Brewbound Podcast

In episode 11 of the Brewbound Podcast, editor Chris Furnari interviews Hugh Sisson, the founder and managing partner of Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore, Maryland. In the mid-’80s, Sisson successfully lobbied the Maryland General Assembly to pass legislation required to open a brewpub in Maryland, and he opened the state’s first pub brewery, called Sisson’s. In 1994, he left Sisson’s to launch Clipper City Brewing Company, which is more widely known as Heavy Seas. Today, his company’s products are sold in 20 states as well as Washington, D.C. During the interview, Hugh discusses how his company is evolving amid increasing competition within the craft beer segment, and he explains the headwinds facing regional breweries. He also talks about trends that he’s paying close attention to and shares his vision of how the beer category will continue to mature in the coming years. Listen to episode 11 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 11, featuring The Brewer’s Table Jake Maddux, will be released on Thursday, November 28. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Independence Brewing’s 2016 minority sale to Lagunitas U.S. Holdings began over some breakfast tacos. “I met with Tony Magee — over some breakfast tacos — because he happened to be in Austin,” Independence Brewing co-founder Amy Cartwright told Brewbound. The deal, announced in June 2016, gave Independence access to growth capital following a 2014 expansion that included the installation of a new brewing system and some larger fermentation tanks. But Cartwright didn’t initially think another brewery would be interested in investing in Independence, and she figured that funding would actually come from a private equity firm. “We definitely set out to sell some stock, so that we could raise money for the equipment we needed, and to finish this expansion,” she said, noting that she didn’t want to be in a “perpetual state of fundraising.” “We wanted to have a longer-term view,” she added. “We had clawed and skimped our way through our 12 years of existence.” As conversations with Lagunitas continued, Cartwright said she became interested in a deal with the California craft brewery, which at the time was 50 percent owned by Heineken International, because “there seemed to be a real understanding of each other.” In episode 10 of the Brewbound Podcast, Cartwright discusses her company’s relationship with Lagunitas and shares her entrepreneurial journey. She also explains how the craft beer landscape in Texas has changed since she opened Independence in 2004 and shares her thoughts on consumer purchasing habits. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall discuss Artisanal Brewing Ventures’ acquisition of Sixpoint, Pabst Brewing’s lawsuit with MillerCoors, and the ‘Camp Fire’ wildfires in California that forced a shutdown at the Sierra Nevada Brewing facility. They also share some bad PR pitches and offer a conspiracy theory about rapper Post Malone and Brewers Association director Paul Gatza. Listen to episode 10 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 11, featuring Heavy Seas Brewing founder Hugh Sisson, will be released on Thursday, November 22. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

When Brewbound sat down with Victory Brewing co-founder Bill Covaleski in late August, the longtime industry veteran wouldn’t quite tip his hand about potential future acquisitions within the craft beer space after his company partnered up with the family office-backed brewery collective Artisanal Brewing Ventures. “We sort of see ourselves as a safe harbor for breweries that want to stay in the game but at the same time want to do so with a platform that gives them more stability,” he said, noting that ABV had an interest in adding more partners to the collective. Covaleski declined to share what criteria the company used to determine who those partners might be, but he did suggest that geography played a role. “In terms of protecting or preserving geography, I think the term relevance is used too often,” he said. “I think the term defensible should be used. Or executable.” So, in an effort to defend ABV’s strong East Coast presence – it also owns Southern Tier Brewing in Lakewood, New York, and operates breweries and taprooms in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Cleveland, Ohio – ABV yesterday announced the purchase of New York City’s Sixpoint Brewery. “Adding Sixpoint to the ABV family is consistent with our strategy of working with successful regional brands that have great local market penetration, passionate fans, and opportunity to grow,” John Coleman, the CEO of Artisanal Brewing Ventures, said via a press release. According to ABV, the addition of Sixpoint will give the rollup a “strong presence in the fast-growing New York City market.” Sixpoint, which is on pace to produce more than 50,000 barrels in 2018, most of it under contract at City Brewing in Memphis, is based in Brooklyn. The deal with ABV will enable the company to build a new brewery and taproom at a yet-to-be-determined location in a borough which has become a hotbed for craft beer. In addition to stalwart Brooklyn Brewery, popular craft producers Threes Brewing, Other Half Brewing, Grimm Brewing and Evil Twin, among others, are located in the area. In episode nine of the Brewbound Podcast, Covaleski discusses ABV’s appetite for M&A, and shares his thoughts on how craft breweries can reach a broader base of beer consumers as well as opportunities he sees ahead for the Victory brand. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall discuss the proposed changes to the Brewers Association’s (BA) craft brewer definition, and rundown a grab bag of segments. Listen to episode nine of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 10, featuring Independence Brewing co-founder Amy Cartwright, will be released on Thursday, November 15. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Constellation Brands chairman of beer Bill Hackett has spent more than three decades growing sales of imported Mexican beer in the United States. When he began building the Corona brand in 1984, the market for imported beer in the U.S. was just 8 million barrels. Last year, about 34 million barrels of imported beer was sold in the U.S., and 23 million of those barrels were imported from Mexico. Much of that growth can be attributed to Hackett, and others who have worked on the Corona brand over the years. So what’s his secret to scaling a brand that, in many cases, consumers didn’t even know they wanted? “I went into market and I just started asking questions,” he said. After surveying retailers and drinkers about Corona, Hackett identified a target demographic and built a marketing plan around what consumers believed were the brand’s key differences. “Very simply stated, what we did was developed the marketing, positioning and the advertising, basically reading back to consumers what they were telling us about the beer,” he said. In episode eight of the Brewbound Podcast, Hackett discusses the strategies that have allowed the Corona brand to flourish in the U.S. over the last three decades, and how he sees the beer market evolving in the years to come. Hackett also talks about the taproom phenomenon, the importance of brand building at a time when 7,000 craft breweries are fighting for mindshare, and what he drinks when he’s not tipping back a pint of beer. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode eight of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 eight, featuring Victory Brewing co-founder Bill Covaleski, will be released on Thursday, November 8. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

About four years ago, Hops & Grain Brewing founder Josh Hare began the process of transitioning his Austin-based craft beer company from a licensed manufacturing brewery to a brewpub. He wanted to take advantage of a new Texas law that allowed brewpubs to sell beer directly to consumers for off-premise consumption while simultaneously expanding his operation. So Hare signed a lease on an adjacent space inside the building where his brewery was located and spent nearly $80,000 on the beginning stages of an expansion while he waited for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to approve the switch. Then his request was denied. The problem? A hallway dividing his existing brewery and the new space he was planning to expand into meant that his vision of occupying the entire building would never be realized. “In the state of Texas, spaces under one permit have to be contiguous,” he said. “And that hallway created a non-contiguous space between what was our original space and what we wanted to be the new space.” So Hare opted to maintain his manufacturing permit while he spent the next two years planning another attempt. And then he was denied again. This time, Hare learned that his licensed manufacturing brewery was located in an area of Austin that was not zoned for direct-to-consumer alcohol sales. “Manufacturing is fine. Giving away free beer samples is fine. But if you are actually trying to transact, that doesn’t work unless you sell more than 51 percent of your revenue from non-alcohol sales,” he said. In episode seven of the Brewbound Podcast, Hare takes a deep dive into his company’s complicated four-year process of becoming a licensed Texas brewpub, and why he feels the state’s confusing direct-to-consumer sales laws need modernizing. Hare also discusses how he’s financed Hops & Grain’s growth, why he feels Texas beer wholesalers wield too much power and why current Texas alcohol laws make it difficult for upstart breweries to breakout. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode seven of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 eight, featuring Constellation Brands’ Bill Hackett, will be released on Thursday, November 1. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is bucking industry trends, growing off-premise volume sales at a double-digit clip, while many other similarly sized craft beer companies struggle to stay out of the red. So how is Dogfish doing it? If you asked co-founder and CEO Sam Calagione, he’d tell you that a relentless focus on producing high-quality and well-differentiated beers has helped his company avoid being chewed up by what he calls the “smiling jaws of death.” “There is the lower jaw, that has tons and tons of tiny teeth – which are the local and hyperlocal breweries, mostly oriented toward the tasting room,” he said. “And then the top level, there are the big ass teeth. The volume brands that are either indie brands like Dogfish, and Sam Adams, and Sierra, and Yuengling, and Bell’s. And then affiliate brands, that are really owned by global conglomerates, but market themselves like they are American indie craft breweries.” Calagione believes that, as the industry approaches 7,000 craft breweries, successful beer companies will need to either remain small and hyperlocal or be forced to invest large amounts of money in an effort to “break through the noise of the top 50 brands,” and “go up the ladder of your distributors.” “There are very little opportunities in-between,” he told Brewbound. “There are breweries that are over their skis in terms of investment in their equipment, but also over their skis in terms of five, 10, 20-state distribution networks, but they don’t have the resources to support a broad geographic distribution base.” In episode six of the Brewbound Podcast, editor Chris Furnari and Calagione discuss how Dogfish Head is “navigating the noise” of 7,000 small breweries, how other craft breweries can grow without taking on too much debt, and how Dogfish Head has financed its own expansion in recent years. Throughout the conversation, conducted during Dogfish Head’s annual distributor meeting last month in Baltimore, Calagione explains the benefits of remaining a small, taproom-focused brewery in today’s competitive marketplace, why he is bullish on the Brewers Association’s independent craft brewer seal, and how he envisions the marketplace evolving in the coming years. Also in this episode: Furnari and Brewbound assistant editor Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode six of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 seven, featuring Hops & Grain founder Josh Hare, will be released on Thursday, October 25. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

It’s only been about three months since Three Weavers founder Lynne Weaver sold her company to the Fireman Capital-backed Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective, but she already feels like the decision has alleviated some of the stress that entrepreneurs in the beer industry battle on a regular basis. “It’s been really refreshing to feel like I’m not on an island by myself anymore,” she said. “I have a really solid team to be able to bounce business strategy, ideas, opportunities, and be able to place them in the right places.” Weaver, who said a partnership with Canarchy puts her company in a better position to weather the “tides and the storms that are maybe coming,” credits The Bruery’s mid-2017 sale to Boston-area private equity firm Castanea Partners with causing her to consider a deal. “That was one of the really defining moments for me,’ she said. In episode five of the Brewbound Podcast, editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall sit down with Weaver to discuss her partnership with Canarchy, opportunities to grow craft beer sales in Los Angeles, and why Three Weavers initially chose to build its brand on-premise as a draft-only brewery. Throughout the conversation, conducted during the 2018 Great American Beer Festival, Weaver explains the process of launching, scaling and selling Three Weavers, the maturation of the craft beer category, and how Canarchy will help Three Weavers expand into off-premise chain retail sets. Also in this episode: Furnari and Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode five of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on 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 six, featuring Dogfish Head Craft Brewery co-founder and CEO Sam Calagione, will be released on Thursday, October 18. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].