In episode 11 of the Brewbound Podcast, editor Chris Furnari interviews Hugh Sisson, the founder and managing partner of Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore, Maryland. During the interview, Hugh discusses how his company is evolving amid increasing competition within the craft beer segment, and he explains the headwinds facing regional breweries. He also talks about trends that he’s paying close attention to and shares his vision of how the beer category will continue to mature in the coming years.
Brewbound has partnered with Santa Monica Brew Works, House Beer and YETI to offer attendees of the upcoming Brewbound Live business conference two evenings of networking and fun.
Shipments of domestically brewed beer are down about 2.9 percent, according to the Beer Institute, but year-to-date volume sales at off-premise retailers are still basically flat. According to the latest data from market research firm IRI, volume sales at multi-outlet and convenience stores were down 0.3 percent year-to-date through the period ending November 4.
In this week’s edition of Press Clips: Reyes buys the Constellation Brands portfolio from Ace; beer shipments are down 2.1 percent in 2018; the U.S. brewery count eclipses 7,000; Utah mandates tests to ensure 3.2 ABW; and more.
Stone Brewing vice president Todd Karnig has departed the San Diego-based craft brewery, Brewbound has learned. Karnig is the second key executive to leave Stone Brewing in the last year, and the third since former POM Wonderful president Dominic Engels was hired as the company’s new CEO. Karnig’s exit also comes about a month after Stone hired former Monster Energy executive Dan Lamb as its chief commercial officer.
In an effort to attract a growing number of drinkers who are moderating alcohol consumption, several beer companies are looking toward non-alcoholic brews as a way to boost sales and court the 30 percent of U.S. adults who don’t imbibe. Among major producers, both Heineken and Pabst have recently announced plans to roll out non-alc offerings nationwide in the first quarter of 2019. There’s also an emerging group of startups focused exclusively on crafting alcohol-free libations.
In this week’s Last Call: The TTB and Elgin Beverage agree to a $325,000 offer in compromise; Freetail Brewing co-founder Scott Metzger departs the company he helped launch in 2008; Cape May Brewing plans to open a distributorship in 2019; and Massachusetts will become the first state east of the Mississippi to conduct legal recreational cannabis sales next Tuesday.
The Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective today announced plans to open a brewpub — in Asheville, about 30 miles north of Oskar Blues’ production facility in Brevard. Dubbed “The Canarchy Collaboratory,” the new outpost will occupy the soon-to-close Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB) space.
In episode 10 of the Brewbound Podcast, Cartwright discusses her company’s relationship with Lagunitas, and shares her entrepreneurial journey. She also explains how the craft beer landscape in Texas has changed since she opened Independence in 2004, and shares her thoughts on consumer purchasing habits.
The founders of Owl’s Brew are gearing up for 2019 as they plan to relaunch the brand with a new identity, and raise as much as $10 million as part of a Series B round of funding. The company also recently hired former New Belgium CEO Christine Perich.
After nearby wildfires forced Sierra Nevada Brewing to temporarily cease operations at its Chico, California-based production facility over the weekend, the craft brewery has resumed making beer. The country’s third-largest craft brewery also announced the creation of a fund to help those affected by the blaze.
For over 50 years, Hensley Beverage Company didn’t carry any non-alcoholic beverages in its portfolio and managed to get by just fine. The Arizona-based distribution house, founded in 1955, built its operations — which currently extend to six facilities across the state totaling over 800,000 sq. ft. of combined space and over 1,000 full-time workers — largely on the back of a longstanding agreement with Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB) to carry its products exclusively. That partnership ended, however, in 2008, when a combination of factors — a decrease in construction and real estate development caused by the national economic downturn, along with strong anti-immigration sentiment within the state that caused some recent foreign arrivals to move elsewhere — began to negatively affect beer sales, according to the distributor, and compelled it to make a change.
Keith Villa, the legendary brewmaster who retired from MillerCoors earlier this year and launched Ceria, Inc., a cannabis company, is most known for creating the iconic Blue Moon Belgian-style wheat ale. So it’s only fitting that his first play in the cannabis-infused beverage space would be a de-alcoholized version of his popular brew. Called Grainwave, Villa’s first THC-infused non-alcoholic craft beer, a Belgian-style white ale, will hit Colorado dispensaries in mid-December.
San Diego County craft brewers produced more than 1.1 million barrels of beer in 2017, up about 22 percent from 2016 levels, according to an economic impact study conducted by the San Diego Brewers Guild and California State University San Marcos’ (CSUSM) Office of Business Research and Analysis. The total economic impact of the craft brewing industry in San Diego County increased from $870 million in 2016 to more than $1.1 billion last year, according to the study, titled “Economic Impact of Craft Breweries in San Diego County Report.” The study also found that more than 130 San Diego-based breweries generated about $802 million in revenue last year.
