The empire has sprung a leak. That was the first message First Beverage Group managing partner Townsend Ziebold had for a crowd of nearly 200 beer industry professionals at last week’s Brewbound Session business conference in Chicago. But the familiar narrative of a rapidly evolving beer landscape and the image of the “leaky bucket” served… Read more »
With an expansion to its North Carolina brewing facility underway, Oskar Blues is continuing to grow its footprint throughout the eastern half of the U.S. The company, which just last week revealed plans to increase production capacity at its Brevard outpost, has announced plans to add distribution in West Virginia and Arkansas.
Scottish craft beer company BrewDog has unveiled plans to establish a U.S. beachhead, last week announcing that Columbus, Ohio, will become the company’s stateside brewing headquarters. On its blog, BrewDog wrote that it has “provisionally agreed” to acquire 42 acres of land in Columbus and said it intends to build a 100,000 sq. ft. brewery complete with a 100-barrel brewhouse, canning machine and bottling line to serve markets across the U.S.
After years of debate over how to best reduce the federal excise tax rate on brewers, two of the beer industry’s leading organizations — the Brewers Association and the Beer Institute — have finally come together in support of a single bill. At a press conference hosted at Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Ore. on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) addressed industry and media members and unveiled the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, a comprehensive tax reform bill aimed at modernizing “outdated regulations” imposed on craft brewers and other alcoholic beverage manufacturers.
We’re less than 24 hours away from Brewbound Session Summer ’15, being held on June 11 at Moonlight Studios in Chicago, and we’ve still got a few program notes to announce.
Oskar Blues announced this morning plans to expand both capacity and infrastructure at its brewery in Brevard, North Carolina, furthering the company’s commitment to growing in east coast markets.
The brand might be in a tailspin, but Snoop Dogg is still demanding a cut. A variety of media outlets reported yesterday that the well-known rapper is suing Pabst Brewing Co. over a cut of the money received following its sale from previous owner Dean Metropolous to a pair of private equity firms.
We’re less than 48 hours away from Brewbound Session Summer ’15 in Chicago, and it’s time to introduce a quintet of judges for this year’s Startup Brewery Challenge, our bi-annual business pitch competition. Presented by Craft Brew Alliance, the Startup Brewery Challenge gives U.S. craft breweries who have been on the market for less than two years a chance to show off their business plans, sample one core product offering and receive immediate feedback from our panel of expert judges.
More than 150 craft brewery owners and state brewers guild leaders descended on Capitol Hill last Thursday to meet with lawmakers and discuss legislative reform, most notably a bipartisan bill that aims to slash the federal excise tax rate imposed on every barrel of beer produced in the country.
The TTB has formally announced Battle’s retirement from the U.S. Treasury, which is tasked with monitoring and enforcing compliance for the expansive beverage alcoholic category. “Battle’s departure marks the end of an era at TTB,” a statement read. The end of an era indeed — Battle processed over 60,000 malt beverage labels in 2013 and 2014 alone. Since just last October, he had already reviewed over 25,000 labels.
Five days after airing its now infamous Super Bowl ad poking fun at craft brewers, Anheuser-Busch attempted to trademark the phrase upon which the ad was built: “Brewed the Hard Way.” Turns out, as noted by Kaider Law, an intellectual property firm, the beer giant was actually beat to the punch. On February 5 — one day before A-B filed its own trademark — a small brewpub in Kansas City called Martin City Brewing filed a trademark application of its own for its “Hard Way IPA.”
In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy. Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.
Two prominent west coast craft breweries today announced pivotal brewing operations hires.
Three prominent craft brewing executives from across the country will take the stage at next week’s Brewbound Session in Chicago, Ill. to talk portfolio strategy and how they execute behind their brands in the marketplace.
