Brewbound Podcast

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) continues to unwind, so BevNET spirits editor Ferron Salniker joined the Brewbound Podcast to break down the latest.RNDC, once the country’s second-largest wine and spirits distributor, has been selling-off markets piecemeal to competitors from coast to coast. Announced deals have included 11 markets to the Reyes Beverage Group, brand rights and some assets to Columbia Distributing, operations in 17 control states to Martignetti. (Note: this conversation took place before Breakthru announced it would acquire RNDC operations in Kentucky and Indiana or that it was revealed Quality Beverage would buy RNDC assets in Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.)RNDC’s current state can be traced to the butterfly effect of a host of suppliers leaving its California operations over the last several years, resulting in the company exiting the state.“It’s no surprise that if your biggest suppliers leave your biggest state and beyond, then the rest of your business is going to be affected,” Salniker said. “What’s happening now is no surprise, but it feels like it’s happening all of a sudden.”In addition to her analysis, the episode features conversations with Eco Beverages co-founder Anna Nadasdy and Russian River Brewing co-owner Natalie Cilurzo. Nadasdy discusses her organization’s push to help craft beverage manufacturers navigate Extended Producer Responsibility laws.Cilurzao recapped her brewery’s recent Pliny the Younger launch and Russian River’s latest push to share its sustainability work.Justin and Jess also break down recent beer news, including Lord Hobo and Lone Pine’s pivot to contact production and Q1 earnings from Boston Beer and Molson Coors. 

After a lengthy delay that included much fretting among industry insiders, the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were unveiled earlier this month. Any fears that anti-alcohol activists had infiltrated the quinquennial process were eased, as the new guidelines preach moderation over specific daily drink allowances. Beer Marketer’s Insights senior editor Christopher Shepard, who has followed the process closely, joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the DGA, the fraught path to publication and what this could mean for brewers. “The overall guidance didn’t really change,” Shepard said of the DGA’s move to recommend moderation over the former standard daily limit of two drinks for men and one for women. “They just decided to take the specifics away.” Industry trade groups have celebrated the DGA’s embrace of moderation, particularly as it pertains to beer, which has long been touted as an alcoholic beverage that can be consumed in moderation. “One of the reasons it’s been viewed as a win by the industry writ large, and by a coalition of industry trade organizations that came together, is that they came together because there was a very real threat that the Dietary Guidelines were going to tilt towards or embrace a ‘no safe level’ [of alcohol consumption] rhetoric,” Shepard said. “That threat was, in fact, real.” The prior recommendation of two or one daily drinks detailed a drink as 12 oz. of 5% ABV beer, 5 oz. of 12% ABV wine or 1.5 oz. of liquor. Shepard posited that the move away from that method may not sit well with the spirits industry. “There are probably some folks in the distilling world that are not so pleased that that’s gone,” he said. “There are probably some folks in the brewing world that are a little bit happier that that’s no longer on the books.” Before the featured interview, Zoe and Jess discuss recent beer industry headlines, including a proposed deal between the Reyes Beverage Group and Republic National Distributing Company, 2 Towns Ciderhouse’s acquisition of Seattle Cider and the somewhat heartening data Circana published in the past month. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Allagash Brewing has launched a pair of recycling programs as part of the Portland, Maine-headquartered craft brewery’s commitment to sustainability. “It’s been part of who we are for some time,” brewmaster and VP of brewing operations Jason Perkins explained during the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast. On a special Earth Day edition of the podcast, Perkins details Allagash’s recycling co-op with other Maine breweries, as well as its program that encourages consumers to drop off recyclable items such as PakTech carriers, corks, metal caps and cages, and shipping materials such as bubble wrap and air pillows at the brewery. “We don’t necessarily want to run a recycling program for the next 20 years or whatever it is,” Perkins said. “It works for us now, but we hope to proof-of-concept this, and show that it works, and there is some interest with some local recycling and trash companies, the University of Maine has expressed some possible interest in potentially getting involved. So the long-term goal is for this to get some legs under it and go bigger than what it is now. “ Perkins shares advice for other breweries considering starting their own programs, the work of Allagash’s “Green Team” and how sustainability factors into recipe creation. Brewbound’s Justin Kendall and Jess Infante discuss other Earth Day initiatives, including New Belgium’s Fat Tire Torched Earth Ale, second COVID-19 vaccine shots, pet turkeys and more. Listen to the episode above and on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published every other Thursday. Check Brewbound’s upcoming events schedule for future podcast episodes and streaming video programming. Email podcast@brewbound.com with questions and feedback.

Even as the U.S. craft beer industry swells past 7,000 breweries, you’d be hard-pressed to find a startup focusing as much energy on sustainability as Sonoma County’s Seismic Brewing Company. Launched in 2017, Santa Rosa, California-based Seismic is the brainchild of Chris Jackson and Patrick Delves, former college roommates with a passion for the beer and wine industries. (Jackson’s father Jess created the well-known Kendall-Jackson wine label in 1982.) Their initial discussions about opening a brewery in late 2014 – when the segment was growing double-digits and there were half as many breweries operating – centered around the idea of building a sustainability-minded brand. “We decided, what do we want Seismic to be, at the beginning of this,” Delves said. “Two of the pillars that we build our business on are [being] uncompromising on quality, as well as being sustainable from the ground up.” As part of their effort to build out a sustainable brewery from the onset, Jackson and Delves invested in technology from Cambrian Innovation, provider of wastewater solutions to industrial producers. Located onsite at the brewery, Cambrian’s EcoVolt Mini, a water treatment system, enables Seismic to reuse industrial process water and lower its water usage rate. “Industry average is roughly six-to-seven barrels of water to one barrel of beer, and we are currently hovering around three-and-a-half to four to one,” Delves said. In episode 24 of the Brewbound Podcast, which was recorded at the end of 2018, Jackson and Delves discuss Seismic’s sustainability efforts, what it’s like to sell beer in wine country, early entrepreneurial lessons they’ve learned, and how the emerging cannabis industry could disrupt the alcohol sector, among other topics. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall talk about Anheuser-Busch InBev’s latest acquisition and discuss a pair of compromise bills in Texas that could finally give manufacturing breweries the right to sell beer to-go. Listen to episode 24 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 25, featuring Bissell Brothers Brewing co-founder Peter Bissell, will be released on Thursday, February 28. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email podcast@brewbound.com.