Craft Beer

At a time when brewers are exploring spirits and ready-to-drink offerings as avenues for incremental revenue, Michigan-based spirits producer Benchmark Beverage Company is doing something similar: bolting on beer brands to expand its portfolio.

A foreclosure filing against Lakeland, Florida-based Brew Hub caught some people by surprise last week … including Brew Hub’s CEO. Brew Hub CEO Tim Schoen cited “miscommunication” between the contract brewery’s majority investor, private equity firm Yucaipa Companies, and Live Oak Bank, for the foreclosure filing, according to an email sent to Brew Hub clients on Thursday.

This week’s A Round With … features Dave Vitt, founder and CEO of Bellingham’s own Kulshan Brewing. In the Brewbound Insider-exclusive Q&A, Dave shares how Bellingham’s beer scene has evolved, how the Kulshan team keeps coming up with unique taproom events and how to stay positive in challenging times.

President Donald Trump’s reveal of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday included a 25% tariff on all imported beer and empty aluminum cans. Those tariffs are expected to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday, April 4.

Another day, another Colorado craft beer deal. Longmont-based Left Hand Brewing and Aurora-based Dry Dock Brewing announced they have merged under the craft-centric, crowd-funded platform Left Hand revealed plans to build last year.

The Colorado-based Wilding Brands platform has grown again. Denver-based Great Divide Brewing has been acquired by the parent company of Stem Ciders, Denver Beer Co. and several other brands.

Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC) has changed hands for the second time in a little more than five years. Wine industry entrepreneur Jason McConnell acquired the Boonville, California-based craft brewery in a deal that closed Tuesday, former owner Kevin McGee told Brewbound.

Carrie Yunker ended her more than two-decade run at Bell’s Brewery on a high note Monday – Oberon Day, the annual release of the company’s spring-summer seasonal wheat beer.

TailGate Brewery founder and owner Wesley Keegan does not advise that other brewers mimic his Nashville-based brewery’s portfolio strategy, simply because it doesn’t make much sense. Throughout TailGate’s decade in operation, its flagship offerings have been a peanut butter milk stout and an orange wheat beer, neither of which were created with the goal of becoming the brewery’s lead style.

Youth soccer games aren’t just a way to get the family outside and to mingle with neighbors – they are also a great place to meet a future business partner. At least, that was the case for Luis Espinoza and Craig Panzer, the founders of Roundhead Brewing, Massachusetts’ first Latino-owned brewery, located in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

The total beer industry ended 2024 in the red, but New England remains a positive beacon, as the region continues to buck trends, Bump Williams Consulting president Dave Williams highlighted earlier this month during a presentation at the New England Craft Brew Summit in Portland, Maine.

Officially in its second year, Hot Plate Brewing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has some star power behind one of its next releases. Effervescent lemongrass saison shares its name with comedian Patton Oswalt’s standup special, performed at a nearby theater later this month.

One of the latest signs that craft beer has entered a new era: Patrons of storied brewpub chains Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom can now order domestic lagers produced by the world’s largest breweries.

Boston Beer Company is set to roll out a pair of new beyond beer offerings this spring, as the company reshuffles its portfolio.