Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing is headed into 2022 with a renewed focus on its core brands, led by its Buena brand family, CEO Maria Stipp told Brewbound.

Four New England craft brewers discussed learnings gleaned from developing their contract brewing services during the pandemic at the Massachusetts Brewers Guild’s annual conference earlier this week.

National beer writers Kate Bernot and Dave Infante join Brewbound’s Justin Kendall, Jess Infante and Zoe Licata for a special “Beer Byliners” crossover special. Topics include the Brewers Association’s 2022 event vaccine requirement, the disparity in available capital for different brewing ventures, Boston Beer’s entry into the Finnish Long Drink space, labor issues at contract brewer City, the “Great Resignation,” and Elvira “Mistress of the Dark.”

The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) is suing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over its updated COVID-19 vaccination and testing standards, the trade group announced on Tuesday.

Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages has struck a deal to acquire Bell’s Brewery, the second largest craft brewery in Michigan and the seventh largest Brewers Association-defined craft brewery by volume in 2020.

Brooklyn Brewery is expanding its Special Effects non-alcoholic beer line with a new 12-pack featuring four varieties of non-alc beers.

After finding its own path, Lantern now has its new guide. Last month, the Boston-based cannabis delivery platform announced the promotion of its president, Meredith Mahoney, to co-founder and CEO.

Both volume and rate of sale in the on-premise bounced back over the weekend of November 4-7, after a weekend of decline in the period before (October 21-24), BeerBoard reported in its latest “On-Premise Status Report.”

For nearly a decade, Michael Taylor and Felipe Szpigel worked together at Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B), building and guiding the world’s largest beer manufacturer’s craft beer division.

A pair of beverage alcohol e-commerce platforms are merging. E-commerce luxury spirits platform ReserveBar announced today that it will acquire Minibar Delivery, a marketplace that offers on-demand delivery of beer, wine and spirits.

The Brewers Association (BA) will require attendees of its 2022 events to provide proof of vaccination for COVID-19 and will not accept negative test results as a substitute. “All events and competitions will have this requirement,” BA marketing and communications director Ann Obenchain told Brewbound. “There will be no negative test option.”

Bar and restaurant sales velocity in all key markets tracked by on-premise market research firm CGA declined week-over-week for the week ending October 30. “Average outlet [dollar] sales (velocity) trends have been slightly negative in recent weeks, following growth in September and the early part of October,” CGA wrote. “These recent trends continue to mirror 2019, suggesting that the country is experiencing normal seasonal trends.”

Tilray-owned SweetWater Brewing Company and Ontario, Canada-based RIFF Cannabis have collaborated to launch SweetWater RIFF, a vodka-based ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail.

Amid rising costs from its suppliers, Ball Corporate — the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum cans — is exploring increasing its prices for customers “on a case by case basis,” CEO and chairman John Hayes said during the company’s third quarter earnings call with investors and analysts.