Hops & Grain Brewing

The pool of craft brewers launching non-alcoholic beers continues to grow. Joining the fray is Hops & Grain founder Josh Hare, who launched Rick’s Near Beer in late 2022.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge nationwide and additional federal financial relief remains in question, brewery and taproom closings — both permanent and temporary — are beginning to build.

Eighteen days after Texas’ new beer-to-go law went into effect, manufacturing brewers are reporting high levels of consumer enthusiasm for the opportunity to buy and take home packaged beers from taprooms.

Earthly Labs, a new public benefit corporation dedicated to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from small scale emission sources, today announced the availability of CiCi, a plug-and-play carbon capture technology for craft brewers.

In episode seven of the Brewbound Podcast, Hare takes a deep dive into his company’s complicated four-year process of becoming a licensed Texas brewpub, and why he feels the state’s confusing direct-to-consumer sales laws need modernizing. Hare also discusses how he’s financed Hops & Grain’s growth, why he feels Texas beer wholesalers wield too much power and why current Texas alcohol laws make it difficult for upstart breweries to breakout.

The owners of two Texas craft beer companies are encouraging the state’s wholesalers to work with them on modernizing alcoholic beverage laws that bar manufacturing breweries from selling beer to go. During a Brew Talks panel discussion, held last week in conjunction with the National Beer Wholesalers Association Next Generation conference in Austin, Texas, Hops & Grain founder Josh Hare, who also chairs the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, argued that the “marriage” between suppliers and wholesalers should work more like a partnership and less like “a parent-child relationship.”

Small businesses can now raise a maximum of $1 million annually from non-accredited investors through Securities and Exchange Commission-approved third-party crowdfunding portals such as WeFunder. Two breweries have already maxed out their campaigns.