Ceria Brewing Company

Industry headwinds, brewery acquisitions, the emerging cannabis sector, and the seemingly never ending battle between big and small beer makers were the focus of Brewbound’s most-read stories of 2018.

CERIA Brewing Company, the Colorado craft brewery founded by Keith Villa, Ph.D., the former brewmaster of Blue Moon, has announced three key supply chain partners that have been essential for the company’s launch of Colorado’s first THC-infused craft beer. The company officially launched its Grainwave Belgian-style White Ale in mid-December.

Keith Villa, the legendary brewmaster who retired from MillerCoors earlier this year and launched Ceria, Inc., a cannabis company, is most known for creating the iconic Blue Moon Belgian-style wheat ale. So it’s only fitting that his first play in the cannabis-infused beverage space would be a de-alcoholized version of his popular brew. Called Grainwave, Villa’s first THC-infused non-alcoholic craft beer, a Belgian-style white ale, will hit Colorado dispensaries in mid-December.

Blue Moon inventor Keith Villa, who retired from MillerCoors in January after a storied 32-year career, isn’t leaving the beer business after all. Much of the press following his departure from the country’s second-largest beer company centered around the launch of Ceria Beverages, a startup focused on releasing a line of non-alcoholic craft beers containing THC. At the same time, however, Villa and his wife, Jodi, had quietly launched Donavon Brewing Company in their hometown of Arvada, Colorado.

CERIA Beverages, the THC-infused craft beer launching in late 2018, has appointed former Coca-Cola and MillerCoors industry executive Douglas C. Christoph as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).