A number of beer industry stakeholders gathered in front of Congress Tuesday to discuss what impact, if any, a merger of the world’s two largest beer companies would have on the U.S. beer landscape. In a prepared statement before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, A-B InBev CEO Carlos Brito shared his company’s outlook on the deal and explained how the transaction would benefit consumers and enable A-B to better compete in foreign regions.
Hard cider has always faced an uphill battle for attention, one that has required entrepreneurs in the space to convince both consumers and retailers that fermented apples should be on the menu. In recent years, cider companies have enjoyed healthy growth. But now a new competitor, hard soda, has entered the fray, and it’s got some cider makers worried about their ability to maintain their position on the shelf.
Reyes Beverage Group, via its Premium Distributors outfits in Virginia and Washington D.C., has acquired the distribution rights to a pair of the most prominent craft brands in the country. In two separate announcements, the company said it purchased the rights to Lagunitas Brewing – already one of its top craft suppliers – and Stone Brewing, which is building a second brewing facility in the area.
Bell’s Brewery will expand distribution into Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas next year and has begun the process of identifying new wholesale partners in each state. In a press statement, the Michigan-based brewery said launch plans have not been determined but that potential distributors are being identified.
It only took 142 years, but the U.S. craft beer industry has finally set a new record. The Brewers Association announced today that as of Nov. 30, there are 4,144 breweries operating in the country, surpassing the previous record of 4,131, which dates back to 1873.
Sun King Brewing is continuing to reestablish distribution across its home state of Indiana, today announcing expanded coverage to 39 counties in southern Indiana via Monarch Beverage. The decision to grow comes nearly one full year after the company pulled out of some Indiana markets to avoid exceeding a statewide small brewery production cap that, at the time, was set at just 30,000 barrels. That cap was raised in May, when Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a bill that tripled the production limit to 90,000 barrels for self-distributing breweries with tasting rooms.
It’s almost hard to believe, but we’re just a few days away from the start of our eighth full-day business conference, the Brewbound Session, happening on Dec. 3 at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego, Calif..More than 200 entrepreneurs, brewery executives, distributors and investors are already planning to join us on Thursday and tickets are nearly SOLD OUT. In the meantime, we thought we’d share more details about the agenda, so our guests know what to expect from each presentation and panel discussion.
A federal mediator is slated to oversee negotiations this Wednesday between Portland, Oregon’s Teamsters Local 162 and General Distributors, Inc (GDI), a beer wholesaler responsible for getting brands like Corona, Coors, Sierra Nevada and a number of craft products to market.
In this week’s holiday edition of last call, Brewbound examines Tito’s “Handmade” claims, Sierra Nevada’s new rare beer club and life after acquisition for 10 Barrel Brewing founders.
Portland, Oregon’s Breakside Brewery is growing once again and will add a third brewpub location in 2016, the company announced Monday. Slated to occupy 5,000 sq. ft. of space in Portland’s “Slabtown district,” located in the Northwest part of town, Breakside said the new location would open next summer.
Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, the beloved Boston-area craft beer company owned by Dann and Martha Paquette and known for its popular Jack D’Or saison, will officially close next month, the pair announced in a blog post. “After seven years it’s time to draw the curtains and head off to a new adventure,” they wrote.
New Belgium Brewing today announced it would begin distributing in New Jersey next March, opening the new territory alongside previously scheduled rollouts in Hawaii and West Virginia.
Brace yourselves. More hard soda is on the way. The country’s two biggest hard root beer producers — Pabst Brewing and Boston Beer Company — have simultaneously announced the national rollout of more soda-inspired ales, albeit with very different marketing messages.
Three years after launching in Arizona, Los Angeles-based Fireman’s Brew has announced a new Arizona distribution partnership with six MillerCoors distributors: Crescent Crown Distributing, Canyon Distributing, Finley Distributing, III Counties/Southern Distributing, Nackard Distributing, and Northland Distributing. Crescent Crown Distributing, which purchased the rights to the brand from Alliance Beverage Distributing, will take on the majority of the Arizona distribution.
