Southern Tier Brewing has hired Sean Lavery, a former Anheuser-Busch (A-B) brewmaster, to serve as its newest director of brewing, the company announced this week. Lavery, who held a variety of brewing positions during his time with Anheuser-Busch, officially joined Southern Tier earlier this week.
Ken Grossman, the 60-year-old founder of Sierra Nevada, is craft’s latest billionaire. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Grossman’s estimated net worth topped $1 billion in 2014. With the valuation, Grossman joins a very exclusive club of billionaire craft brewers, which, until now, had consisted only of Boston Beer’s Jim Koch and Dick Yuengling of D.G. Yuengling & Son. “Sierra Nevada is good. They’re one of the players for the long term,” Joe Thompson, president of Independent Beverage Group, told Bloomberg.
When you stick a few hundred beer executives in a room with each other, you can usually count on two things happening: a debate about franchise law reform will undoubtedly break out and some suave corporate marketer will tell you how he unlocked the secrets of the internet and is finally getting through to all those unloyal millennial beer consumers. That was the case last week in Palm Beach, Fla., where upscale oceanfront resort The Breakers played host to Beer Business Daily’s 12th annual Beer Summit.
Launched by Indianapolis’ Sun King Brewing and Munster-based 3 Floyds Brewing, the Support Indiana Brewers campaign seeks to at least double the state’s production cap of 30,000 barrels annually for brewers that also operate in the wholesale and retail tiers. While breweries can produce an unlimited amount of beer for sale within Indiana, under current law, once a brewery surpasses 30,000 barrels it forfeits the right to self-distribute and operate a taproom.
Despite ongoing capacity constraints, Cigar City Brewing managed to grow its annual production by more than 28 percent in 2014, selling over 44,000 barrels of beer, founder Joey Redner told Brewbound. The growth was driven primarily by the brewery’s top-selling flagship, Jai Alai IPA, which accounted for more than half — about 23,000 barrels — of all barrels sold. Cigar City sold just over 5,000 barrels of its second most popular brew, Florida Cracker, Redner said.
Reyes Holdings has completed its purchase of Florida’s Gold Coast Beverage Distributors, according to the company. Official terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though when news first broke in November, multiple industry sources valued the deal at $1 billion.
Colorado’s Oskar Blues plans to keep its foot firmly pressed on the gas pedal in 2015, aiming for another year of double-digit growth, company officials told Brewbound. Fresh off a year in which the craft brewery grew overall depletions by 28 percent, Oskar Blues – which also operates a manufacturing facility in North Carolina – will look to brew more than 190,000 barrels and grow shipments by more than 35 percent this year.
A sweeping bill recently filed by a Florida lawmaker could potentially loosen a number of restrictive regulations faced by craft brewers while simultaneously streamlining rules pertaining to the state’s three-tier alcohol distribution system. House Bill 107, in its current form, would overhaul the mechanics of franchise agreements, settle the state’s ongoing growler debate(link?), clarify brewery retail rights, and more.
Ninkasi Brewing is in the process of realigning its wholesale network in the Pacific Northwest, the brewery announced this week, leaving two houses owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) in order to partner up with a pair of independent distributors. Per a statement from the company, Ninkasi has agreed to deals with Bigfoot Beverage Distributors and the Odom Corporation for coverage throughout downstate Oregon (the company’s home state) and western Washington, respectively.
Anheuser-Busch may have to find another way to distribute its beer in certain areas of Kentucky if one lawmaker gets his way. On Friday, House Speaker Greg Stumbo (D-Prestonburg) filed a bill that would prevent larger brewers from taking over wholesale operations and distributing their products directly to retailers, reports the Courier Journal.
Lagunitas Brewing founder Tony Magee said on Tuesday his company will drop a trademark infringement lawsuit against Sierra Nevada Brewing, following backlash from what Magee called “the court of public opinion.” The announcement — which Magee made via his personal Twitter account late on Tuesday evening — comes just one day after Lagunitas asked a judge to issue a restraining order that, if issued, would have prevented Sierra Nevada from releasing its new Hop Hunter IPA.
Two retail advocacy groups and a couple of powerful wholesaler networks in Florida are challenging a state law that allows brewers to operate as vendors, leaving many in the craft industry in fear that their businesses may be at risk. Brewers in the state have been able to operate on-site tasting rooms outside of the framework of the traditional three-tier distribution system thanks to a tourism exemption, originally written to allow Anheuser-Busch to sell beer products at Busch Gardens, a theme park the company owned at the time.
The two largest craft brewers in California are now embroiled in a trademark dispute over craft’s most ubiquitous style — the India Pale Ale. On Jan. 12, Lagunitas Brewing Co. filed a lawsuit against rival Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., the second-largest craft brewery in the country. According to the suit, a new Sierra release, Hop Hunter, infringes on Lagunitas’ trademarked logo designs and packaging for its own Lagunitas IPA — particularly the company’s famous labels that feature the stylized, oversized letters “IPA.”
The Beer Institute is soon expected to announce the introduction of bipartisan legislation that would, if enacted, reform the federal beer excise tax. While the BI is withholding specific details at the moment, including the name of the bill and its sponsors, Chris Thorne, the organization’s vice president of communications, said it would provide relief for every brewer and beer importer.
