Two of your favorite names in indie craft beer have joined forces of mythical proportions to release a nationally available collaboration beer.

Modern Times has furloughed employees at five of its seven taprooms, the San Diego-headquartered brewery wrote in an email Thursday night. Three breweries in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Brewers Collective, the craft division of the world’s largest beer manufacturer, have temporarily closed their taprooms after employees tested positive for COVID-19. Sierra Nevada plans to keep its taprooms, gift shops and brewery tours closed for the foreseeable future.

Seattle-based Fremont Brewing reopened its beer garden on Sunday after a temporary closure following an employee testing positive for COVID-19. Six weeks after calling off its Philadelphia expansion, Everett, Massachusetts-based Night Shift Brewing may add another taproom location in Natick, Massachusetts, in early 2021, according to the Natick Report.

Modern Times is massively excited to announce the dawn of permanent distribution in Utah! For years, we have gazed longingly at our northeastern neighbor, and we couldn’t be more stoked to finally be bringing our delicious beers to our Utah friends on the regular.

In this week’s Last Call: The House Ways and Means Committee passed a one-year extension of the federal excise tax relief for alcohol producers and importers. Also, U.S. beer shipments declined in May, Deschutes begins selling canned drinking water, Bell’s Two Hearted tops the AHA’s best list, and more news briefs.

After years of limited distribution runs, events, and good times in the Centennial State, we are absolutely thrilled to announce the advent of permanent distribution for Modern Times in Colorado.

San Diego’s Modern Times has turned to crowdfunding in an effort to raise more than $1 million, which it says will be allocated for the continued operation of its business, “minor efficiency projects” and equipment purchases, and continued expansion. In the process of posting the equity crowd raise via the Wefunder platform, the company has provided future investors and others throughout the beer industry with a peek under the hood of one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the U.S.

Massachusetts Beverage Alliance (MBA) today announced the official launch of Homegrown Distribution, a boutique wholesaler focused on overlooked craft brands not currently getting enough attention from a network of five pre-existing wholesale partners across the state. As an offshoot of MBA, Homegrown Distribution will assume statewide sales and delivery responsibilities for several brands.

Thousands of California beer industry professionals met in Sacramento last week for the California Craft Brewers Association annual three-day Craft Beer Summit, Expo and Beer Festival. As an official media partner of the event, Brewbound hosted 10 hours of live streamed interviews, and sat in on a variety of seminars during the show. Here’s what we learned.

Ecliptic Brewing has teamed with Modern Times Beer for their next Cosmic Collaboration.

In the latest round of People Moves: Modern Times scales back its taproom staff; North Carolina’s guild director departs; and more beer company changes.

In the latest edition of Press Clips: Beer rationing begins in Europe; trademark infringement fights continue; Beavertown feels the fallout from selling a minority stake to Heineken; and more.