Five days after airing its now infamous Super Bowl ad poking fun at craft brewers, Anheuser-Busch attempted to trademark the phrase upon which the ad was built: “Brewed the Hard Way.” Turns out, as noted by Kaider Law, an intellectual property firm, the beer giant was actually beat to the punch. On February 5 — one day before A-B filed its own trademark — a small brewpub in Kansas City called Martin City Brewing filed a trademark application of its own for its “Hard Way IPA.”
In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy. Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.
Molson Coors today appointed Geoff Molson, a member of the Molson Coors board of directors, as its new chairman. In accordance with company bylaws that require the roles of chairman and vice chairman to alternate between the Molson and Coors families every two years, Geoff Molson, a seventh generation member of the Molson family, supplants Pete Coors who will become vice chairman.
For the second year in a row, Colorado’s Odell Brewing Company topped Tamarron Consulting’s annual Craft Brewer Performance Survey. With an average performance score of 4.19 (out of 5), Odell led a group that featured seven of the country’s leading craft breweries, including Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head, Great Lakes Brewing, Stone Brewing and Summit Brewing.
In a gesture more symbolic than anything else, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Sunday in appreciation of thousands of American Craft Beer Week events as well as the jobs and wages craft has generated in recent years.
Less than one year after selling a partial ownership to private equity firm The Riverside Company, Uinta Brewing today announced that it has hired former Duvel Moortgat USA and Boulevard Brewing sales chief Steve Mills as its new chief financial officer. Mills takes over for Uinta founder Will Hamill, who had been acting as CEO and will now focus on brand development and brewery innovation in his new role as a company board member.
Anheuser-Busch InBev subsidiary Grupo Modelo said it will invest approximately $328 million – or roughly 5 billion pesos – to construct a new brewery and can production plant in Yucatán, Mexico.
The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild and the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois have negotiated language to include in a bill – HB 3237– that would loosen restrictions on how brewers in the state operate.
Across IRI multi-outlet and convenience channel (MULC) sales data — which comprises grocery, drug, club, dollar, mass-merchandiser (including Walmart) and military stores — total beer dollar sales are up 4.2 percent through May 17. Both the craft and cider categories are experiencing the most dramatic improvements, however, as cider’s dollar sales rose by 39.5 percent. Dollar sales for import beer brands are also up 10.4 percent.
The Beer Institute, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying group that represents the interests of domestic and international brewers, today announced a pair of key new hires. The group has hired former MillerCoors research analyst Michael Uhrich as its new chief economist. Also joining the BI as the group’s new director of federal affairs is Joe Heaton, who has spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill and most recently served as Rep. Jon Runyan’s (NJ) deputy chief of staff.
Coinciding with a recent brewery expansion, Deschutes Brewery plans to break ground on 57,593 sq. ft. of new warehouse space across from its production facility in Bend, Ore., the company announced in a statement.
In December, the company detailed its ambition to launch Farmworks — complete with a 15-barrel brewhouse and tasting room — on a 53-acre farm in Lucketts, Va. Located just 17 miles from Flying Dog headquarters in Frederick, Md., the new brewery was planned to be a separately branded craft subsidiary owned and operated by Flying Dog. Farmworks was slated to open this summer.
