Longtime Vermont Cider Co. VP of sales Terry Hopper became fast-growing Montauk Brewing Company’s 10th employee in eight years.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, new product innovation at breweries has declined by nearly half, according to alcoholic beverage compliance firm Sovos ShipCompliant. New product registration from breweries declined 43.4% in April and May in Sovos ShipCompliant’s database, compared to the same months in 2019.

Leaders of four popular Massachusetts craft breweries join Brewbound Frontlines to discuss their companies’ growth in 2019 and how they’re faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Executives from Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers, Wormtown Brewery, Castle Island Brewing and Vitamin Sea Brewing are featured on the panel.

Seattle, Washington-based Fremont Brewing has temporarily shuttered its brewery and beer garden after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, June 16.

Melvin Brewing restructures leadership team; Doug Campbell out as president and GM of Brewery Ommegang; Molson Coors taps Marcelo Pascoa as Coors Family VP of brand marketing; and more People Moves.

A pioneer of the Vermont craft beer industry will no longer have a physical presence in the state. Magic Hat Brewing, now owned by Rochester, New York-based FIFCO USA, will vacate its brewery and performing arts center, called “The Artifactory,” in South Burlington, Vermont, next month, according to a press release.

Leaders of four popular Massachusetts craft breweries will join Brewbound Frontlines this week to discuss their companies’ growth in 2019 and how they’re faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Executives from Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers, Wormtown Brewery, Castle Island Brewing and Vitamin Sea Brewing will be featured on the panel, which will be live-streamed at 3 p.m. EST.

With restaurants and other on-premise retailers allowed to reopen in varying capacities in all 50 states, consumers are tentatively wading back into dining out, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen CGA, the market research firm’s on-premise arm. Nielsen CGA surveyed consumers from June 5-7 in four states — California, New York, Texas and Florida — where restaurants reopened to varying degrees.

Reyes Beer Division subsidiary Harbor Distributing has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Elyxir Distributing LLC in the Monterey Bay Area (Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito) of California, the company announced today in a press release.

After back-to-back billion dollar sales weeks in off-premise retailers, beer category sales fell just short of a three-peat during the first week of June. For the week ending June 6, off-premise beer category dollar sales increased 22.1%, to $998.4 million, according to market research firm Nielsen. Beer category dollar sales in the two-week period covering… Read more »

Harpoon Brewery parent company Mass. Bay Brewing has disbanded its distributing company and sold the rights to sell its products in the Boston area to Randolph, Massachusetts-based Burke Distributing.

The California Department of Public Health has rescinded a requirement that alcoholic beverages must be served with a meal, according to an industry advisory issued by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

San Diego, California-based AleSmith Brewing’s 25 anniversary celebration was slated to start in late March and continue on through the end of 2020. But those parties were either canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week’s two-part Brewbound Frontlines livestream features leaders from Weathered Souls Brewing Company, who discusses the Black is Beautiful collaboration initiative, and then, in a separate conversation, Buffalo Wild Wings beverage innovation manager Jason Murphy shares the sports bar chain’s reopening plans and what it means for craft brewers.