Total craft growth slowed in 2015 as U.S. craft brewers grew volumes by 13 percent and retail dollars by 16 percent last year, according to new data compiled by trade group The Brewers Association (BA). In its annual report on industry-wide growth, the BA said more than 4,250 small and independent U.S. brewers collectively produced about 24.5 million barrels of beer in 2015.
After much-anticipation, Bend, Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery today announced plans to build a second commercial brewing facility in Roanoke, Virginia. The company, which brewed a majority of the 340,000 barrels it produced in 2015 out of a large brewery in Bend, Ore., doesn’t plan to begin construction on the new east coast location until 2019.
Pottsville, Penn.-based D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. today unveiled its new “Respect. It’s Earned.” campaign, which includes print, digital, and TV marketing as well as retail-specific promotions. Running throughout the company’s 18-state footprint, the new campaign is the largest in the brewery’s history and builds on previous messaging that also touted the company’s heritage and emphasized its flagship Lager.
As sales of Mexican imports continue to grow, Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced plans to bring another label from south of the border into select U.S. markets. In a press release, A-B InBev said it would begin rolling out Estrella Jalisco, a light-flavored 4.5 percent ABV pilsner originally brewed in the city of Guadalajara, across 10 states this month.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced plans to delay enforcement of its new menu-labeling regulations until 2017. In a statement, Dr. Susan Mayne, who joined the FDA last January as the new director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said the organization opted to move enforcement from December 1, 2016, to “the date that is one year after it issues final, Level 1 guidance,” as a result of language in the omnibus appropriations bill enacted by Congress on December 18, 2015.
MillerCoors is staying in Chicago. In a note sent to employees yesterday, CEO Gavin Hattersley said the company would keep its name, and its headquarters in Chicago, after Molson Coors acquires the 58 percent stake in the joint venture with SABMiller it does not already own.
Atwater, together with Flemish Fox Brewery & Craftworks, a soon-to-launch beer company founded by Christine Celis of “Celis Beer” fame, jointly formed a new company and will collaboratively construct a 27,000 sq. ft. facility capable of producing upwards of 60,000 barrels per year. A yet-to-be-named joint entity will own the real estate and the brewery assets.
In the hub of North Carolina’s craft beer industry, one brewery is growing like a weed. Asheville-based Wicked Weed Brewing today announced it would build another production facility this summer, its fourth brewery space in as many years. Located on 17 acres in South Asheville, the new 57,000 sq. ft. facility will be entirely devoted to the production of sour, farmhouse, and wild-fermented beers — style categories that Wicked Weed has increasingly focused on in recent years.
Alabama lawmakers passed a bill late yesterday evening that, if signed into law, would grant limited direct-sales privileges to brewers in the state and clean up other other outdated alcohol industry regulations. Now en-route to governor Robert Bentley’s desk, Senate Bill 211, the companion draft of House Bill 176, would give small brewers in Alabama the right to sell up to 288 oz. of beer directly to consumers for off-premise consumption.
A trio of notable craft brewery founders and executives will join next week’s Brew Talks meetup, being hosted at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins on Tuesday, March 22. New Belgium CEO Christine Perich, Left Hand Brewing co-founder Eric Wallace and Odell Brewing co-founder Wynne Odell will join Brewbound editor Chris Furnari to discuss top-of-mind industry issues, including merger & acquisition activity, pay-to-play and wholesaler consolidation, among other topics.
Blue Moon is no longer artfully crafted. The 21-year old craft brand has ditched its old tagline for messaging aimed at “shifting the conversation” to include consumers’ creativity and to “recruit new consumers into craft.” The company has unveiled an entirely new look for the brand, as well as the new “something’s brewing” campaign.
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Former Popchips CEO and the snack brand’s current co-chairman, Paul Davis, has joined Craft Brew Alliance’s board of directors, the beer company announced yesterday. Davis, whose resume includes running companies like Coinstar/Redbox, Kettle Foods and Barilla America, brings more than “three decades of consumer packaged goods experience” to the CBA board, the company said in a statement.
