Hill Farmstead Brewery

Minhas Craft Brewery, the second-oldest continuously run brewery in the U.S., is producing Happy Dad Hard Seltzer, which was created by the Nelk Boys, a group of Canadian YouTubers with more than 6.6 million subscribers.

Over the weekend, several breweries named in accounts of misogyny and misbehavior within the beer industry released statements. The leaders of Philadelphia-based Evil Genius Beer Company issued a statement on the brewery’s Instagram account on Saturday, May 22, that acknowledged past mismanagement and outlined the company’s next steps to improve its culture. Pollyanna Brewing Company, which announced the departure of former president and CEO Paul Ciciora last week, shared that it had since learned of “numerous allegations regarding Paul Ciciora and sexual misconduct.”

A chain reaction of personnel changes is beginning to course through several breweries, set off in recent days by a social media account’s mounting collection of hundreds of stories of widespread sexism in the beer industry.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: A New York distributor was fined $4.3 million in a bottle return scam; TTB says no to controlled substances in beer; Owens-Illinois announces plans to close its Atlanta facility;

In this week’s edition of Press Clips, Speakeasy faces wage claims, more small breweries close and seek buyers, Vermont and Michigan make headlines and more news.

As the craft category continues to grow at a double-digit clip, brewers across the country, in an effort to keep up with growing demand, are investing heavily in facility expansions. A crop of mid-size and regional craft breweries located in the eastern half of the U.S. recently announced multi-million dollar expansion efforts which will enable those companies to not only expand production capabilities, but in some cases distribution footprints as well.

Maybe it’s the scarcity. Maybe it’s the water quality. Whatever “it” is, one thing’s certain — there is an undeniable mystique to many of Vermont’s 32 craft breweries. One of the more mysterious figures on the Vermont craft beer scene is Shaun Hill, owner of the highly regarded Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, Vt.. A… Read more »