There’s a difference between being coastal and being on the coast. That’s a difference that Pelican Brewing has long exploited, as visitors to its beachside pub and brewery in Pacific City, Ore. can dig their toes in the sand, pint in hand, without straying from the premises. In a state that needs no help selling itself as a craft beer destination, Pelican’s immaculate location has for years given the company a leg to stand on that was uniquely its own.
Brewbound is delighted to announce that Christian McMahan, the managing partner at Smartfish Group, an east coast marketing, creative and design agency, will be speaking at the Dec. 4 Brewbound Session in San Diego. McMahan, who has served in executive marketing roles for Heineken USA and Diageo, currently works with a number of small and regional craft beverage companies, helping to define their branding and marketing strategies.
Fresh on the heels of a sold-out Brew Talks meetup in Austin, Texas, Brewbound is already preparing to hit the road for its final stop of 2014. The Brew Talks meetup series will make its way to Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, Conn. on Tuesday, Nov. 18 for an evening of craft-focused business discussion, networking, and, as always, a few rounds of beer.
You’d more likely come across a stone bust of Sam Calagione than one bearing the visage of Plato at World of Beer’s recently launched eponymous school. Well, you would if the school had a physical location, anyway. To build the “Ultimate Beer Quiz,” World of Beer tapped some of the biggest names in craft beer, asking them to help create a series of online quizzes aimed at educating beer consumers.
As part of its continued effort to realign its California distribution network, Knee Deep Brewing will now be sold by DBI Beverage of Sacramento throughout the region. “This is the final step in the reorganization of our distribution network in Northern California,” said Jerry Moore, Knee Deep CEO, in a news release.
What’s the best way to propel your brand forward without making mistakes that would otherwise sink a new company? If you’re Clayton Christopher, you hire knowledgeable talent. Christopher, the Austin-based founder of Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka, said he believes that’s what today’s most successful entrepreneurs are doing right, and he swears by it.
In 2013, Texas enacted a number of laws pertinent to the state’s beer industry that effectively eased certain regulations on how breweries and brewpubs of all different sizes do business. How exactly were the state’s beer manufacturers able to mobilize its advocacy effort? According to Charles Vallhonrat, executive director of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, it was all about creating a unified front across the three tiers.
Aiming to expedite its national expansion effort, Fireman’s Brew has released yet another private stock offering, this time an equity sale available to investors outside of California. Fireman’s Brew, which is based in Los Angeles, Calif., aims to sell more than 4.5 million shares of ‘Flash Seed Preferred stock,’ at $1.249 per share, through FlashFunders, an online equity-funding platform that connects early stage companies with investors across the globe.
Every champion golfer comes to The Brew Hub imbued with a towering source of inspiration. It starts as a solitary journey, but it is one that no golfer, if he dreams of becoming a craft brewer, makes alone. For Keegan Bradley, a boy from Woodstock, VT., it was a lager, brewed with the comforting guidance of the legendary Dr. Paul Farnsworth.
Here’s the good news: Brewbound pored over the latest IRI spreadsheet so you didn’t have to. Here’s the bad news (if you can even call it that): Craft growth actually slowed during the latest four-week period, ending October 5, 2014.
Brewbound will travel to Austin, TX tomorrow to host Brew Talks, a traveling meetup series for beer industry professionals. The event — which will be hosted at the world headquarters of popular entertainment website, The Chive – will feature two discussions on entrepreneurship and the business of beer.
The statement “I’m going blond” doesn’t usually imply the long term. Maybe a brunette seeks brief, superficial change to counter the monotony of stylistic routine. Perhaps she just wants to look like Kim Novak. Or Lance Bass. But no matter the motive, going blond is typically seen as something temporary. It remains to be seen if the beer industry should consider Guinness’ recent release of Guinness Blonde American Lager as an act of whimsy.
How do you earn wholesaler attention if you’re a small craft beer brand trying to compete in today’s crowded marketplace? “Elbow grease and shoe leather,” says John Bryant, a partner at No-Li Brewhouse, based in Spokane, Washington. Make that axel grease. Bryant will put about 50,000 miles on his truck this year, driving all over the Pacific Northwest to hand-sell his company’s portfolio.
Based on recent sales data, one might deduce that on-premise consumption of craft beer is growing at the expense of premium light options. Taking a closer look at third quarter numbers, however, it appears that beer sales in restaurants and bars are experiencing a lull across the category. On-premise volume sales of premium light beer dipped by 1.9 percent through the first 10 months of 2014, as compared to the same time period in the previous year.
