Explore the world of craft beer, from performance reports and innovation tactics to the state of the industry and breaking news.
Anyone looking for an answer to when craft’s current era of compounding hurdles and declines will come to an end received a reality check Wednesday during Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bart Watson’s state of the industry address, held at the start of Day 2 of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Indianapolis.
Around 10,000 industry members are expected to make the trip to Indianapolis for the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America (April 28 to May 1). The gathering takes place against a backdrop of growing headwinds for craft breweries and an overhaul of CBC’s host organization, the Brewers Association.
Craft’s rolling four-week losses improved to start 2025, according to the most recent report from market research firm Circana. The segment’s off-premise dollar sales declined -3.1% and volume, measured in case sales, declined -4.6% in the four-week period ending January 26 (L4W) at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C). That marked an improvement over the prior four-week period (through December 29, 2024), when craft dollars declined -5.1% and volume declined -6.5%.
Craft cans gained +3.6% share of craft dollars in 2023, and now account for 69.9% off-premise craft dollar sales, according to NIQ data shared in Bump Williams Consulting’s 2023 craft recap.
Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Wynwood Brewing Company, Miami’s first craft brewery and taproom, will close its doors next month after more than a decade in business, Eater reported Wednesday.
Dedicated non-alcoholic (NA) beer maker Athletic Brewing is taking a page out of 2010s craft beer check-in culture and run-tracking with its new app feature. Athletic launched “Track Record” earlier this month in order to give its app users a way of recording their alcohol-free days and creating streaks.
Another Heineken executive is moving over to the Lagunitas team. The Heineken-owned, Petaluma, California-based craft brewery announced today the appointment of Peter Green as head of sales. Green will officially take over the role on March 1.
The final Circana beer report for 2023 has arrived and it’s time to see how the category and its segments fared in scans, starting with a look at craft.
Two Roads Brewing Company has elevated two executives on its sales and marketing teams: Collin Kennedy to VP of marketing and Brian Duprey to VP of national accounts.
A former server has filed a lawsuit against Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) alleging the craft brewery platform violated federal and state labor laws by undercompensating tipped employees and requiring them to do untipped and unpaid tasks, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
Longtime Allagash Brewing sales director Naomi Neville will depart the Portland, Maine-headquartered craft brewery in early February after more than 14 years. With Neville’s impending exit, Allagash has promoted Josh Fruchtman to sales director.
Nearly seven months after the dissolution of its proposed merger with Cape May Brewing, Flying Fish Brewing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last month. The brewery listed nearly $9.3 million owed to secured and unsecured creditors and nearly $1.3 million in assets, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the district of New Jersey.
The Brew Talks panel discussion features Dave Williams of Bump Williams Consulting, Sam Calagione, co-founder of Dogfish Head, Kristen Burke from Burke Distributing, and Andrea Starr, the Director of Beer Merchandising at Total Wine & More.
Amid a sea change of top positions within craft this year, leadership at Rhinegeist Brewery explored the transition at the top of the Cincinnati, Ohio-headquartered craft brewery at the 2023 Brewbound Live business conference in Marina del Rey, California.
The fallout surrounding the conservative-led boycott of Anheuser-Busch’s (A-B) Bud Light brand and the accelerated declines that ensued accounted for three of Brewbound’s top stories of 2023. The internal machinations at A-B, including a reshuffling of its craft division, also piqued Brewbound readers’ interests. As we close out the year, here’s a look back at the 10 most-read stories of 2023.
Craft beer has entered “no to negative growth territory,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during a year-end webinar last week. “We were in double-digit growth as recently as 2014, 2015, and then we moved into kind of a more developed, slow, single-digit growth rate,” Watson said. “COVID hit, and we had the worst year in craft history in 2020 with a partial bounce back in 2021.
Scan data through Q3 showed a “slightly more promising outlook for craft,” according to Bump Williams Consulting (BWC) in the firm’s quarterly craft report. Craft dollar sales growth in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels (total U.S. xAOC + liquor plus + convenience) is now flat year-to-date (YTD) through September 30.
