More than a month after Sonoma Beverage Works lost its investor funding and abruptly ceased operations, the assets of the Northern California cider and wine company are being liquidated. According to an April 17 notice to creditors, Sonoma Beverage Works, whose brands include Sonoma Cider and Ahoy Wines, transferred ownership of the company’s physical assets and intellectual property to Structured Solutions, a California-based liquidator, on April 7 in order to recoup creditors’ money.
Pete Coors, the chairman of Molson Coors’ board of directors, didn’t appreciate some of the comments that were made about large brewing companies during last week’s Craft Brewers Conference. The annual event — which was hosted by the Brewers Association (BA) and drew nearly 14,000 attendees from across the beer industry to Nashville, Tennessee, for a week of learning and socializing – began with a familiar refrain: “Big beer” is bad.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s new menu labeling rules took effect today, ushering in a new wave of requirements for chain retailers. Going forward, chain restaurants, grocery outlets, and convenience stores with more than 20 locations will be required to post caloric and nutritional information for beer as well as other food and drinks sold on-premise that are considered “standard menu items.”
In the latest edition of People Moves: Worthy Brewing hires a new CEO; Heineken shuffles its executives; and David Coors takes over at AC Golden Brewing.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Shipyard Brewing looks to pivot in Portland; the TTB collects record offer for alleged trade practice violations; Molson Coors reports Q2 earnings; and more.
Anheuser-Busch is making yet another sustainability-minded investment. The world’s largest beer company today announced plans to purchase upwards of 800 hydrogen-electric powered semi-trucks from Nikola Motor Company.
One week after being named the Brewers Association’s new diversity ambassador, Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham presented to hundreds of Craft Brewers Conference attendees about the challenges of diversifying the brewing industry. “We all want to diversify craft beer,” she said, “but why is doing this so hard?”
In today’s craft beer environment, it pays to be a startup. According to Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson, breweries founded after 2014 are driving the majority of segment growth. Those breweries collectively added 916,000 barrels to the category in 2017, which represents growth of 52.6 percent versus 2016. Breweries founded before 2014, however, added 285,000 barrels to the craft segment and collectively grew just 1.3 percent.
Craft Brew Alliance has inked another sports sponsorship. After striking a “multi-year” deal to become the “official craft beer” of Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy in March, CBA today announced that its Kona brand would become the “official craft beer” of the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP).
The Brewers Association (BA) wants more beer companies to adopt the “independent craft brewer seal.” To help the effort, the non-for-profit trade group, which represents the interests of small and independent craft breweries, tripled down on its promotion of the indie badge during this year’s Craft Brewers Conference, taking place in Nashville.
PicoBrew co-founder Bill Mitchell doesn’t want to sell you a device that can produce the best beer you’ll ever drink. He just wants to give homebrewers a chance to “exactly replicate” what some of the country’s top breweries are already commercially selling.
Nearly three weeks after New Realm Brewing won an auction for the brewing equipment located inside the former Green Flash Brewing Virginia Beach production facility, the Atlanta-headquartered beer company has announced plans to resume operations at the 58,000 sq. ft. facility and reopen its taproom.
Call it the return of the Boston (beer) Garden. Trillium Brewing Company today announced that it will reopen its seasonal beer garden next month in downtown Boston.
A pair of raw ingredients suppliers backed by the same private equity fund has joined forces in an effort to offer craft breweries easier access to hops and malt. Michigan’s Hop Head Farms and Milwaukee’s Proximity Malt, which are both a part of Ceres Partners’ “Food & Agriculture Opportunity Fund,” today announced a joint marketing agreement aimed at better serving the craft brewing industry’s ever-growing long tail of more than 6,300 companies.
