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.

The Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective today announced plans to open a brewpub — in Asheville, about 30 miles north of Oskar Blues’ production facility in Brevard. Dubbed “The Canarchy Collaboratory,” the new outpost will occupy the soon-to-close Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB) space.

The craft brewing industry has reached its “most competitive moment,” but that’s not necessarily “a bad thing,” Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione said during a “state of the industry” panel discussion at the final Brew Talks meetup of 2018. Calagione, along with Revolution Brewing chief commercial officer Donn Bichsel and Canarchy Brewery Collective president and COO Matt Fraser, explained to more than 150 beer industry professionals how they’re navigating through the so-called “noise” in the space.

Want to stand out at the Great American Beer Festival? Open your checkbook. At the 2019 GABF, put on by industry trade group the Brewers Association, large activations from deep-pocketed corporations took center stage, drawing throngs of beer drinkers to sprawling setups that included TVs, bar games and live music while 800 breweries pouring 4,000 beers scrapped for attention inside the Denver Convention Center.

Deep Ellum Brewing Company announces the release of No Way Rosé – a tart Southwest-styled rosé ale with a prickly pear punch.

Midway through 2018, the Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective is outpacing the overall U.S. craft beer segment. The Brewers Association (BA) reported last week that growth for small and independent U.S. brewers had “stabilized,” with production growing 5 percent through the first six months of 2018. The Fireman Capital-backed brewery consortium — whose brands include Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Three Weavers, and Utah Brewers Cooperative (Wasatch and Squatters) — is growing faster than the category, with off-premise sales up 15.4 percent in the total U.S. multi-outlet and convenience store channel year-to-date.

After years of fighting for the right to sell to-go beer, manufacturing breweries in Texas now have allies on both sides of aisle. Texas Democrats and Republicans both included language in their respective party platforms supporting the legalization of off-premise sales privileges for the state’s production breweries as well as changes to the three-tier system of alcohol distribution.

Deep Ellum Brewing Company is the latest craft brewery to join the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective. For Deep Ellum, a craft brewery with rough edges and deep roots in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, the move to join the disruptive collective of independent brewers will immediately provide resources for increased production and distribution.

Texas’ Deep Ellum Brewing was sold to Fireman Capital-backed Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective for an undisclosed sum, founder John Reardon confirmed to Brewbound. The transaction, which closed on Friday, June 8, will give Dallas-based Deep Ellum a much-needed capital infusion to finish a $3 million expansion and immediate access to increased brewing capacity at Colorado-headquartered Oskar Blues Brewing’s satellite production facility in Austin, Texas.

In this edition of Press Clips: BrewDog revenues increase 55 percent in 2017; a federal judge rules against brewery to-go sales in Texas; two A-B High End craft breweries release Yankees and Nationals branded beers; and much more.

The slowdown in craft beer category growth has undermined an investment and created tension between the founder of a prominent Texas brewery and his newest partner. After initially agreeing to purchase a majority interest in fast-growing, Dallas-based Deep Ellum Brewing, Storied Craft Breweries, an upstart growth capital group, paid penalties to back out of the full investment, saying it has altered its strategy in light of slowing craft growth trends.

In an effort to combat the influence Texas wholesalers wield with local lawmakers, the state’s craft brewers guild has launched its own political action committee, called CraftPAC. In a press release, the Texas Craft Brewers Guild said the goal of CraftPAC would be to overturn “archaic, anti-competitive beer laws” that have “had a chilling effect on the industry’s growth.”

In this week’s edition of Last Call: A-B InBev acquires another Australian craft brewery; excise tax cuts inch closer to passage in the U.S. Senate; A-B defends pay-to-play allegations in Massachusetts; and much more.