Headlines

Lucid Brewing of Minnetonka, Minn. has acquired American Sky Brewing of Hudson, Wis. in the latest deal involving two small craft breweries. Terms of the buyout were not disclosed.

Northwest hop acreage increased 16 percent in 2015, as nearly 44,000 acres have been strung for harvest across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Broken down by state, Washington strung 32,205 acres for harvest this year, accounting for 73 percent of total hops acreage across the United States.

Just in time for Father’s Day, Illinois-based Small Town Brewery today announced the nationwide rollout of its signature Not Your Father’s Root Beer line of soda-inspired beers. In a press statement, the company said it signed a distribution agreement with Pabst Brewing Company, which began selling the product earlier this year. Specific terms of the arrangement were not disclosed and representatives from both Pabst and Small Town Brewery were unavailable for comment.

Alcoholic beverage suppliers don’t have to reinvent the wheel to provide top tier national account and category development services. On the contrary, emphasizing the fundamentals should be enough to land a supplier in the good graces of their on-premise partners. That’s the takeaway from the latest CM Profit Group survey, in which nearly 70 operators of 150 bars and restaurants responded.

Idle Hands Craft Ales, a small Boston-area microbrewery that got its start on a 1 ½ barrel nano-brewing system in 2011, today announced it has been forced to vacate its facility in Everett, MA. Idle Hands’ current space sits just blocks from the proposed site of a new $1.3 billion Wynn Everett resort and casino. In order to make room for a construction access road, Idle Hands and a handful of small businesses must be out by June 30.

With an expansion to its North Carolina brewing facility underway, Oskar Blues is continuing to grow its footprint throughout the eastern half of the U.S. The company, which just last week revealed plans to increase production capacity at its Brevard outpost, has announced plans to add distribution in West Virginia and Arkansas.

Scottish craft beer company BrewDog has unveiled plans to establish a U.S. beachhead, last week announcing that Columbus, Ohio, will become the company’s stateside brewing headquarters. On its blog, BrewDog wrote that it has “provisionally agreed” to acquire 42 acres of land in Columbus and said it intends to build a 100,000 sq. ft. brewery complete with a 100-barrel brewhouse, canning machine and bottling line to serve markets across the U.S.

After years of debate over how to best reduce the federal excise tax rate on brewers, two of the beer industry’s leading organizations — the Brewers Association and the Beer Institute — have finally come together in support of a single bill. At a press conference hosted at Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Ore. on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) addressed industry and media members and unveiled the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, a comprehensive tax reform bill aimed at modernizing “outdated regulations” imposed on craft brewers and other alcoholic beverage manufacturers.

Oskar Blues announced this morning plans to expand both capacity and infrastructure at its brewery in Brevard, North Carolina, furthering the company’s commitment to growing in east coast markets.

The brand might be in a tailspin, but Snoop Dogg is still demanding a cut. A variety of media outlets reported yesterday that the well-known rapper is suing Pabst Brewing Co. over a cut of the money received following its sale from previous owner Dean Metropolous to a pair of private equity firms.

More than 150 craft brewery owners and state brewers guild leaders descended on Capitol Hill last Thursday to meet with lawmakers and discuss legislative reform, most notably a bipartisan bill that aims to slash the federal excise tax rate imposed on every barrel of beer produced in the country.

The TTB has formally announced Battle’s retirement from the U.S. Treasury, which is tasked with monitoring and enforcing compliance for the expansive beverage alcoholic category. “Battle’s departure marks the end of an era at TTB,” a statement read. The end of an era indeed — Battle processed over 60,000 malt beverage labels in 2013 and 2014 alone. Since just last October, he had already reviewed over 25,000 labels.

Five days after airing its now infamous Super Bowl ad poking fun at craft brewers, Anheuser-Busch attempted to trademark the phrase upon which the ad was built: “Brewed the Hard Way.” Turns out, as noted by Kaider Law, an intellectual property firm, the beer giant was actually beat to the punch. On February 5 — one day before A-B filed its own trademark — a small brewpub in Kansas City called Martin City Brewing filed a trademark application of its own for its “Hard Way IPA.”

In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy. Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.