Woods Beer Company

Hi-Wire Brewing’s third new taproom planned for 2022 will open “late this summer” in Birmingham, Alabama, the company announced this week. San Francisco-based Woods Beer & Wine Co. plans to open two new taprooms in Treasure Island and San Anselmo, as well as being distilling, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

An Iowa craft brewery topped the Brewers Association’s (BA) list of the 50 fastest-growing breweries of 2018, but it wasn’t Toppling Goliath. No, the distinction of being the fastest-growing U.S. brewery in 2018 belongs to Lake Time Brewery.

In episode 15 of the Brewbound Podcast, Woods discusses his company’s shift from a distribution-focused business model to a retail-minded operation. He also talks about the difficulty of trying to build a new product segment – in his case yerba mate-infused beer – and the challenges small breweries face now that thousands of competitors have flooded the space.

California’s Mendocino Brewing Co. and New York’s Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. have shuttered, impacting the operations of several other small companies who also produced beer at those facilities. The shutdown comes as the Indian government moves to extradite billionaire Vijay Mallya, who owns the two breweries, from London on fraud and money laundering charges in excess of $1 billion.