Truly Spiked & Sparkling, a new hard seltzer label produced by craft beer maker Boston Beer Company, has hit liquor store shelves. The company, best known for its Samuel Adams, Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea and Coney Island brands, is expected to make a formal product announcement next Tuesday. Rollouts in 15 additional states — New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Kansas and Maryland — are also planned or underway, according to the brand’s Facebook page.
Sun King Brewery president and co-founder Omar Robinson will sell a portion of his stake in the business when he retires next month. Simultaneously, Sun King will also turn over minority interest to incoming president Robert Whitt, who will “buy a portion of Omar’s stock over the next few years,” co-founder Clay Robinson told Brewbound. Oregon’s Cascade Brewing, meanwhile, has appointed Tim Larrance as its new vice president of sales and marketing.
Pabst Brewing Company yesterday announced an expanded partnership with C&C Group plc to distribute and sell Pabst brands throughout the UK and Ireland. Per the agreement, C&C will act as the “exclusive distributor” of several Pabst brands, including its flagship offering, Pabst Blue Ribbon, as well as labels like Lone Star, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee and Ballantine IPA.
Boston Beer Company, the country’s second-largest craft beer producer, recently helped Carnival, the world’s largest cruise ship operator, build a floating microbrewery on-board its new Carnival Vista vessel. In a press statement, Carnival said it worked with Alchemy & Science, Boston Beer’s wholly-owned subsidiary incubator, to launch version 2.0 of its Key West-inspired bar, the Red Frog Pub, which will now also feature a small brewery.
U.S. craft brewers are now shipping nearly half a million barrels of beer around the world, according to the latest Brewers Association (BA) estimates. In a press release, the BA — which represents the interests of small and independent U.S. craft brewers — said American craft beer exports grew 16.3 percent in 2015, to more than 446,000 barrels and a retail value of about $116 million.
Stone Brewing Co. is nearly national and the San Diego-based craft beer maker said it plans to be distributing in all 50 states before the end of 2016. It will move one step closer today, as it rolls out throughout Arkansas, its 42nd state. Michigan’s Bell’s Brewery, meanwhile, said it will continue its 2016 distribution expansion in May with forays into Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas.
Full Sail Brewing has updated its look. The Oregon-based craft brewery this week unveiled a new logo and refreshed artwork for several of its core brands. Focusing on natural elements and landmarks surrounding the brewery, the rebrand was intended to emphasize Full Sail’s connection to nature and to modernize the company’s image in a market flooded with thousands of craft beer options.
Rotation nation is alive and well. Popular craft-centric chain Yard House, which operates 63 restaurants across the U.S. and boasts an average of 130 tap handles per location, this week announced plans to evolve its beer program by adding nearly 1,600 new draft offerings. Beginning March 28, The California-based on-premise retailer, which recently completed its annual “beer review,” said it would tap an average of 20 to 30 new beers per restaurant.
Total craft growth slowed in 2015 as U.S. craft brewers grew volumes by 13 percent and retail dollars by 16 percent last year, according to new data compiled by trade group The Brewers Association (BA). In its annual report on industry-wide growth, the BA said more than 4,250 small and independent U.S. brewers collectively produced about 24.5 million barrels of beer in 2015.
After much-anticipation, Bend, Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery today announced plans to build a second commercial brewing facility in Roanoke, Virginia. The company, which brewed a majority of the 340,000 barrels it produced in 2015 out of a large brewery in Bend, Ore., doesn’t plan to begin construction on the new east coast location until 2019.
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Atwater, together with Flemish Fox Brewery & Craftworks, a soon-to-launch beer company founded by Christine Celis of “Celis Beer” fame, jointly formed a new company and will collaboratively construct a 27,000 sq. ft. facility capable of producing upwards of 60,000 barrels per year. A yet-to-be-named joint entity will own the real estate and the brewery assets.
In the hub of North Carolina’s craft beer industry, one brewery is growing like a weed. Asheville-based Wicked Weed Brewing today announced it would build another production facility this summer, its fourth brewery space in as many years. Located on 17 acres in South Asheville, the new 57,000 sq. ft. facility will be entirely devoted to the production of sour, farmhouse, and wild-fermented beers — style categories that Wicked Weed has increasingly focused on in recent years.
Blue Moon is no longer artfully crafted. The 21-year old craft brand has ditched its old tagline for messaging aimed at “shifting the conversation” to include consumers’ creativity and to “recruit new consumers into craft.” The company has unveiled an entirely new look for the brand, as well as the new “something’s brewing” campaign.
