Figueroa Mountain Brewing, one of California’s faster-growing, but relatively unknown, craft breweries, has announced a slew of expansion plans that include a new international presence, adding three new taprooms and turning over distribution rights to a local beer wholesaler. The company plans to start contract brewing in Germany within six months while it searches for a location to build its own facility in the Bavarian region of the country.
Harpoon Brewery today announced it will promote Charlie Story, the Boston-based company’s current vice president of marketing, to the position of president. Storey, who joined the company in 1996, will oversee marketing, retail and festival initiatives and also manage the brewery’s distribution arm.
A Florida restaurant has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court claiming that the state’s ban on 64 oz. growlers is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. According to Sunshine State News, the suit aims to end the ban on half-gallon growlers, which has been a highly controversial issue in the state; currently, 32 oz. and 128 oz. growlers are legal, but the industry standard 64 oz. option is prohibited.
Pushing farther into the state of Pennsylvania, Port Brewing will expand its distribution throughout Pittsburgh, the company announced today. Per an agreement with Wilson-McGinley, the brewery, which is headquartered out of San Marcos, Calif., will begin selling core and seasonal products from its Port Brewing and Lost Abbey labels in the newly added market this year.
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.
