What an exhausting year. 2015 was undoubtedly the busiest year Brewbound has ever experienced from a coverage standpoint and we don’t expect 2016 to be any different. As we prepare for another busy year in the beer biz, let’s take a moment to look back at the year’s most important stories in craft beer. Here are the top 10 stories that shaped the craft narrative in 2015.
What a year for craft litigation. Whether it was an attempt to define “craft beer” or efforts to own IPA, 2015 sure had its fair share of notable legal spats. So what do craft-minded attorneys think about the increasing amount of trademark disputes? Brewbound reached out to four of the industry’s leading experts in trademark and copyright law to get their thoughts on 2015.
After nearly 20 years, Wolaver’s Fine Organic Ales — a pioneering organic craft beer brand that was acquired by Vermont’s Long Trail Brewing in 2010 — has ceased production. Citing the rising cost and availability of organic ingredients, as well as cost-prohibitive production realities, Otter Creek said it would no longer brew the nation’s first USDA-certified organic craft beer brand and will instead focus more energy on accelerating the growth of its recently rebranded Otter Creek line.
Starr Hill Brewery, one of the largest producers of craft beer in the state of Virginia, plans to open a new location in 2017. The new space, a collaborative venture with global real estate developer The Cordish Companies, will be located at the “Waterside District” marketplace currently under construction in Norfolk, VA.
In a year-end note to distributors, Adam Lambert, the former Dogfish Head sales grunt who took his talents to New Holland Brewing late last year, said the Michigan-based craft brewery would be up 24 percent in 2015. The company’s top performing brands include Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel stout, which was up 48 percent, and Mad Hatter IPA, which was up more than 20 percent. Poet, an oatmeal stout, was also up more than 20 percent, Lambert said.
Rarely do we write, or read, reports of a brewery owner opting to turn the business over to the next generation. As the industry continues to evolve, however, we recognize that some brewery owners might be considering a generational transfer as their primary succession plan. So, to discuss the ins and outs of generational transfers we tapped Deborah Steinthal, the founder and managing director of Scion Advisors, a boutique strategy consulting firm serving private business owners in the food and alcoholic beverage industries.
Here’s something we didn’t quite expect to hear from Brew Hub founder Tim Schoen: In the company’s $100 million quest to build out a nationwide network of five contract facilities by 2018, Brew Hub would consider acquisition, and not just construction as a means of establishing a brewing presence in the Northeast, Texas and on the West Coast.
Portland, Maine is the best place to get a pint, according a new report from SmartAsset, a technology company that recently compiled its own list of the top 25 U.S. cities for beer drinkers.
Craft beverage producers received a boost from Congress on Friday as the body pushed through a number of minor provisions that benefit brewers and cider makers which. The new rules were rolled into the recently approved $1.1 trillion tax extender package.
It’s the question on every craft brewery owners mind: who’s next? After a record-breaking year that included 24 different craft brewery transactions (infographic included), it’s no longer a matter of if, but when a prominent craft beer company will announce some kind of sale. In the wake of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s holiday shopping spree — one that saw the company acquire Breckenridge Brewery, Four Peaks Brewing and Camden Town Brewery over the course of three business days — the rumor mill started churning once again. These days, the mill feels more like a turbine.
Another craft-focused contract brewing operation has entered the fray. Great Central Brewing Company (GCBC) broke ground on a new 32,000 sq. ft. contract brewing facility in Chicago last week. Scheduled for a summer 2016 opening, the brewery joins a growing list of craft-minded contract facilities established to help other small producers scale up, instead of focusing on their own in-house labels.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is making its third craft brewery purchase in the last five days, today announcing the acquisition of Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2016.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is on a holiday shopping spree. Days after it purchased Arizona’s Four Peaks Brewing, the world’s largest beer company today announced a prominent international craft acquisition: London’s Camden Town Brewery.
Boston Beer Company today announced that Frank Smalla, the former senior vice president of finance for Kraft Food Groups, Inc. will join the Samuel Adams-maker as senior vice president of finance on January 4, 2016. Smalla will assume the role of chief financial officer when current CFO, William Urich, steps down in 2016, the company said.
