Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed a new business relief package Wednesday, which includes the implementation of a 10 p.m. curfew on off-premise alcohol sales; alcohol to-go sales and delivery will no longer be allowed in Massachusetts after the Commonwealth’s state of emergency ends June 15.
Breweries that fall outside of the Brewers Association’s (BA) craft brewer definition collectively declined 5%, to 8.2 million barrels in 2020, according to data in the May/June issue of the New Brewer.
Everybody’s talking about RTDs, and for good reason. The ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage alcohol segment is absolutely exploding, with that growth triggering a slew of new brands and products entering the market.
How can a craft brewery succeed in Half Time Beverage’s stores and e-commerce platform? Jason Daniels, the chief operating officer for the New York craft beer store, explains during the latest Retail Pulse edition of Brewbound Frontlines.
Athletic Brewing, a non-alcoholic (NA) craft beer maker, raised $50 million in a Series C funding from investors, spearheaded by the Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG) and TRB advisors, which concluded on May 11.
The U.S. beer industry’s economic output has increased by $4 billion since 2018, which is equivalent to 1.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the “Beer Serves America” report — a biennial study commissioned by the Beer Institute (BI) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).
As women from across the beer industry share stories on social media of their experiences with sexual harassment, assault and abuse in the beer and hospitality industries, it has become clear that the misogyny is widespread and being felt at all levels, from the taproom to the boardroom. Rachel Anderson, a co-founder of Indeed Brewing, said she experienced toxicity even as a co-owner. She shared her experience of being forced out of the Minneapolis-headquartered craft brewery that she helped build in an essay titled “I am a Craft Beer Casualty.”
In a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic robbed alcoholic beverage producers of on-premise occasions for the majority of 2020, and forced consumer purchasing to shift to off-premise retailers and e-commerce, 36 of the top 50 Brewers Association-defined craft brewing companies recorded volume declines, according to data published in the May/June edition of the New Brewer magazine. Those numbers were not unexpected given last year’s challenges.
On a special edition of the Brewbound Podcast, the Brewbound team recaps some of the news stories from the outpouring of accounts of sexual harassment, abuse, misogyny and toxicity within the beer industry.
The Sheehan family civil lawsuit continues to play out in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court. In the latest development, the defendants, Gerald “Jerry” and Maureen Sheehan, along with several of the family businesses, have asked the court to dismiss all counts against them, according to a February 18 filing that hit the docket last week.
Major U.S. events and celebrations in May led to large upticks in on-premise visits, according to the latest consumer survey from CGA, a market research firm that tracks on-premise sales.
Over the weekend, several breweries named in accounts of misogyny and misbehavior within the beer industry released statements. The leaders of Philadelphia-based Evil Genius Beer Company issued a statement on the brewery’s Instagram account on Saturday, May 22, that acknowledged past mismanagement and outlined the company’s next steps to improve its culture. Pollyanna Brewing Company, which announced the departure of former president and CEO Paul Ciciora last week, shared that it had since learned of “numerous allegations regarding Paul Ciciora and sexual misconduct.”
Sparkling hard tea and canned cocktail company Loverboy has filed a civil suit against Night Shift Distributing (NSD), citing fraud and breach of contract, in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on May 7.
As more stories of workplace harassment and toxicity come to light in the craft beer industry, more companies have responded this week either terminating employees, announcing investigations, issuing apologies or statements of support for the victims. Brienne Allan has been sharing stories from the beer and restaurant industries of workplace harassment, assaults and toxicity on her Instagram account, @ratmagnet, now for the last 10 days, amounting to about 1,000 stories.
