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Left Hand Brewing Re-Enters Iowa

Left Hand Brewing Re-Enters Iowa

Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing Company is once again expanding its distribution footprint and will re-enter Iowa in August. The company, which temporarily left the state in 2011 due to capacity constraints, has signed a wholesale agreement with Johnson Brothers of Iowa.

Green Flash Partners with St-Feuillien For European Production

Green Flash Partners with St-Feuillien For European Production

Green Flash Brewing today announced a unique brewing partnership with Belgium-based St-Feuillien. According to a press statement, the two breweries have made a “handshake agreement,” whereby St-Feuillien will brew, bottle and ship Green Flash’s flagship West Coast IPA for broader distribution throughout Europe.

Stone Brewing Announces $25 Million Berlin Brewery

Stone Brewing Announces $25 Million Berlin Brewery

The country’s tenth largest craft brewery, Stone Brewing Co., today announced plans to build a new $25 million brewery in Berlin. The San Diego-based craft brewery said it plans to open a production brewery and “expansive destination restaurant” in Germany’s capital city by early 2016.

Cigar City Inks Exclusive Partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines

Cigar City Inks Exclusive Partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines

Cigar City is about to set sail on Carnival Cruise Lines. Beginning this week, two canned offerings from the Tampa, Fla.-based craft brewery will be available on 13 Florida-based ships sailing to the Caribbean, Mexico and The Bahamas.

Full Sail Brewing Sues Law Firm For Trademark Infringement

Full Sail Brewing Sues Law Firm For Trademark Infringement

Oregon’s Full Sail Brewing has filed a lawsuit with an Atlanta-based law firm specializing in driving under the influence (DUI) cases, alleging that the firm’s logo — which is printed on brown paper bags — is an infringement of the brewery’s own trademarked Session Lager artwork.

The Ins and Outs of ESOPs

The Ins and Outs of ESOPs

When Harpoon Brewery announced that it would transfer 48 percent of the company’s shares into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), many of our readers reached out with questions about how these transactions function. An ESOP is an innovative liquidity tool that provides flexibility for shareholders, tax advantages for business owners and an opportunity for… Read more »

Following LeBron James, SweetWater Taps Distribution in Ohio

Following LeBron James, SweetWater Taps Distribution in Ohio

LeBron James isn’t the only one taking his talents to Ohio. On the same day that the star basketball player announced his return to the team that drafted him, Atlanta-based SweetWater Brewing Co. unveiled its plans to launch new distribution in Ohio later this summer.

Big Boss Expands Distribution to South Carolina

Big Boss Expands Distribution to South Carolina

Big Boss, which launched in Raleigh, N.C. in 2006, has tapped the services of B&B Distributors, KW Associates, Bud of Columbia, and Southern Eagle for coverage in Rock Gill, Greenville, Columbia and Charleston respectively.

Brewers Association: U.S. Brewery Count Eclipses 3,000

Brewers Association: U.S. Brewery Count Eclipses 3,000

There are now more than 3,000 breweries in the U.S., according to Bart Watson, the Brewers Association’s (BA) staff economist. Through the end of June, the BA counted 3,040 breweries, which marks the first time the U.S. has crossed the 3,000-brewery threshold since the 1870s. Watson, who announced the statistics on the trade group’s blog… Read more »

Harpoon’s ESOP Gives 48 Percent of Company to Employees

Harpoon’s ESOP Gives 48 Percent of Company to Employees

Effective Aug. 1, Boston’s Harpoon Brewery will be minority owned by its employees. The company today announced that it has transferred 48 percent of the company’s shares into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) after purchasing those shares back from six of its eight existing shareholders.

L’chaim! Shmaltz Grows Production 42 Percent in Clifton Park

L’chaim! Shmaltz Grows Production 42 Percent in Clifton Park

One year after ditching a contract brewing business model for a shiny new brewing facility in Upstate New York, Shmaltz Brewing has grown its business nearly 50 percent. The company, which produces and markets a line of craft beers with tongue-in-cheek Jewish themes, had been producing its beers under contract for 17 years when it… Read more »

Press Clips: California Brewers Grow In and Out of State

Press Clips: California Brewers Grow In and Out of State

The Music City is getting a new craft brewery. Well, not exactly brand new: TailGate Beer was founded in San Diego, Calif. in 2007 and had been producing its beer under contract at Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, Wis. However, TailGate is currently in the process of relocating and plans to open its own production… Read more »

Sierra Nevada Releases Beer Camp Across America 12-Pack

Sierra Nevada Releases Beer Camp Across America 12-Pack

Sierra Nevada has released the highly anticipated Beer Camp Across America mixed 12-pack, a collaborative release showcasing the work of a dozen craft breweries from across the country. Beyond national availability, the 10 bottles and two cans that make up the variety pack will also be poured at each stop of the Beer Camp Across… Read more »

How Pliny the Elder Became the Best Beer in America

How Pliny the Elder Became the Best Beer in America

In Naturalis Historia, Vol. VI CB, Pliny the Elder wrote, “In these matters, the only certainty is that nothing is certain.” How ironic then, that Russian River Brewing Co.’s famed imperial IPA, named after the abovementioned Roman philosopher, has by all accounts been certainty in a bottle for several years.