After 13 years at one of the country’s highest-profile craft breweries, Dogfish Head CEO Nick Benz will depart the organization at the end of the year, the company announced today. Brewery founder and chairman Sam Calagione will takeover as CEO following Benz’s departure.
Terrapin Beer Co. is planning to open a microbrewery and restaurant at The Battery Atlanta, adjacent to SunTrust Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves.
Revolution Brewing yesterday issued a recall of more than 10,000 barrels of beer packaged between Aug. 3 and Oct. 11 due to off-flavors that developed in six of the company’s more popular products. In an interview with Brewbound, brewery founder Josh Deth speculated that a majority of the recalled product had already been consumed, but said that the company would likely be forced to remove at least 3,000 barrels of beer from distributor warehouses and retailer shelves. If that’s the case, Revolution could miss out on about $1 million worth of sales to wholesalers and the company will also incur charges to destroy the damaged product.
For the first time in eight years, Harpoon Brewery has expanded its distribution footprint. The Boston-based craft brewery announced Monday a pair of deals to put its beer into Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In the same week that Anheuser-Busch InBev finalized its takeover of SABMiller, the world’s biggest beer company also announced the purchase of two major U.S. homebrew ingredient and supply companies.
Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller are officially drinking buddies. On Monday, A-B InBev closed the year-long merger saga, acquiring its one-time rival for $100 billion.
Citing slower growth and an increasingly more competitive craft beer landscape, San Diego’s Stone Brewing Company today laid off more than 50 employees as part of what it termed a “restructuring.” Cutbacks extended across the entire organization, Brewbound has learned, including personnel in sales, marketing, media, administration, and production. In a statement, new Stone CEO Dominic Engels, who joined the company on September 6, blamed the downsizing on “recent declines in domestic growth for the category and for Stone.”
Brooklyn Brewery said Wednesday it had struck a two-pronged deal with Japan’s Kirin Brewery that would include the sale of a minority stake and the establishment of a new joint venture in Japan. As part of the two companies’ capital partnership, the Japanese beer company will acquire “an approximately 24.5 percent stake” in Brooklyn Brewery, according to a press release posted on the Kirin Holdings website.
As conglomerates scoop up more craft breweries, what are the ramifications for those who don’t sell out? That’s what a quartet of well-known craft brewery figureheads tried to address last week during a panel discussion at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival.
The brothers behind popular Massachusetts craft brewery Jack’s Abby are launching a new beer venture, Springdale Barrel Room, which they claim will be the largest barrel-aging program in New England.
The Brewers Association will change the way it processes Great American Beer Festival applications in 2017 after the group made a critical error that forced festival organizers to revoke one popular Ohio brewery’s “Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year” award and give it to another brewery. Late Saturday evening — hours after the BA handed out 286 medals to 254 different breweries — festival organizers discovered their mistake and informed Fat Head’s Brewery that it had been stripped of its coveted “Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year” trophy, with the award going to Karl Strauss Brewing Company instead.
Denver’s River North District is developing so fast that it pushed out one of its pioneers. Matthew and Jessica Hess’ River North Brewery was forced to move out of its namesake neighborhood when the property’s landlord decided to transform the space into luxury condos and apartments.
A new company that aims to provide small craft breweries with both growth capital and operating assistance has launched, and it has recruited a well-known industry veteran in the process. The company has tapped longtime beer industry veteran Adam Lambert — whose career includes sales and marketing stints at Virtue Cider, New Holland Brewing, Dogfish Head and Rogue Ales & Spirits — as its chief operating officer.
Behind last year’s $1 billion bet on Ballast Point, Constellation Brands Inc.’s big foray into the craft beer marketplace is beginning to pay off.
