The Startup Brewery Challenge, Brewbound’s bi-annual business pitch competition, will return for a third edition at the Dec. 4 Brewbound Session in San Diego, Calif. Presented by Craft Brew Alliance, the Startup Brewery Challenge gives new U.S. craft breweries a chance to show off their business plans, sample a beer and receive immediate feedback from an expert judging panel.
In an off-beat quest to upend Prohibition-era regulations that many brewers in the state decry as overly burdensome, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild (GCBG) has launched a crowdfunding campaign in hopes of hiring a lobbyist to work on behalf of the state’s craft beer industry. The Guild has already tapped the services of Atlanta’s Thrash-Haliburton, a government affairs firm, but now plans to use the funds raised on Indiegogo to bring them on full-time.
Brewbound is excited to announce that attendees of the Dec. 4 Brewbound Session in San Diego will have a unique opportunity to gain key consumer insights from Lester Jones, the chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in applied economics, Jones will explain how craft beer can continue to stay relevant in a crowded marketplace.
Reyes Beverage Group today announced it would acquire South Florida’s Gold Coast Beverage Distributors in a blockbuster deal that brings another 27 million cases to a Reyes Group that, through its 12 wholesale outfits across the country, already sells more than 100 million cases annually. Once complete, the deal would make Reyes comparable in size to the largest distributor in the U.S., Anheuser-Busch InBev, with around 140 million cases.
Brewbound Session Winter 2014, a full-day conference on the business of craft beer, is just around the corner. If you haven’t already registered, there are limited seats remaining so please don’t delay.
Beginning early November, Fort Collins Brewery will ship its core lineup and select seasonal offerings throughout Arizona per an agreement with Young’s Market Company. Named after the northern Colorado town it was founded in, Fort Collins will round its distribution footprint out to 23 states with the launch.
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.
