Mass. Bay Brewing Company and the Massachusetts Brewers Guild (MBG) have launched Hop Forward Equality, a website with resources and a job board with the goal of creating a more diverse and equitable industry and consumer base for Bay State breweries. “We have to ask ourselves why, and we have to do a better job truly encompassing and embracing our communities,” MBG executive director Katie Stinchon said in a press release.

The loss of higher-margin on-premise consumption cost the beer industry more than $20 billion in 2020, National Beer Wholesalers Association chief economist Lester Jones reported yesterday during a webinar. “Volumes went up a little bit, maybe 0.5-1% up, but spending shifted dramatically,” Jones said. “

Canadian cannabis firm Canopy Growth announced today a partnership with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits to distribute its portfolio of CBD-infused beverages in the U.S.

California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) executive director Lori Ajax and lobbyist Chris Walker shared the progress the organization has made on behalf of the state’s craft breweries yesterday during what board chair Lynne Weaver called the “second and hopefully last” virtual conference. California is home to 958 craft breweries, which produced 3.3 million barrels in 2020, making it No. 1 in craft beer production nationwide.

Off-premise dollar sales of craft beer have maintained a “moderate growth” rate through the first three months of 2021, as dollar sales increased 6%, to $1.3 billion, according to NielsenIQ data shared by Bump Williams Consulting.

The COVID-19 pandemic driven shutdown of on-premise service at bars and restaurants led to a big but expected cut in draft packaging last year, according to the 2020 “Package Mix Report” shared by the Beer Institute and compiled by the National beer Wholesalers Association’s Department of Industry Affairs.

The Stratford, Connecticut-based craft brewery has launched Daybreaker, a family of ready-to-drink, vodka-based cocktails, available in three flavors: Blood Orange, Cran-Lime and Meyer Lemonade. All three are mixed with real fruit juice and vodka distilled at Two Roads’ Area Two research and development space.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has accepted an $850,000 offer in compromise from Chicago-based Lakeshore Beverage’s RN Acquisition LLC and City Beverage – Markham LLC for alleged trade practice violations from 2014 through the present.

Over the last three months, consumers of all ages have demonstrated an increased willingness to go out, which has led to an uptick in restaurant sales. Last month, restaurants nationwide posted a 36% increase in sales year-over-year and a 13.6% increase over February sales.

Firestone Walker has reached a deal to acquire the Cali-Squeeze brand from SLO Brewing Co. Firestone Walker added that it has been “historically reluctant to develop beers outside the traditional footprint.” Nevertheless, the company has toyed with fruited beers but ultimately “recognized that Cali-Squeeze already had everything we were looking for.”

Even as suppliers rush to produce hard seltzers, ready-to-drink canned cocktails and other so-called “fourth category” offerings, traditional beer remains a priority for Whole Foods Markets, according to Mary Guiver, the natural food chain’s global senior category merchant for beer and spirits.

Hard seltzers will be receiving more shelf space in convenience stores, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog’s latest “Beverage Bytes” survey of convenience store beverage buyers (representing 30,000 retail locations, or about 20% of the c-store channel).

The Brewers Association (BA) ended 2020 with an operational net loss of $3.5 million, according to its 2020 stewardship report, which the organization released today. “No one was immune to hardship in 2020, including the Brewers Association,” president and CEO Bob Pease wrote in a note opening the report.

Molson Coors Beverage Company announced today that it will make an equity investment in TRU Colors Brewery, a Wilmington, North Carolina-based craft brewery with a mission to end street violence.