The Brewbound team recaps the 2022 Craft Brewers Conference and shares their big takeaways from the gathering of 10,000 beer industry professionals in Minneapolis.

Cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are slowly seeping into beer culture. Two early adopters of the Web 3.0 tech — Kurtis Cummings, founder and CEO of Switchyard Brewing in Indianapolis, and Daniel Paul Wellendorf, co-owner and head of marketing of Modist Brewing in Minneapolis — shared their experiences during Brewbound’s Brew Talks meetup in Minneapolis last week during the Craft Brewers Conference.

With both tequila’s and mezcal’s growth rates soaring, the agave spirits category could surpass vodka in a number of years, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. While not an agave spirit, another new product from Mexico is starting to build an audience: Sotol.

On-premise volume declined for the third consecutive period, decreasing -1.9% over the weekend of May 5-8 compared to the weekend before, according to the market research firm BeerBoard.

Sonic Hard Seltzer — the drive-thru fast-food chain’s collaboration hard seltzer brand with Oklahoma City’s COOP Ale Works — is now available nearly statewide in 30 states as part of the spring resets.

Molson Coors has named beer industry veteran Jeff Agase as the new head of its craft division, Tenth & Blake.

Leaders from Boston Beer Company and Target discussed their companies’ efforts to welcome more upstart brands into the beverage-alcohol industry during Brewbound’s first Brew Talks meetup of 2022 last week in Minneapolis during the week of the Craft Brewers Conference.

Ryan Burk, head cider maker for Boston Beer and Angry Orchard Hard Cider, has left the company, effective April 30.

Ball Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum beverage cans, reported $1.6 billion in sales in its North and Central America beverage packaging business unit for the first quarter of 2022, a +23% increase over the same period last year.

Cincinnati legacy craft beer brands Christian Moerlein, Little Kings, and Hudepohl are changing hands once again. Cincinnati Beverage Co. (CinBev), the company formed by three former marketing and advertising executives who acquired the brands in late 2019, has been sold to another local firm whose identity has not yet been disclosed, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported

Heineken USA CEO Maggie Timoney opened the company’s sales meeting stressing that its underlying business “is really, really strong” despite supply chain headaches and out of stocks.

Leaders of Chicago-based Moor’s Brewing Company explained how their participation in a residency program for Black-owned breweries helped grow their fledgling business during the first Brew Talks meetup of 2022 last week in Minneapolis during the week of the Craft Brewers Conference.

Marc Sorini, general counsel for the Brewers Association (BA), and Katie Marisic, BA director of federal affairs, gave members a rundown on pending legislation and new regulations in 2022, during the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Minneapolis last week.

The alignment of New Belgium and Bell’s Brewery’s distribution networks following the comapnies’ late 2021 merger is picking up steam as the rights to about 500,000 case equivalents of the Comstock, Michigan-headquartered brewery’s beer are about to change hands.