The Brazilian billionaires behind the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger have negotiated another blockbuster deal, this time involving two huge U.S. food companies – Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Co. The tieup, valued at $40 billion, is backed by global investment firm 3G Capital and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
International interest in American craft beer is surging, according to new data from the Brewers Association. In a press statement, the BA – which represents the interests of small and independent U.S. craft brewers – said American craft beer exports grew 35.7 percent in 2014, to more than 383,000 barrels and a retail value of nearly $100 million.
Brewbound Chicago ’15 – a one-day conference focused on the business of craft beer – will be held on June 1th in Chicago, IL at Moonlight Studios. You can save up to $100 by signing up now with the early registration discount.
Oskar Blues is one state closer to becoming the next nationally distributed craft beer brand. The craft brewery – which operates production facilities in Lyons, Colo. and Brevard, N.C. – today announced plans to expand into Louisiana, the 42nd state where its products are now sold. Building on an existing partnership with the 28-million case Crescent Crown Distributing in Arizona, Oskar Blues signed an agreement with the wholesaler’s Louisiana outfit for coverage throughout the southern part of the state.
Left Hand Brewing has announced plans to expand distribution to Southern California with a pair of L. Knife & Son wholesalers this spring. The brewery, which brews in Longmont, Colo., has inked deals with Craft Beer Guild Distributing of San Diego and Craft Beer Guild of Los Angeles for coverage throughout San Diego, Orange County, and greater Los Angeles, specifically in Ventura and Santa Barbara.
Diageo has announced plans to supply serving facts information on its alcohol beverage products and voluntarily provide consumers with additional caloric and nutritional information. After years of asking the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for permission to label its beer, wine and spirits products with serving facts information, Diageo finally convinced the TTB to temporarily approve the request in 2013.
A four-alarm fire that tore through and reduced a massive Rhode Island property to a mess of charred support columns and twisted steel had the unintended result of revealing Narragansett Beer’s plans for a new brewery. The 93,000 sq. ft. property in Providence that was reportedly gutted by the blaze last Tuesday, it turns out, was to be the shared home of Isle Brewers Guild, an upstart contract brewing company, and Narragansett, which has been on the hunt for its own facility for the past decade.
The first dedicated contract brewing company west of the Mississippi, Sleeping Giant Brewing Company is the brainchild of Matthew Osterman, a former compliance and operations manager for Boulder-based New Planet Beer. Now the president of Sleeping Giant, which launched in January, Osterman is at the helm of the country’s latest contract brewing outfit hoping to cash in on the growth of craft and the entrepreneurial exuberance of startup beer brands without a home base.
North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing broke ground this morning on its third facility in the Asheville area, a 40,000 sq. ft. production brewery that’s expected to create 82 new jobs. Set on the western edge of town in a building the company purchased from the county, the facility will enable Wicked Weed to boost capacity by an additional 50,000 barrels.
Across the country, it seems like the craft beer industry is growing at a rate faster than the rules of the game can evolve. In a number of states, regulations dating back to Prohibition and beyond linger, and producers complain they are hindering the growth of an industry that’s booming elsewhere. To keep up, a number of lawmakers from all over the country are looking to rewrite the rules to foster growth and make their states more competitive, while some are working to make current laws even more restrictive.
For the second straight year U.S. craft brewers increased production volumes at a double-digit clip, growing 18 percent in 2014 according to new data from the Brewers Association. As part of its annual “Growth in the Beer Category” report — which highlights market share, production and brewery opening statistics, among others – the BA emphasized a key milestone for craft: for the first time ever, craft brewers achieved double-digit volume share of the marketplace.
West Virginia lawmakers passed a bill this weekend to ease a number of regulatory and financial burdens on the state’s craft brewers. Pending Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s signature, Senate Bill 273 will enable brewers to provide on-premise samples, ease limits on growler sales, and implement a gradual licensing fee system for brewers, eliminating the current flat rate.
A recent clarification to Pennsylvania law restricting the kinds of beer packages distributors can sell has industry stakeholders split on how it will impact marketplace competition. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board recently determined that beer distributors can sell 12-packs of beer, reversing Prohibition-era regulations that have long forced them to sell beer exclusively by the case or keg.
Craft breweries in Texas could soon be allowed to sell beer directly to consumers for off-site consumption. A pair of companion bills introduced into the Texas Senate and House of Representatives would give manufacturing breweries producing less than 225,000 barrels annually the right to sell as much as two cases (576 oz.) of beer, every month, to a single consumer. Currently, only brewpubs are allowed to sell beer packaged for off-site consumption.
