The calendar flip to 2017 brought with it two important changes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that will impact a majority of the country’s brewers and cidermakers.

We said it one year ago and we’ll say it again: What an exhausting year. Much like the 12 months before it, 2016 brought plenty of headlines about the continued evolution of the beer segment. Dozens of craft brewery owners sold all or parts of their businesses, key executives at many of the country’s top beer companies vacated their positions and taproom culture began to boom at a time when sales for some of the largest and most established players softened. So, with another busy year in the books, let’s take a look back at some of the more noteworthy storylines in 2016.

Many within Boulevard Brewing Company believed Jeff Krum was preparing for retirement. Krum, Duvel USA’s vice president of corporate affairs and a 22-year Boulevard veteran, had spent 18 months months away from the brewery’s day-to-day operations after being assigned to complete special projects, such as a new visitors center and beer hall, which opened in July on Kansas City, Missouri’s Westside.

There’s bad blood brewing in Minnesota. Summit Brewing Company is suing two former employees, accusing them “of conspiring to sell the company’s confidential trade secrets to high-level executives for ‘a direct competitor,’” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Beer distributors have been adapting to changes in the marketplace, on one level or another, for decades. When retailers asked distributors for greater levels of service, the merchandising department was created. As on-premise accounts added more draft lines, distributors were asked to clean the lines and assist with repairs or new installations. So what makes the SKU proliferation of the past decade, and the level of associated changes, different from the above-mentioned service layers?

Craft Brew Alliance has appointed two Anheuser-Busch InBev executives to its board of directors, according to a press release issued last week.

Popular craft beermaker Trillium Brewing is planning to relocate its original brewing facility in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston to a larger space just a few blocks away, Brewbound has learned. The new space, according to brewery co-owner Jean-Claude Tetreault, will span more than 15,000 sq. ft. and will include a full-scale restaurant as well as outdoor patio seating. The company is also looking into the feasibility of building a roof deck bar, Tetreault added.

Kary Shumway is the founder of Beer Business Finance, an online resource for beer industry professionals. He has worked in the beer industry for over 20 years as a Certified Public Accountant and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Clarke Distributors, Inc. in Keene, New Hampshire. In part I of his two-part column for Brewbound Voices, Shumway describes the inner workings of a beer distributor and begins to explain how these organizations are evolving to accommodate an onslaught of new craft SKUs.

What’s life been like for Virginia’s Devils Backbone since it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev? Revenue is up 18 to 20 percent over the previous year, according to the News and Advance, which recently profiled the brewery.

After staring deep into his crystal ball, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson has provided a look at how beer style trends might develop in 2017 and, if he’s right, there could be more sessionable offerings on the way. After admitting that predicting future drinking tendencies is “pretty darn hard,” Watson said that, given recent trends, continued growth in the IPA and golden ale categories is likely.

Colorado craft beer wholesaler Elite Brands has obtained the distribution rights to Wicked Weed Brewing, Maui Brewing Company and several import brands, Brewbound has learned. In a joint press release issued on December 23, Elite Brands and Wicked Weed, a popular Asheville, North Carolina-based craft brewery, announced the new distribution agreement.

Earlier this month, 200 brewers, distributors, suppliers and investors descended upon San Diego, Calif. for our bi-annual Brewbound Session business conference. It was a jam-packed day of information sharing, and attendees heard numerous thought-provoking discussions with a variety of industry leaders.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is making a number of sizable investments to grow its acquired craft beer brands both domestically and abroad, according to recent reports. The world’s largest beer company is planning a large-scale international expansion for its biggest craft offering, Goose Island, and making significant investments to scale production capabilities for its Blue Point and Karbach Brewing brands in their respective home markets of New York and Texas.

A group of five German craft breweries working with Brooklyn-based import manager Liquid Projects LLC plan to make their U.S. debut next week, launching in Philadelphia, Rhode Island and New York with a trio of wholesalers. Operating under the “Reinheits Boten” moniker, derived from “Reinheitsgebot,” the German beer purity law, the five German breweries include: Distelhäuser, Zoller-Hof, Friedenfelser Brauerei, Riedenburger Brauhaus and Himburgs Braukunst Keller.