Demand continues to balloon at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Brewers Association (B.A.), which runs the event, will add more breweries or beer drinkers. “Demand for the festival, demand for the competition was huge this year,” said Paul Gatza, the B.A.’s director.
Nitro beers and milk stouts are niche categories, but that’s just fine if you ask Chris Lennert, the vice president of operations at Left Hand Brewing Company. “We’re still niche as an industry,” Lennert said.
Craft brewers are once again questioning the safety of plastic kegs after new reports of a keg explosion surfaced this week on an industry forum. On Tuesday, the Brewers Association (BA) — which moderates the forum — posted an anonymous note from a craft brewery which claimed to have recently experienced what was described as… Read more »
Oskar Blues, the Longmont, Colo.-based craft brewery — which got its start as a brewpub and currently operates a number of restaurant operations throughout the Centennial State — today announced it will expand its “craft casual” CHUBurger concept to nearby Coors Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies.
Like the rest of the nation’s federal workers, operations at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), have stalled. This means that no new breweries, products or labels can be approved by the TTB, preventing them from legally entering the marketplace, and the slowdown has the potential to sap the novelty-based trials that an ever-expanding suite of products and brands have engendered within the industry’s consumer base.
Brewbound is pleased to announce that Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery,will give the keynote address at the Dec. 5 Brewbound Session in San Diego.
Craft’s love affair with consumer choice, style variations and packaging options might give some distributors a headache, but the strategy has helped to shape a beer category that continues to grow at a double-digit clip. The introduction of new SKUs doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon: three of the country’s largest craft beer suppliers are preparing to launch a set of new packages.
Continuing its quest to be a nationally distributed brand before the end of the year, Green Flash Brewing today announced new distribution in Michigan. Green Flash has signed wholesale agreements with three distributors: Alliance Beverage, Eastown Distributors and Powers Distributing. The brewery’s entire portfolio — including West Coast IPA, Hop Head Red, Double Stout and… Read more »
Napa Smith Brewery & Winery produced fewer than 500 barrels when Smoke Wallin started there in 2010. In 18 months, Wallin took Napa Smith from distribution in California alone to placements in 32 states. Soon into the expansion, Wallin realized that the brewery’s quick growth couldn’t match its infrastructure.
On Tuesday, when a panel featuring Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione, Anheuser-Busch president Luiz Edmond, Crown Imports president Bill Hackett, MillerCoors CEO Tom Long and Heineken USA CEO Dolf van den Brink took the stage to address thousands of U.S. beer distributors, it was with an eye toward ways to lessen the bleeding.
Craft Brew Alliance has a straightforward goal in 2014: Satisfy more consumers, at more times, in more locations with more distinct craft beer offerings than any other craft beer competitor. It plans to do more with less, reducing its SKUs by 27 percent and focusing on seven core brands.
To kick off Craft Brew Alliance’s first-ever national distributor meeting, CBA-Con, held today in Las Vegas, president Andy Thomas asked the company’s roughly 500 Anheuser-Busch wholesale partners a question. “Is poker a game of skill or a game of luck,” he said. “Some of the best players will tell you that it is 100 percent… Read more »
Continuing its systematic approach to distribution expansion, Deschutes Brewery yesterday announced it would enter Nebraska this month. The Bend, Ore.-based brewery has signed a wholesale agreement with Johnson Brothers Liquor Company and plans to launch in the Cornhusker state with a series of events beginning October 15.
Sierra Nevada Brewing is expanding its business operations to include a new on-premise retail location in Berkeley, Calif. The space, named the “Torpedo Room” after its signature hopping device and the current best-selling IPA in the U.S., is scheduled to open in November.
