Sierra Nevada to Reopen Taprooms in May
Sierra Nevada has announced it will reopen its breweries in Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina, to the public in May after what will be a 14-month hiatus from on-site service, according to a report in the Chico Enterprise-Record.
The Chico brewery’s taproom and gift shop will reopen at 50% capacity on May 26, just before Memorial Day weekend. To visit the taproom, guests must make dining reservations, per California Department of Public Health guidelines, which were updated earlier this month. Prior to the change, the state’s breweries and distilleries required guests to order a meal with their drinks; California eliminated the meal requirement, but guests must make reservations for visits capped at 90 minutes.
California’s restrictions for on-site service vary by the state’s tier system, which is based on regional COVID-19 cases and vaccine doses administered. Butte County, where Chico is located, has “substantial” risk, the state’s second-highest tier. In substantial risk counties, breweries that do not serve food must close for on-site service by 8 p.m. and may only offer patrons table service. Restaurants and breweries with food service in Butte County can offer indoor service at 25% capacity with a limit of 100 people.
The taproom in Mills River is slated to reopen May 12.
Sierra Nevada announced in September 2020 that its breweries would remain closed to the public for on-site service through the beginning of 2021 at the earliest.
Trillium Brewing to Reopen Taprooms
Canton, Massachusetts-headquartered Trillium Brewing announced today that it will reopen its locations in Boston’s Fenway and Fort Point neighborhoods as well as its brewery in Canton next week.
“I’m so excited to welcome our staff and guests back,” co-founder Esther Tetreault said in a press release. “JC and I established Trillium with the vision of creating memorable places to share experiences with others. We managed to make it through the winter with an incredible team and supportive community, and have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to reopen as soon as we felt we could do so with the safety and standards people expect from us.”
Trillium’s Canton and Fenway locations will reopen on April 1, which is also the date of the Boston Red Sox’s home opener. The Fort Point locations will reopen on April 2. Trillium’s seasonal beer garden on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway is slated to reopen in May.
Parties are limited to six people per table, per Massachusetts regulations.
GoPuff Raises $1.1B, More Than Doubles Valuation
Philadelphia-headquartered, on-demand delivery platform goPuff announced the completion of a $1.15 billion fundraising round earlier this week.
“We are grateful for the confidence of our longtime returning partners as well as the new, top-tier institutions joining this round who understand our differentiation in the market,” goPuff co-founder and co-CEO Rafael Ilishayev said in a press release. “We look forward to their support as we accelerate our growth plans and continue to define and transform the instant needs space.”
Investors included D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Eldridge, Reinvent Capital, Luxor Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 1.
The raise brought goPuff’s valuation to $8.9 billion, doubling over the last five months, according to the release.
“GoPuff is truly in a league of its own,” said Daniel Sundheim, founder and chief investment officer at D1 Capital Partners. “We believe that the company’s vision and differentiated model drive industry-leading economics and sustainable growth.”
GoPuff director of alcohol Randy Ornstein discussed the company’s beverage alcohol strategy and sales during the Brewbound Live business conference in December 2020.
US Brewers Ship 11.6 Million Barrels in February
U.S. brewers shipped 11.6 million barrels of beer in February 2021, an increase of 2.6% (or 300,000 more barrels than in February 2020), according to domestic tax paid estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) shared by the Beer Institute (BI).
This marked a slight increase over January 2021’s 2.4% improvement over January 2020. Brewers shipped 12.7 million barrels of beer in January 2021.
Year-to-date through February, brewers have shipped more than 24.35 million barrels of beer, a 2.5% increase compared to the same two-month period in 2020, the only calendar months in 2020 spared from the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect.
The March 2021 domestic tax paid estimate is slated to be released on April 21.
TTB Beer Product Approvals Decline 7.6%
The TTB approved fewer new products in the beer and wine categories in 2020 compared to 2019, according to a report from bw166, a Santa Rosa, California-based beverage alcohol consulting firm.
In the 12 months through February 2021, the TTB approved 7.6% fewer beer products and 15.7% fewer wine products than the same period the prior year.
Beer product approvals have rebounded over the last three months through February, with a 6.7% increase over the same period last year. However, wine product approvals are still negative, with 1.1% fewer approvals in the last three months.
The spirits category has outpaced both beer and wine in both time periods. For the 12-month period through February 2021, the TTB approved 14.2% more spirits products than the year before. That growth rate more than doubled over the last three months, in which the TTB approved 32.9% more spirits products than the year before.
Consumer Groups Ask FDA for Action Against Vizzy Hard Seltzer Health Claims
Leaders from two consumer groups have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take enforcement action against Molson Coors Beverage Company for claims made on packaging and in marketing for its Vizzy Hard Seltzer, according to a report in Food Dive.
“Alcohol is never a good way to obtain nutrients,” the letter from the groups read. “If these claims are not expressly prohibited, more manufacturers may attempt to market their alcoholic beverages as healthful sources of nutrients, misleading consumers about these drinks, which are not healthy.”
Three employees of the Center for Science in the Public Interest — president and executive director Peter Lurie, director of strategy and program Laura MacCleery and senior science policy associate Eva Greenthal — and Consumer Federation of America director of food policy Thomas Gremillion signed the letter.
On packaging and social media posts, Vizzy touts antioxidant Vitamin C from the inclusion of acerola cherries. Lurie, MacCleery, Greenthal and Gremillion pointed to the FDA’s policy on fortification of food and beverages, which does “not consider it appropriate to add vitamins and minerals to alcoholic beverages.”
A Molson Coors spokesperson told Food Dive that the company has “always been committed to communicating this product attribute responsibly.”
The Vizzy variety pack has posted $74 million in off-premise sales for the 52 weeks ending February 21, making it Molson Coors’ 14th-best selling SKU, according to market research firm IRI. The brand launched in spring 2020, and Molson Coors added a second variety pack with four additional flavors in February 2021. Next month, the company will roll out Vizzy Lemonade.