With a leadership team all well under two years on the job, it would be logical to view 2025 as a rebuilding year for Heineken-owned Lagunitas Brewing. But the Petaluma, California-headquartered brewery took distributor and retailer feedback to heart in the past year-plus, which drove Lagunitas to develop a 2025 plan that’s consistent, focused and hinges on collaboration with its partners.
Stone Brewing CEO Dominic Engels and Karl Strauss Brewing CEO and co-founder Chris Cramer discussed their respective companies’ operations and strategies last week at the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica. Both San Diego companies are listed on not-for-profit trade group the Brewers Association’s (BA) list of the 50 largest craft breweries. However, Engels and Cramer offered varying perspectives for attendees and viewers.
California businessman John Gallegos has increased his investment in SouthNorte Beer Company, buying out Coronado Brewing’s minority stake in the brand and making him the majority owner of the San Diego, California-based microbrewery. SouthNorte was founded in 2016 as a partnership between Gallegos, San Diego-based Coronado Brewing, SouthNorte head brewer Ryan Brooks and Brandon Richards, the former CEO of SouthNorte and Coronado and the current president of AleSmith Brewing Company.
A family ownership group has reached a deal to acquire 32-year-old Anderson Valley Brewing Company.
Four months after joining Lagunitas Brewing Company, chief marketing officer Kelly Murnaghan has big plans for the Petaluma, California-based, Heineken-owned craft brewery.
Long-time beer executive Steve Almaraz has joined Figueroa Mountain Brewing as its new president and partner, leaving a five-year stint managing the craft beer category at the Reyes Beer Division.
Russian River is brewing a Sonoma Pride IPL after a wildfire forced the evacuation of the popular Windsor, California, craft brewery last week. Co-founder Natalie Cilurzo told Brewbound that Sonoma Pride will be available next month at both the Windsor and Santa Rosa breweries and proceeds will support a yet-to-be-determined charity that supports firefighters.
Bear Republic Brewing Company will close its Healdsburg, California-based brewpub, which first opened in 1995, on November 22, according to a post on the location’s Facebook page. Speaking to Brewbound, Bear Republic president and CEO Richard G. Norgrove cited mounting building improvement costs at the Healdsburg brewpub location, which the company’s landlord would not cover,… Read more »
Societe Brewing co-founder and CEO Douglas Constantiner discusses the San Diego craft brewery’s transformational year on the first episode of the Brewbound Podcast’s second season.
San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Company has signed with eight wholesalers in California, expanding the craft brewery’s distribution footprint statewide. “For six years, Fort Point has pretty much been sold in nine counties around the Bay Area with a couple of things being sold here and there outside of that,” Fort Point co-founder and CEO Justin Catalana told Brewbound. “But we just flipped the switch to sell through the rest of California.”
Small and independent U.S craft brewers generated $79.1 billion in economic impact in 2018, which represented roughly 0.4 percent of the gross domestic product, according to industry trade group the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2018 Economic Impact Report.
Bear Republic Brewing Company co-founder Richard R. Norgrove will step down as CEO, the Northern California-based company announced Monday. Mr. Norgorve’s son, Richard G., will take over as the company’s chief executive. In addition to the younger Norgrove’s transition into the CEO role, Bear Republic named long-time employee Peter Kruger as its new chief operating officer. He takes over for Richard G. Norgrove, who also goes by “Ricardo.”
In this week’s edition of Last Call: There Colorado breweries are set to close; Sierra Nevada asks breweries to honor their Camp Fire pledges; U.S. beer shipments decline in April; Boston Beer delays its downtown Boston taproom opening; and more news.
Dan Gordon has regained majority control of Gordon Biersch Brewing Company. A new investor group assembled by Gordon has acquired the San Jose, California-based production brewery from the Fertitta family — founders of Nevada’s Station Casinos and Zuffa, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which sold for more $4 billion to WME-IMG in 2016.
Two of the largest U.S. states now boast a record number of breweries. According to an economic impact study released Tuesday by the California Craft Brewers Association, California continues to be home to the most breweries in the nation, with more than 980 in operation as of April 2019. Meanwhile, an economic impact study released today by the New York State Brewers Association, found that 434 craft breweries were operating in the Empire State at the end of 2018.
