Attention craft beer drinkers in Western Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic U.S.: say “hi” to your new neighbor. Narragansett Beer, the 125-year-old heritage brand out of Rhode Island, has announced plans to expand distribution throughout Maryland, Delaware and previously untapped markets in Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, Erie, and Reading.
California’s craft beer industry still has a way to go before it can hold a candle to its celebrated wine trade, but it’s certainly trending in the right direction. In 2014, the market for craft beer in the state continued to flourish, contributing more than $6.5 billion to the economy, according to a newly released report from the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA).
It took just six months for Anheuser-Busch InBev to expand distribution for 10 Barrel Brewing, the Bend, Ore. craft brewery it purchased last November. The company today announced it would launch in Colorado this month, the fourth state where its beers are currently sold.
A half-million dollars ought to be enough. That’s the point that brewing giant Anheuser-Busch is trying to make in a lawsuit against a New Jersey beer wholesaler over the transfer of Elysian Brewing products to A-B’s own network of distributors in the state.
After investing more than $5 million on brewery infrastructure over the last five years, Wachusett Brewing is turning more attention to the contract portion of its business. But in order for the company to fully capitalize on all of the opportunities coming its way, it says, it needs a little help from Massachusetts state regulators.
This week, a North Carolina Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association (NCBWWA) executive confirmed to Brewbound that a consultant working on behalf of the organization was behind an anonymous online petition that helped to kill two craft-friendly bills in the state. North Carolina craft brewers had been making headway on House Bill 625 and House Bill 278 — legislation that would have cleared the way for contract brewing and raised the self-distribution cap from 25,000 barrels to 100,000 barrels — when the website ncbeerjobs.com made waves last month.
As Brewbound reported yesterday, Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) suffered through a difficult first quarter, which ended on March 31, 2015. Net sales and total beer shipments decreased 5 percent and 8 percent respectively. CBA CEO Andy Thomas summarized the quarter during an earnings call with investors and analysts on Thursday.
Chris Thorne, the Beer Institute’s vice president of communications, has announced his resignation from the organization effective May 29. Thorne plans to open his own “media and issue advocacy” group in Washington D.C. and continue working with the Beer Institute as an independent consultant. He will represent the lobbying group as its communications counselor until the organization fills his vacant position, BI president Jim McGreevy told Brewbound.
Craft Brew Alliance today announced its first quarter financial results, highlighting depletion volume growth of just 1 percent and a net sales decrease of 5 percent across its core family of brands, including Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Kona and Omission. Total beer shipments decreased 8 percent during the quarter. In a release, CBA attributed the sluggish first quarter results to “higher-than-average” sales during the first quarter of 2014 as it “adjusted” for out-of-stocks that hampered the company toward the end of 2013.
Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has revealed plans to increase its production volume by 500 percent as part of an ambitious expansion project the San Francisco-based brewery has announced.
San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery today announced it has inked a deal with Stone Distributing, the growing wholesale arm of Stone Brewing, to bring its beers to southern California later this month.
By now, you’ve no doubt heard the rallying cry for craft brands to capture 20 percent of the overall beer market by 2020, an impressive — yet seemingly attainable — goal for what could still, in many ways, be considered a fledgling industry. One MillerCoors-aligned beer wholesaler in North Carolina hopes that on its way to 20 percent market share, craft products will account for at least 30 percent of the company’s overall revenue.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has signed into law a bill that triples the production cap on beer that breweries are allowed to sell within the state while preserving other retail and self-distribution privileges.
Massachusetts state regulators have accused Craft Beer Guild LLC, one of the state’s most prominent craft wholesalers, of unfair trade practices and illegal pay-to-play activities. The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) said Wednesday that Craft Beer Guild — a subsidiary of the Sheehan Family Companies, which owns multiple alcoholic beverage distributorships across more than a dozen states – violated state laws that prohibit wholesalers from offering inducements and unfair discounts.
