Last Call: Stone Names New COO; Wild Heaven Unveils a $5 Pale Ale

Stone Brewing Hires New COO

San Diego-headquartered Stone Brewing Company, which also operates manufacturing facilities in Richmond, Virginia, and Berlin, Germany, has hired a new chief operating officer.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Stone has tapped Sean Monahan, who previously spent 31 years as a supply chain strategy expert with A.T. Kearney.

Monahan, who fills a role that was left vacant last October when former COO Pat Tiernan departed the company, will work out the Stone’s Richmond location.

Stone co-founder and executive chairman Greg Koch said the decision to place Monahan in Richmond was “valuable” because of how important the facility has become since it opened in 2016.

“Richmond is so critical to our company,” Koch told the Times-Dispatch, noting that the company has invested “more in Richmond than anywhere else.”

Stone, which made nearly 400,000 barrels of beer last year, according to the Brewers Association, will produce more than 125,000 barrels in Richmond this year, the report noted.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of Richmond in our equation,” he told the outlet.

Stone Brewing also hired beer industry veteran Mark Fabrizio as its new director of East Coast brewing operations. Fabrizio most recently spent three years with North American Breweries and has had stints with Boston Beer Company and Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Atlanta’s Wild Heaven Creates Affordable Stadium Beer

In partnership with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta’s Wild Heaven Beer has created a new beer, called ATL Pale Ale, which will sell for $5 throughout the venue.

According to a press release, the 5 percent ABV beer was brewed with “input from Mercedes-Benz Stadium fans,” and will debut on September 16 during the Atlanta Falcons’ home opener versus the Carolina Panthers.

“We are honored to make this beer for fans in Atlanta,” Wild Heaven co-founder Nick Purdy said in the release. “Beer is the drink of the people and we’re excited that this collaboration can bring craft beer to tens of thousands of new fans in a thrilling environment.”

The company described the new offering as a “crisp beer that is easy to enjoy for drinkers new to craft beer with enough body and flavor for the craft beer lover.”

Anheuser-Busch Heir Launches Cannabis Company

The great-great-grandson of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch is getting into the cannabis business.

Adolphus A. Busch V has launched ABV Cannabis Company, which aims to provide “clean, consistent, quality and affordable cannabis products that appeal to consumers from every walk of life,” according to a press release.

Busch, who said he was “turned away” by Anheuser Busch after graduating from Colorado State University in 2013, spent five years working in the cannabis space before launching ABV.

“Growing up I always knew I wanted to work in the family business, creating quality and affordable products that appealed to a variety of consumers,” he said via the release. “However, once I saw all the incredible benefits that cannabis could bring to people and the immense opportunity presented by the cannabis industry, I knew I could take all I learned from my pioneering family heritage and create a new legacy for myself in the cannabis space.”

The company’s products are sold at cannabis retailers throughout Colorado, and a “national expansion” is planned for the coming months.

Owners of Upstart New York Beer Company Involved in Lawsuit

The owners of Rochester, New York’s Fairpoint Brewing are embroiled in a “messy” lawsuit, according to The Post-Standard.

In the lawsuit, Fairpoint minority owner Paul Guarracini has accused majority owner Tim Garman of “erratic and opaque managerial decisions,” as well as having a secret bank account.

Guarracini is asking for the “dissolution” of the company or an “equitable buyout” for his 49 percent stake.

In the lawsuit, Guarracini claims that he had been shut out of important business decisions, including the opening of a new brewery and taproom as well as the launch of a separate kombucha product line that was solely owned by Garman.

Read more on Syracuse.com

Boston Beer to Release Red Sox-themed Beer

Boston Beer Company announced this week that it will release 502 750 mL bottles of Samuel Adams Red Seat IPA in late September as a tribute to Ted Williams’ 502-foot home run — the longest in the history of Fenway Park. That feat is still marked inside Fenway by a single red seat at the site of where Williams’ June 9, 1946, dinger landed.

Boston Beer is holding a bottle release party on September 27 — starting at 5:02 p.m. — at its brewery in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Additionally, Red Seat IPA will be on tap inside the on-site taproom.