Home may be where the heart is, but the Utah Brewers Cooperative is beginning to feel the love elsewhere. In the 14 states where it distributes outside of its home market, the company, comprised of Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers, saw 2014 sales surge by 73 percent. That figure towers over the 11 percent growth that the company achieved in Utah. Squatters founder Peter Cole says the difference is due to the company’s already strong foothold in the state.
Talk about timing. Less than two weeks after Seattle’s Elysian Brewing sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev, fellow Washington-based craft brewery No-Li Brewhouse today announced the release of its first six-pack offering, “Poser.” Here’s the dilemma: Elysian makes a popular beer, Loser, with the tagline “corporate beer still sucks.” When the deal with A-B was announced, a few slighted Elysian fans (and amateur graphic designers) immediately got to work, “trolling” the brewery’s Facebook page with photoshopped versions of the label that had replaced the “L” with a “P.”
The Richmond City Council was left split on Monday night as members tried to determine how to add more financial oversight to a deal with Stone Brewing, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports. The council is struggling to finalize certain aspects of the deal, specifically, a proposed amendment that would give the council more control over excess revenue the Richmond Economic Development Authority takes in from the project.
The Brewers Association (BA) has appointed a new federal affairs manager to oversee and execute the organization’s craft-minded legislative, regulatory and political strategies in Washington D.C. Katie Marisic, who for the last five years has worked for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), has been hired to fill the role, the organization announced today. She will report to BA CEO Bob Pease, who currently leads the group’s government initiatives.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “Brewed the Hard Way” Super Bowl ad is still being given a hard time. Yesterday, Brewbound highlighted a few of the mixed reactions the ad received from brewers across the country. Since that article was published, however, a number of companies — including the country’s second largest beer maker, MillerCoors — have chimed with their own responses.
A Georgia lawmaker has filed a bill in the state Senate that aims to repeal a number of Prohibition-era regulations that brewers have said are overly burdensome and restrictive. As filed by State Sen. Hunter Hill (R-Smyrna), SB 63 would lift the limits currently imposed on the retail privileges of brewpubs and production breweries alike.
Golden Road is expanding its presence in Southern California. The Los Angeles-based craft brewery today announced plans to build a second brewery and restaurant in Anaheim, about 40 miles south of its current production facility.
Of all the made up beer recipes Anheuser-Busch InBev could have conjured up to poke fun at the craft beer movement as caricature in one of its three Super Bowl ads, it just had to be a “pumpkin peach ale” that the company greenlit.
Last year, Gatza urged Craft Brewers Conference attendees to pay closer attention to the quality of their finished products, pleading with them by saying, “don’t f*ck it up!” Following his rallying cry, the discussion of “quality beer” was had at various industry events and atop thousands of bartstools. Now the BA, via its “Quality Subcommittee,” has introduced an official definition:
If the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) latest compliance survey is any gauge, about 22 percent of all malt-based beverages have an inaccurate alcohol content posted on their labels. As part of its annual random survey to discern how accurately manufacturers label their products, the TTB found the most common noncompliance issue among malt beverage producers involved understating the ABV of their products.
Left Hand Brewing today announced it has expanded its presence in New England with the L. Knife & Son Companies group of “Craft Beer Guild” distributors, entering five new states. Building upon a pre-existing relationship with an L. Knife group that currently sells the brand via its “Craft Brewers Guild of Boston” outfit in Massachusetts,offerings from the Colorado-based craft brewery will roll out Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire in the coming days.
William K. Busch Brewing has announced plans to expand sales of Kräftig throughout Rolla and Springfield, Missouri this February, according to the St. Louis Dispatch. The company has inked deals with Premium Beverage Sales of Springfield and Grellner Sales and Service of Rola for coverage in each respective market, according to the article. “This expansion will result in our beers being sold in every major market other than Kansas City and Hannibal,” founder Billy Busch told the website. “It’s another step toward growing Kräftig into a national brand.”
The first 30 days of 2015 are just about in the rearview mirror and Brewbound is gearing up to host another set of Brew Talks events around the country. Brewbound is pleased to announce that Brew Talks — a traveling meetup series for beer industry professionals — will make its 2015 debut at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston in February.
Despite selling all of its beer within Michigan’s borders, Short’s Brewing grew production 51 percent in 2014, with three of its core products generating much of the surge through the company’s distribution channels. The brewery out of Bellaire closed out the year selling 34,443 barrels, it announced this week, up from 22,866 the year prior. According to one report from MLive.com, the growth was good enough to solidify the company’s spot as the state’s third largest brewery, past New Holland and behind Bell’s and Founders.
