The first top 100 craft brewery transaction of 2020 is in the books. San Francisco-based private equity firm Encore Consumer Capital has completed the acquisition of Lion Beverages LLC, a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania-based contract brewery and maker of the Lionshead and Stegmaier brands.
Saint Archer co-founder Josh Landan is launching a new hard seltzer brand today in California. Ashland Hard Seltzer is Landan’s play into the more than $2.5 billion hard seltzer segment. The Ashland brand will launch in more than 250 points of distribution, including national chain commitments from major big box and grocery retailers.
Boston Beer Company has reformulated yet another of its top offerings. The company announced today the reformulation of its Samuel Adams Cold Snap spring seasonal release. The recipe tweak follows changes made last year to the formulas for Samuel Adams Summer Ale and every Truly Hard Seltzer flavor.
Molson Coors Beverage Company announced plans to cease production at its facility in Irwindale, California, by September 2020. The second largest U.S. beer manufacturer also announced an agreement with Pabst Brewing Co., giving the Los Angeles-headquartered beer company the option to purchase the Irwindale facility for $150 million.
Three months after announcing plans to pivot to a brewpub business model, Boulder Beer Company today announced plans to sell its brewpub building and pivot once more to a contract brewing model.
Three former beer executives now in the cannabis industry discussed differences between the two industries during last month’s Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: A New York bill would double the state’s excise tax; the Indiana cold beer sales effort will resume; U.S. cider trade group changes name; Silver Eagle distributes 1 million cases of Karbach beer in Houston; C Squared moves; and Backlash exits taproom.
Bissell Brothers Brewing Company co-founder Peter Bissell shared management advice gleaned from his six years running one of Portland, Maine’s most popular craft breweries with his brother during last month’s Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.
In an effort to combat poverty in its community, Creature Comforts Brewing Company founded the Get Comfortable campaign, a multi-tiered approach to raise money and awareness for non-profit organizations that serve Athens-Clarke County’s most vulnerable citizens.
Former Founders Brewing Company diversity and inclusion director Graci Harkema discussed her experiences navigating the fallout from a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based craft brewery, and she shared insights on how the craft beer industry can diversify its talent pool as well as its consumer base last month during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.
Brewbound readers in 2019 gravitated to stories about major craft brewery mergers and acquisitions, hard seltzer launches and reformulations, lawsuits and distribution disputes and brewery closures. The announcement of the $300 million merger between Boston Beer Company and Dogfish Head set the stage for a busy year of M&A activity, as many craft brewers began to form partnerships to weather a more tumultuous competitive marketplace.
Employees at Anchor Brewing ratified a three-year contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 6 earlier this month, a first for the San Francisco-based brewery. D.C. Brau raised $614,335 from 12 investors during a recent equity raise, according to a December 19 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Columbus, Indiana-based 450 North Brewing Company has posted an apology on its social media accounts for selling its Slushy line of beers with the incorrect alcohol by volume.
Co-founders of three breweries in Brewbound’s 2019 class of Rising Stars discussed their companies’ growth strategies and management techniques during a panel earlier this month at the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica. The panel featured Adam Robbings, co-founder and brewmaster of Seattle-based Reuben’s Brews; Jeff Heck, co-founder and CEO of Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing; and Ryan Krill, co-founder and CEO of Cape May Brewing in Cape May, New Jersey.
Fresh Fest co-founder Day Bracey shared how the first U.S. beer festival of black-owned craft breweries came together during a conversation earlier this month during the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica. Fresh Fest offers black beer drinkers an experience that’s rare in an industry whose producers and consumers are mostly white men.
