Rubbing the guts of a Cascade hop off his nose, Andy Goeler is in awe of the 1,500 acres of hops under trellis that surround him, resting at the foot of northern Idaho’s Selkirk Mountain Range. He’s gushing poetic adjectives, verbally painting a picture that needs no help painting itself. After a career spanning three decades at Anheuser-Busch, Goeler is now two years into his tenure as CEO of Goose Island Beer.
Salt Lake City, Ut.-based Uinta Brewing today announced it has sold a percentage of its business to The Riverside Company, a private equity firm with offices in New York City and Cleveland, Ohio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Uinta founder Will Hamill told Brewbound that he would retain a “significant” piece of the Uinta business and continue to lead the company as CEO.
Year-to-date craft dollar sales in IRI’s multi-outlet and convenience retail channel universe (MULC), which comprises grocery, drug, Wal-Mart, Club, Dollar, Mass-Merchandiser and Military stores, were up 22.9 percent to $1.3 billion through Aug. 10. Volume sales are also growing steadily, up 19.3 percent in MULC during the same period.
In an effort to help re-launch its sessionable year-round offering Peacemaker Extra Pale as “Peacemaker Anytime Ale,” the Texas-based craft brewery today rolled out an enormous, Texas-sized 99-pack of the 5 percent ABV golden ale. Packaged in cardboard, the multi-pack is seven feet long, weighs 82 lbs., and sells for $99 at Austin package stores.
Deschutes Brewery is continuing its eastward expansion. The Bend, Ore.-based company today announced plans to broaden its distribution in three Michigan cities — Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing — this October. Its foray into Michigan with wholesaler partner West Side Beer Distributing will be the last “major” market expansion the brewery takes on in 2014, per a company statement.
A startup craft brewery in Kirkland, Wash. has been cleared for liftoff by the state’s liquor board. Chainline Brewing’s licensing application was approved by the Washington State Liquor Control Board on Tuesday, despite prior complaints filed with the city by Kirkland community members, who were concerned that the presence of a new brewery would pose a threat to public safety.
Sweetwater Brewing will distribute throughout Mississippi beginning in September after signing agreements with four Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in the state. The addition of Mississippi will expand the brewery’s footprint to 10 states as well as Washington D.C.
For the first time since last May, Kansas City, Mo.-based Boulevard Brewing is expanding its distribution footprint. Boulevard, which was acquired by Belgian-based Duvel Moortgat last October, today announced it will expand into the greater Philadelphia area and New Jersey and has signed agreements with Muller Inc. in Philadelphia and Peerless Beverage Company in New Jersey.
If there’s one skill that Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch has mastered, it’s the ability to grab headlines. So last month, when Stone unveiled plans to construct its new $25 million brewery in Berlin, it wasn’t all that surprising that Koch would kick off the ceremonial announcement by getting behind the controls of a forklift and dropping a giant boulder on a pile of “industrial” beers from around the world. But that wasn’t the stunt that earned Stone the attention.
Fremont Brewing founder Matt Lincecum likens his company’s own creation narrative to the story of Stone Soup. In their version of the story, Lincecum — a thirsty entrepreneur with just $10,000 in the bank — sets out convince a well-known real estate developer to lease space to his startup craft brewery in the middle of a recession.
Oskar Blues today announced the nationwide release of its latest innovation, a canned version of the company’s Old Chub Nitro. The Longmont, Colo.-based company originally debuted the beer, albeit with a slightly different recipe, at the 2014 Craft Brewers Conference, held this past April in Denver, Colo.
For Joel VandenBrink, founder of both Seattle Cider Co. and Two Beers Brewery, running two markedly different businesses means developing two markedly different business strategies. Having just invested close to half a million dollars in an expansion that enabled it to triple capacity, Seattle Cider is getting set to open a second facility that will again significantly lift its production ceiling.
Sales of craft and craft-style beer will likely eclipse $20 billion in 2014, according to a new report from market research firm Mintel. Of the $20.4 billion in craft sales that Mintel has predicted for this year, the firm believes more than 84 percent ($17.2 billion) will come from Brewers Association-defined craft brewers
Five months after SweetWater Brewing began canning its beer, the Atlanta-based craft brewery is once again augmenting its packaging lineup. Beginning this week, Sweetwater will ship newly designed glass bottles, now embossed with the company’s logo and tagline, to its wholesalers.
