A California-based craft beer company that had aspirations of expanding into China with a new line of products has gone belly-up after a series of events forced the company to back away from both ventures. Schubros Brewery, based in the eastern region of the Bay Area, has permanently closed, according to company founder Ian Schuster.
After 20 years of brewing beer in South Carolina, Thomas Creek Brewery is considering a possible sale of the business, co-owner Tom Davis told Brewbound. Thomas Creek, which brews its own line of beers as well as a variety of other labels for large and small companies alike, including Bacardi, has retained brokerage firm National Restaurant Properties to secure upwards of $8 million to expand the Greenville-based craft brewery.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Pabst and MillerCoors are headed to trial in November; Amazon adds beer delivery in Texas; the Florida Brewers Guild claims big beer is pushing small brands out of Publix; and more news.
It’s been a turbulent year for Green Flash Brewing, but the San Diego-based craft brewery is hoping the opening of a new satellite brewpub will help turn things around. After closing two production facilities, laying off 76 employees, pulling distribution from 42 states and being sold by its bank to a new investor group, Green Flash has finally commenced operations at the Green Flash Brewhouse & Eatery in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Nearly a full year has elapsed since the Brewers Association (BA) introduced its independence seal, and the not-for-profit trade group that represents the interests of small and independent craft breweries has been keeping tabs on adoption rates across the U.S. A graphical representation of seal adoption across states and U.S.-owned territories, through June 6, which was produced by the BA and obtained by Brewbound, breaks down which regions are using the seal.
London’s Beavertown Brewery today announced that Heineken International B.V. would acquire a minority stake in the company, confirming a month-long rumor that the craft beer company was on the hunt for an investment partner. Terms of the deal, including the amount and the specific size of the stake sold, were not disclosed.
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) this week announced a pair of key leadership changes, including the departure of chief financial officer Joseph Vanderstelt and the appointment of João Paulo Falcão Vieira, vice president of Anheuser-Busch’s (A-B) North American Zone, to its board of directors.
Free State Craft Beer Delivery founder Dan Kennedy is the first to admit that he didn’t start a traditional beer wholesaling business. “I really started a trucking company,” he told Brewbound. Kennedy, who left a career as an events director at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, to pursue entrepreneurship and a passion for beer, is the brains behind upstart Free State.
A bipartisan group of Congressional members have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate potential irregularities in the aluminum market, which they say are causing the price of the metal used in beverage cans to surge. In the letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) and 31 additional congressional members pointed to “sharp increases” in the Midwest Premium — which represents the full logistics costs of shipping and storing metal in the U.S. — as the potential cause of aluminum pricing irregularities.
As Rhinegeist Brewing prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary this weekend, the Cincinnati-based beer company is closing in on another milestone: surpassing the 100,000-barrel mark. Rhinegeist co-founder Bryant Goulding told Brewbound that the brewery is on pace to reach 100,000 barrels by the end of 2018, adding that year-to-date sales are up 30 percent even though the company hasn’t released any new innovation beers or expanded its distribution footprint.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: MillerCoors says the Trump tariffs will cost it $40 million; Magnolia founder Dave McLean leaves the company; Jester King takes on employee owners; brewery closures in Chicago, Washington and Virginia; and more news.
Three of the largest U.S. beer companies dropped a slate of new advertisements this week in an effort to capture the attention of soccer fans tuning into the 2018 World Cup. Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, rolled out three new medieval-themed commercials for Bud Light, one of which was created for the World Cup and produced in both English and Spanish.
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) has taken a small step forward in expanding its nearly 3-year-long partnership with Massachusetts-based Cisco Brewers, today announcing plans to rebrand the Redhook pub in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as an “island-inspired” destination. In a press release, CBA called the decision to convert the Redhook pub “an easy one,” pointing to the fact that the Nantucket-headquartered brewery’s flagship offerings, Whale’s Tale Pale Ale and Grey Lady, have been brewed and packaged at the Portsmouth facility since late 2015.
Beer companies haven’t effectively marketed to women, and they’re leaving a lot of opportunity for increased sales on the table, according to Bridget Brennan, CEO of Chicago-based consulting group the Female Factor. “We can’t underestimate that there has been, from a beer industry standpoint, a 150-year head start in marketing the product to guys as a guy’s product,” she told industry stakeholders who attended the Beer Institute’s annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week.
