Lagunitas Brewing will expand its distribution deeper into Pennsylvania this week after the nation’s sixth largest craft brewery signed with Ace Distributing. Beginning Thursday, Lagunitas beers will be available throughout York, Adams, Franklin, and Fulton counties, according to a press release from Ace. The brewery has existing relationships in the state with Frank Fuhrer Wholesale, BeerMart and Origlio Beverage, according to its website.
Building on its strategic partnership with North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountain Brewing (AMB), Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) today announced it has signed an agreement to become the company’s master distributor. The new agreement will give the smaller brewer access to CBA’s nationwide network of Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in exchange for an undisclosed per-case distribution fee.
The Brewers Association today released its annual ranking of the top 50 U.S. craft breweries, based on 2014 sales volumes. This year’s list, however, had two glaring differences from prior versions. Four previously-excluded companies, including the top brewer, Yuengling, made the list in 2014 after the BA altered its definition of what it means to be a “craft brewer” last March, dethroning longtime leader Boston Beer Company for the title of “largest U.S. craft brewery.”
Heineken this morning announced a number of major organizational changes, restructuring its regional strategy and leadership teams in an apparent effort to cut costs. In a press statement, Heineken USA also revealed a key shift in the executive roster of its U.S. operations, highlighted by the departure of CEO Dolf van den Brink, who will transfer to the company’s Mexico division.
Southern California’s Golden Road Brewing has announced plans to expand distribution throughout Arizona next month, bringing its full line of beers to consumers outside its home state for the first time. The brewery has signed with Golden Eagles Distributors, which will sell the company’s core line and seasonal offerings to retailers for both on- and off-premise consumption. The rollout is scheduled for early May.
Oskar Blues has agreed to purchase Michigan’s Perrin Brewing Company, a smaller craft operation founded in 2011. The pickup may be the first in a series of investments for Oskar Blues, a top-25 craft brewery. The acquisition is backed by investments from Fireman Capital Partners and former West Side Distributing owner, Keith Klopcic, according to Oskar Blues’ founder, Dale Katechis. He said the transaction is expected to close within the next 60 days.
Traveler Beer, the three-year-old shandy/fruit beer line operated by Boston Beer’s Alchemy & Science subsidiary, debuted its first national ad this week, a 30-second spot dubbed “The Road to Refreshment.” Starring Traveler president Alan Newman (and his yellow spectacles), the ad coincides with the national launch of the brand, which Boston Beer president and CEO Martin Roper detailed earlier this year during a fourth quarter earnings call. “I’ve been fired by every company I’ve ever worked for,” says Newman at the start of the ad. “The only things I was ever good at were traveling and beer.”
The Brazilian billionaires behind the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger have negotiated another blockbuster deal, this time involving two huge U.S. food companies – Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Co. The tieup, valued at $40 billion, is backed by global investment firm 3G Capital and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
International interest in American craft beer is surging, according to new data from the Brewers Association. In a press statement, the BA – which represents the interests of small and independent U.S. craft brewers – said American craft beer exports grew 35.7 percent in 2014, to more than 383,000 barrels and a retail value of nearly $100 million.
Oskar Blues is one state closer to becoming the next nationally distributed craft beer brand. The craft brewery – which operates production facilities in Lyons, Colo. and Brevard, N.C. – today announced plans to expand into Louisiana, the 42nd state where its products are now sold. Building on an existing partnership with the 28-million case Crescent Crown Distributing in Arizona, Oskar Blues signed an agreement with the wholesaler’s Louisiana outfit for coverage throughout the southern part of the state.
Left Hand Brewing has announced plans to expand distribution to Southern California with a pair of L. Knife & Son wholesalers this spring. The brewery, which brews in Longmont, Colo., has inked deals with Craft Beer Guild Distributing of San Diego and Craft Beer Guild of Los Angeles for coverage throughout San Diego, Orange County, and greater Los Angeles, specifically in Ventura and Santa Barbara.
Diageo has announced plans to supply serving facts information on its alcohol beverage products and voluntarily provide consumers with additional caloric and nutritional information. After years of asking the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for permission to label its beer, wine and spirits products with serving facts information, Diageo finally convinced the TTB to temporarily approve the request in 2013.
A four-alarm fire that tore through and reduced a massive Rhode Island property to a mess of charred support columns and twisted steel had the unintended result of revealing Narragansett Beer’s plans for a new brewery. The 93,000 sq. ft. property in Providence that was reportedly gutted by the blaze last Tuesday, it turns out, was to be the shared home of Isle Brewers Guild, an upstart contract brewing company, and Narragansett, which has been on the hunt for its own facility for the past decade.
The first dedicated contract brewing company west of the Mississippi, Sleeping Giant Brewing Company is the brainchild of Matthew Osterman, a former compliance and operations manager for Boulder-based New Planet Beer. Now the president of Sleeping Giant, which launched in January, Osterman is at the helm of the country’s latest contract brewing outfit hoping to cash in on the growth of craft and the entrepreneurial exuberance of startup beer brands without a home base.
