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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.
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS) has consistently charged independent retailers as much as 12% to 67% more than national and regional chains for the same products, according to newly unsealed redactions in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) price discrimination case against the distributor.
Slower growth and increased competition are the “new normal,” Brewers Association (BA) leaders hammered home on the second day of the trade group’s annual Craft Brewers Conference (CBC). “This is not a blip,” BA chief economist Bart Watson said during Wednesday’s State of the Industry presentation. “This is the new normal.”
Leaders with the Brewers Association (BA) opened Tuesday’s opening session of the Craft Brewers Conference in Denver by soliciting donations for its new political action committee (PAC). Their goal? To make permanent the excise tax cuts in the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA), which are slated to expire at the end of the year.
The Brewers Association’s (BA) biggest event of the year, the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) & BrewExpo America, officially kicks off Tuesday in Denver. With more than 70 educational seminars and tons of networking opportunities (and parties), CBC can be daunting. To help attendees plan their schedules effectively, Brewbound has picked eight seminars that shouldn’t be skipped.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Deschutes tells Roanoke city officials it is unlikely to build a production facility by a 2021 deadline; Trillium spends $13 million to acquire Canton real estate; Deschutes hires ex-Dogfish Head VP of marketing; BrewDog shares Q1 highlights; and more industry news.
Once again, a record number of craft breweries were in operation in 2018, according the Brewers Association (BA), a trade organization that represents small and independent breweries. The BA, which released its 2018 craft industry growth statistics today, reported that 7,346 craft breweries operated in the U.S. in 2018. That’s up from 6,490 in 2017.
In the latest Press Clips: Lion acquires Magic Rock Brewing in the UK; Allagash founder Rob Tod makes James Beard finals; Russian River’s Pliny the Younger generates more than $4 million in impact; the Cleveland Indians name Great Lakes and Miller Lite official beers; and more industry news.
Stone Brewing’s initial attempt to prevent MillerCoors from selling rebranded Keystone Light products has come up short. On Tuesday, a federal judge denied Stone’s motion for a preliminary injunction as well as the San Diego-based craft brewery’s attempt to dismiss MillerCoors’ counterclaims.
An Iowa craft brewery topped the Brewers Association’s (BA) list of the 50 fastest-growing breweries of 2018, but it wasn’t Toppling Goliath. No, the distinction of being the fastest-growing U.S. brewery in 2018 belongs to Lake Time Brewery.
Big beer’s “corntroversy” is moving from television screens to the courtroom. MillerCoors today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin that claims Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Super Bowl ads and its subsequent “transparency” ads are part of a “false and misleading advertising campaign” aimed at deceiving health-conscious consumers.
Maryland’s craft brewers, wholesalers and retailers have reached an agreement on sweeping legislation that, if approved, would reform the state’s laws surrounding self-distribution, taproom sales and franchise agreements.
North Carolina craft brewers and wholesalers have reached a compromise in a contentious years-long dispute over the state’s self-distribution and franchise laws. After filing a lawsuit two years ago challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring brewers who sell more than 25,000 barrels to forfeit self-distribution rights and sign with a wholesaler, Craft Freedom LLC — a trade group consisting of Olde Mecklenburg Brewery and NoDa Brewing Co. — has struck a deal with the North Carolina Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association that could create an additional brewer classification for “mid-sized independent breweries” selling fewer than 100,000 barrels annually.
In the latest Legislative Update: Maryland inches closer to franchise reform; a flow meter bill in Texas is in limbo; Connecticut brewers seek to-go sales increase; and more.
The fragile alliance among the United States’ largest beer producers is at risk following Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Super Bowl ads for Bud Light that highlighted its ingredients and the use of corn syrup in competitor offerings Coors Light and Miller Lite, made by MillerCoors.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Actual Brewing files for bankruptcy; beer sales grow in January; Northern Eagle Beverage acquires New Jersey A-B wholesaler; class-action lawsuit filed against Molson Coors; and more industry news.
