Craft beer industry news.
Former Founders Brewing Company diversity and inclusion director Graci Harkema discussed her experiences navigating the fallout from a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based craft brewery, and she shared insights on how the craft beer industry can diversify its talent pool as well as its consumer base last month during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.
The future is bright for Great Divide Brewing Company in 2020 and the brewery’s release calendar emphasizes a commitment to innovation and beer with bold character.
Brewbound readers in 2019 gravitated to stories about major craft brewery mergers and acquisitions, hard seltzer launches and reformulations, lawsuits and distribution disputes and brewery closures. The announcement of the $300 million merger between Boston Beer Company and Dogfish Head set the stage for a busy year of M&A activity, as many craft brewers began to form partnerships to weather a more tumultuous competitive marketplace.
Fifty West will introduce a new beer crafted specifically for people pursuing a balanced and active lifestyle. Quencher, a 100 calorie, gluten reduced beer featuring low alcohol, no added sugars, and the addition of electrolytes, will be available at Greater Cincinnati Kroger locations, beginning the second week of January.
Swilled Dog Hard Cider recently announced that they are bringing their fun, flavorful and refreshing line of craft ciders to state-wide distribution across Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. Launches for all states have been occurring since October with Ohio and Indiana launching in January.
Employees at Anchor Brewing ratified a three-year contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 6 earlier this month, a first for the San Francisco-based brewery. D.C. Brau raised $614,335 from 12 investors during a recent equity raise, according to a December 19 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Columbus, Indiana-based 450 North Brewing Company has posted an apology on its social media accounts for selling its Slushy line of beers with the incorrect alcohol by volume.
Drizly, the nation’s first and largest alcohol e-commerce marketplace, today announced a partnership with Shop Rite & Tobacco Plus, one of Louisiana’s leading liquor retailers. The partnership will bring convenient delivery of beer, wine and liquor in under 60 minutes to approximately 1.4 million consumers of legal drinking age, across 14 Louisiana parishes for the first time. Drizly brings adults of legal drinking age the widest selection of beer, wine and spirits, with full price transparency.
Co-founders of three breweries in Brewbound’s 2019 class of Rising Stars discussed their companies’ growth strategies and management techniques during a panel earlier this month at the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica. The panel featured Adam Robbings, co-founder and brewmaster of Seattle-based Reuben’s Brews; Jeff Heck, co-founder and CEO of Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing; and Ryan Krill, co-founder and CEO of Cape May Brewing in Cape May, New Jersey.
2019 is over and out and 2020 is here to stay! River North Brewery wants to help you beat those new year blues with a limited bottle release and new Norther Society enrollment. Starting at noon, Saturday, January 4th there will be the chance for anyone to join the elite Norther Society and pick up their first of six single cask releases. Only available at the North Washington Street taproom, the membership is limited and will fill up fast!
With the upcoming January 1 legalization of recreational marijuana across Illinois, Revolution Brewing is releasing Legal-Hero to mark the occasion and salute those who worked to make the change. The Revolution Brewing Taproom (3340 N. Kedzie Ave.in Avondale) will be open on New Year’s Day from 2-8 p.m. for a special release of the double dry-hopped Hazy IPA.
Fresh Fest co-founder Day Bracey shared how the first U.S. beer festival of black-owned craft breweries came together during a conversation earlier this month during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica. Fresh Fest offers black beer drinkers an experience that’s rare in an industry whose producers and consumers are mostly white men.
Allagash Brewing Company will release the latest evolution of Sixteen Counties exclusively in cans and on draft in January 2020.
Golden State Cider announces the release of their 2019 vintage cider, ‘Save The Gravenstein.’ This is the flagship of their Harvest Series, a seasonal product line featuring local, estate heirloom apples from Sebastopol, CA.
Unlocal Beer Company announced today the planned opening of their first location at 725 S 1st Street in Walker’s Point this Summer.
