrow, and heather flowers.

Harpoon Take 5 Session IPA, the new year-round release from the Harpoon Brewery, is now available in bottles in cans. Harpoon first introduced Take 5 to a wider audience on draft at the Brewery’s annual summer festival, HarpoonFest, on May 15th, followed by a draft only release at select accounts. Last week Harpoon Take 5 was packaged in bottles and cans and is now shipping out for distribution to all of Harpoon’s markets.

There are a lot things that we all have to do every day; Harpoon Take 5 Session IPA is brewed to celebrate the times we get to do the things we want to do. The Harpoon Brewery is pleased to introduce the newest member of their year-round lineup, Harpoon Take 5 Session IPA. With a 4.3% ABV and 43 IBUs, Harpoon Take 5 is meant for those spontaneous moments, meeting up with friends and taking a break for fun.

Next week Harpoon will officially expand its wholesale operations when it begins distributing San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. The company would like to add more brands to its portfolio throughout 2015 as well. Harpoon President Charlie Storey told Brewound that it had the room in its warehouse and the space on the company’s delivery trucks to enable the company to explore a more fully-developed distribution division.

Brewbound kicked off its 2015 slate of Brew Talks events this week at Harpoon Brewery’s beer hall in the seaport district of Boston, Mass., where more than 130 people filed in to catch industry heavyweights from the city sound off on issues both local and national in scope. Kicking things off, a panel comprised of Jean-Claude Tetreault, co-owner of neighboring Trillium Brewing, Peter Burke, national sales director of Cisco Brewing on the island of Nantucket, and Megan Parker-Gray, the bar manager of beer hotspot Row 34, tackled the myriad elements shaping the city’s emerging beer culture.

Brewbound’s first Brew Talks meetup of 2015 is set to kick off at tonight at the Harpoon Brewery Beer Hall in Boston. The event will offer more than 100 beer industry professionals an intimate opportunity to network and discuss the business of beer over a few cold beverages. For those unable to attend Brew Talks in person, we’ve made available a free live video steam the evening’s two panel discussions, which will begin at 5:30 P.M. EST.

Brewbound is pleased to announce its first group of speakers for the upcoming Brew Talks meetup, happening on Feb. 24 at the Harpoon Beer Hall in Boston. With merger and acquisition activity continuing to pick up in the craft sector, succession planning is becoming a much more important topic. Should companies stay the course, sell, and how should they consider the next generation of ownership while making those decisions?

Of all the made up beer recipes Anheuser-Busch InBev could have conjured up to poke fun at the craft beer movement as caricature in one of its three Super Bowl ads, it just had to be a “pumpkin peach ale” that the company greenlit.

The first 30 days of 2015 are just about in the rearview mirror and Brewbound is gearing up to host another set of Brew Talks events around the country. Brewbound is pleased to announce that Brew Talks — a traveling meetup series for beer industry professionals — will make its 2015 debut at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston in February.

Since transferring 48 percent of its shares into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in July of last year, Harpoon Brewery has been minority owned by its employees. Now, according to co-founder and president Dan Kenary, the plan is for the brewing company to become fully employee-owned. During a recent speech in Vermont, where the Boston-based brewery operates a second facility, Kenary outlined the plan