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.

A trio of industry’s most knowledgeable executives will take the stage during next week’s Brewbound Session business conference to discuss the robust and ever-evolving craft beer segment and share critical information that will help shape future craft brewery businesses.

Molson Coors today appointed Geoff Molson, a member of the Molson Coors board of directors, as its new chairman. In accordance with company bylaws that require the roles of chairman and vice chairman to alternate between the Molson and Coors families every two years, Geoff Molson, a seventh generation member of the Molson family, supplants Pete Coors who will become vice chairman.

For the second year in a row, Colorado’s Odell Brewing Company topped Tamarron Consulting’s annual Craft Brewer Performance Survey. With an average performance score of 4.19 (out of 5), Odell led a group that featured seven of the country’s leading craft breweries, including Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head, Great Lakes Brewing, Stone Brewing and Summit Brewing.

In a gesture more symbolic than anything else, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Sunday in appreciation of thousands of American Craft Beer Week events as well as the jobs and wages craft has generated in recent years.

Need another excuse to join the June 11 Brewbound Session in Chicago? How about plenty of free beer and face time with the industry’s most knowledgeable and innovative entrepreneurs and executives. Indeed, the Brewbound Session Chicago is less than 10 days away and, in addition to assembling one of our most diverse programs yet, we’ve has also organized plenty of social activities around the conference so attendees can network and enjoy Chicago’s craft beer scene.