Headlines

After seven years at Boston Beer Company, CFO Frank Smalla will exit in mid-April, the company announced in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The next popular non-alcoholic beverage brand to crossover into alcoholic beverages is SunnyD. Plus, new offerings from Molson Coors’ Simply Spiked, Bud Light Seltzer, and Jim Beam and Boston Beer.

In a region known for its craft beer, Asheville, North Carolina-based soda maker Devil’s Foot Beverage Company has built a farm-to-can business model that is dedicated to an inch-wide, mile deep growth strategy.

Montauk will expand into two new states and fill out its existing footprint in New York and New Jersey over the next couple months, the New York-based craft brewery’s first expansion moves since being acquired by global cannabis firm Tilray.

A leaked Amazon confidential 2021 document shows that the e-commerce Goliath wanted to grow its alcohol sales by covertly lobbying to change liquor laws, Vice reported late last week.

U.S. brewers shipped more than 11.1 million barrels of product in January 2023, a decline of -4.4% year-over-year (YoY), according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing domestic tax paid shipment estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

Virginia brewers are one signature away from being able to self-distribute their beer in state. The Beer Industry Limited Distribution Act (House Bill 2258) passed the state Senate last week and has been sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. It would allow breweries to self-distribute up to 500 barrels annually.

21st Amendment Brewery has “reimagined” its 120,000 sq. ft. production facility in San Leandro, California, into a canned beverage co-packing facility capable of producing beer, non-alcoholic beer, FMBs, seltzers, canned cocktails, energy drinks, juices, sodas and more, the company announced this week.

Craft brewers have been living in turmoil for a few years now. Slowing growth, increasing competition, a pandemic, shifting consumer focuses, a consolidating middle tier, shrinking retail shelf space, supply chain turmoil, inflation, layoffs, increased minimum wage, skyrocketing rents have all taken a toll. So craft brewers continue to try to figure it out.

The Lost Abbey will vacate its original San Marcos, California, space and embark on its next journey via either contract brewing or forming an alternating proprietorship.

Captain Lawrence Brewing and U.S. Beverage (USB), the portfolio company and importer that acquired Uinta Brewing via a joint venture in early 2022, have formed a sales and marketing partnership, both companies announced this week.

Jon London has returned to Boston Beer Company as brand director of Angry Orchard, the hard cider brand he helped launch more than a decade ago.

The end of 2022 delivered a soft finish for the world’s largest beer manufacturer. In the U.S., Anheuser-Busch InBev’s depletions (sales-to-retailers) and shipments (sales-to-wholesalers) declined -7.6% and -8.6%, respectively.

Brewbound’s first Brew Talks meetup of 2023 will take place in Nashville during the Craft Brewers Conference on Sunday, May 7. Tickets are available now, with some of the proceeds benefiting the Tennessee Craft Brewers Guild.