Brewers Association

The largest beer festival in the U.S. will not take place in-person in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For the first time in the festival’s nearly 40-year history, the Brewers Association (BA) has canceled the 2020 edition of Great American Beer Festival, which was slated to take place September 24-26, and will instead move the event “to an immersive online experience” from October 16-17.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered nearly every facet of life and commerce, but one particular area stands to be gutted more than almost any other: large scale events. In the beer industry alone, event casualties are numerous, as the Brewers Association has now canceled three of its marquee events.

The Brewers Association (BA) laid off 23% of its staff last week “in order to maintain the long-term viability” of the national trade group, which represents the interests of small and independent U.S. craft brewers.

More aid money is on the way for small businesses. President Donald Trump today signed into law a fourth stimulus package that includes $310 billion in additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which ran out of money and stopped accepting applications on April 16.

The Brewers Association (BA) today announced it has formed a partnership with nonprofit fundraising organization Bottleshare to establish the “Believe in Beer Fund” to support breweries and state brewers guilds across the country that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

German officials today cancelled the country’s famed Oktoberfest celebration due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. The California Craft Brewers Association — a nonprofit trade group that represents the interests of the state’s craft brewers — announced today the cancellation of its “Craft Beer Summit,” which was scheduled for September 9-12 in Long Beach.

By most metrics, small and independent craft brewing companies posted solid volume growth in 2019. However, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many craft brewers into “survival mode,” is overshadowing 2019’s growth.

Volume growth for the nation’s small and independent craft breweries held steady at nearly 4% in 2019, as the overall beer industry’s volume declined 2%, according to trade group the Brewers Association’s annual craft beer growth report.

Stone Brewing Company laid off employees of its restaurants, taprooms and distributions sales force, which amounted about 306 workers. Some state lawmakers have proposed bills that would extend business interruption insurance clauses to cover losses sustained from closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many craft breweries are applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a pillar of the $2 trillion CARES Act relief package that rolled out last week, but several say they have concerns with the bumpiness of its introduction.

Cody Morris is reincarnating out of code draft beer as hand sanitizer. A professional brewer and the son of distillery owners, he knew that all the beer sitting idle in kegs could be distilled into hand sanitizer, which is needed for essential workers nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Brewers Association’s Craft Brewers Conference will go on in 2020 — at a social distance. The trade group that represents small and independent craft brewers today announced plans to hold the event virtually over the next five weeks, from April 13 through May 15, with many days featuring two live streamed seminars.

The beer industry has been deemed essential under guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), something the heads of beer trade associations worked to secure.

The Brewers Association (BA) today released the results of its second member survey on the effect of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 on the craft brewing industry, and the results paint a bleak picture for many small and independent craft brewers.