Commons Brewery founder Michael Wright started his career in beer as more of a licensed hobbyist — a “one man show, on a one barrel system located in [my] garage,” as he describes it. “To my surprise, I was actually able to get licensed in the garage,” he told attendees during last week’s Brew Talks meetup in Portland, Ore. “What I had lacking was any sort of a plan.”
Less than a year removed from first opening last November, Playalinda Brewing has detailed plans to build a multi-million dollar production brewery and distillery about five miles south of its current headquarters in Titusville, Fla.
How do you deliver more beer to more people? That’s the number one question craft brewery entrepreneurs are currently wrestling with, said Karmen Olson, Craft Brew Alliance’s senior manager of emerging business. Speaking to more than 130 beer industry professionals during Wednesday night’s Brew Talks meetup, held at Providence Park in Portland, Ore., Olson provided a glimpse into CBA’s new emerging business unit, which seeks to invest in and form “strategic partnerships” with small U.S. craft breweries.
Three top-level employees of the Utah Brewers Cooperative, comprised of Squatters and Wasatch Beers, were laid off from the company last week, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. According to the website, the company let go of brewmaster Dan Burick, CFO Sean Boyle and national sales director George Allen as part of a restructuring initiative.
The Beer Institute has updated its voluntary marketing and advertising code in an effort to streamline how breweries and importers self-regulate the promotion of their products.
There are now more than a dozen craft brewers looking to sell all or parts of their businesses, according to a Reuters article that, citing unnamed sources, claims beer companies like Lagunitas, SweetWater Brewing, Ballast Point and even Dogfish Head are exploring transactions. One of those companies, New York City’s Brooklyn Brewery, has consistently turned down investments from private equity firms for more than 20 years, founder Steve Hindy told the news service.
Brewbound is pleased to announce that Michael Wright, the founder of The Commons Brewery, will join tomorrow’s Brew Talks PDX meetup to share his entrepreneurial lessons from building a small artisan craft brewery in one of the country’s most competitive beer markets. Wright, who launched The Commons Brewery out of his garage in 2010, will discuss his experience of patiently scaling The Commons Brewery, share his business philosophy and outlook on the continued growth of the craft segment.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the next IPA, because there won’t be one. Not in the near future anyway, according to Bart Watson, staff economist for the Brewers Association. The style has just grown at too rapid a clip to be replicated: in just seven years, the IPA has gone from accounting for less than 8 percent of all craft volume to more than 27 percent, according to Watson, citing IRI scan data.
We’re just 48 hours away from Brew Talks PDX, being held on Wednesday Aug. 19 at Providence Park in Portland, Ore., and it’s finally time to reveal this month’s featured speakers. Rogue Ales president Brett Joyce, Columbia Distributing president Mark Walen and Rob Maletis, the owner and president of Maletis Beverage, will join Brewbound assistant editor Dave Eisenberg in a conversation about the dynamic Portland beer scene. CBA’s senior manager of emerging business, Karmen Olson, will also discuss how the company approaches partnerships with smaller breweries.
Appalachian Mountain Brewery (AMB) has extended its strategic partnership with Craft Brew Alliance (CBA), entering into an alternating proprietorship agreement that will include increased production of the North Carolina-based company’s core beers at the larger company’s east coast brewery. In an earnings release, AMB said it is “excited to be able to increase capacity significantly by leveraging excess capacity that CBA has in Portsmouth, N.H.”
Continuing its exploration of the craft alcoholic beverage sector, Alltech, a global biotech nutrition company, is investing $13 million in the construction of a new 27,972 sq. ft.brewery and distillery in downtown Pikeville, Ky. Having broken ground on the project earlier this summer, the company expects Dueling Barrels Brewing & Distilling Co. to be open in 2016.
Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. is out and, not surprisingly, several craft breweries made the cut. Nine craft breweries appeared on this year’s list, which is ranked according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period.
Sierra Nevada just eliminated any hope you may have had of accomplishing anything remotely productive today.
To keep up with growing demand for its products on the Mainland, Maui Brewing has made a number of wholesale moves in California and Nevada. The company yesterday announced expanded distribution along California’s central coast, signing with four new distributors for coverage throughout Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo. Maui has signed agreements with Chrissa Imports, Central Coast Distributing, Delta Pacific Beverage and Pipeline Beverage.
