SweetWater Brewing has tapped Superior Beverage Group for distribution coverage throughout the Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio markets, the brewery announced today. The news comes a month after Sweetwater, which is based in Atlanta, Ga.,detailed its initial plans to expand its reach in the Buckeye State. Youngstown, Akron, Canton and surrounding areas are also encompassed within Superior Beverage’s distribution territory, according to the statement.
Year-to-date craft dollar sales in IRI’s multi-outlet and convenience retail channel universe (MULC), which comprises grocery, drug, Wal-Mart, Club, Dollar, Mass-Merchandiser and Military stores, were up 22.9 percent to $1.3 billion through Aug. 10. Volume sales are also growing steadily, up 19.3 percent in MULC during the same period.
A small Colorado ski town may, in fact, not be up for “Whatever.” While some residents of Crested Butte support the idea of Anheuser-Busch taking over the town, temporarily transforming it into a moneymaking fantasyland dubbed “Whatever,” others worry such a corporate affair would damage its image.
A new study from the Beer Institute has found that for every one job created by a brewery, an additional 45 jobs are supported in other industries, ranging from agriculture to transportation. To conduct the analysis, the Beer Institute commissioned the economic research firm John Dunham & Associations to look at the state-by-state excise tax collections on beer and compared those figures with the number of employees in any given business.
In an effort to help re-launch its sessionable year-round offering Peacemaker Extra Pale as “Peacemaker Anytime Ale,” the Texas-based craft brewery today rolled out an enormous, Texas-sized 99-pack of the 5 percent ABV golden ale. Packaged in cardboard, the multi-pack is seven feet long, weighs 82 lbs., and sells for $99 at Austin package stores.
As the craft category continues to grow at a double-digit clip, brewers across the country, in an effort to keep up with growing demand, are investing heavily in facility expansions. A crop of mid-size and regional craft breweries located in the eastern half of the U.S. recently announced multi-million dollar expansion efforts which will enable those companies to not only expand production capabilities, but in some cases distribution footprints as well.
New Holland Brewing announced last week plans to launch distribution in four new markets in the central U.S., rounding its distribution footprint out to 24 states and Washington D.C., with 17 also carrying its line of spirits. Through a network of five wholesalers, the Holland, Mich.-based brewery will begin distributing its beers and spirits throughout Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa, with launch events scheduled to take place in August and September.
Deschutes Brewery is continuing its eastward expansion. The Bend, Ore.-based company today announced plans to broaden its distribution in three Michigan cities — Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing — this October. Its foray into Michigan with wholesaler partner West Side Beer Distributing will be the last “major” market expansion the brewery takes on in 2014, per a company statement.
A startup craft brewery in Kirkland, Wash. has been cleared for liftoff by the state’s liquor board. Chainline Brewing’s licensing application was approved by the Washington State Liquor Control Board on Tuesday, despite prior complaints filed with the city by Kirkland community members, who were concerned that the presence of a new brewery would pose a threat to public safety.
Brewbound is pleased to announce its first speaker for the upcoming Winter Brewbound Session, being held in San Diego on Thursday Dec. 4: Boulevard Brewing founder, John McDonald.
Sweetwater Brewing will distribute throughout Mississippi beginning in September after signing agreements with four Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in the state. The addition of Mississippi will expand the brewery’s footprint to 10 states as well as Washington D.C.
For the first time since last May, Kansas City, Mo.-based Boulevard Brewing is expanding its distribution footprint. Boulevard, which was acquired by Belgian-based Duvel Moortgat last October, today announced it will expand into the greater Philadelphia area and New Jersey and has signed agreements with Muller Inc. in Philadelphia and Peerless Beverage Company in New Jersey.
If there’s one skill that Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch has mastered, it’s the ability to grab headlines. So last month, when Stone unveiled plans to construct its new $25 million brewery in Berlin, it wasn’t all that surprising that Koch would kick off the ceremonial announcement by getting behind the controls of a forklift and dropping a giant boulder on a pile of “industrial” beers from around the world. But that wasn’t the stunt that earned Stone the attention.
Fremont Brewing founder Matt Lincecum likens his company’s own creation narrative to the story of Stone Soup. In their version of the story, Lincecum — a thirsty entrepreneur with just $10,000 in the bank — sets out convince a well-known real estate developer to lease space to his startup craft brewery in the middle of a recession.
