Karl Strauss Brewing Company today announced it would open a new satellite brewery and brewpub in Southern California next month. Located across from Angel Stadium in Anaheim, the company’s new brewery — its 10th brewing location — will include a 7-barrel brewhouse, two 14-barrel fermentation tanks and three 14-barrel brite beer tanks. The facility will be capable of pouring upwards of 35 unique, small-batch beers at a time, the company said.
Addressing 760 fellow co-owners during a company-wide retreat held in Fort Collins, Colo. this week, New Belgium co-founder Kim Jordan quashed persistent rumors of a brewery sale and reassured employees that the country’s 4th largest craft brewery would continue to remain 100 percent employee owned for the foreseeable future. “While the Board of Directors and ESOP trustee have a fiscal responsibility to keep an eye on capital markets, we have found that our current capital structure serves our purpose and vision best,” Jordan said on Monday.
Two Maine-based craft breweries — Sebago Brewing and Maine Beer Company — are in the process of finalizing brewery expansions projects what would enable each company to significantly grow their operations in the greater Portland area. Sebago Brewing, based in Gorham, today announced plans to open a new $5 million destination brewery in 2017. Pending planning board approvals, the company could break ground as early as November, it said in a press release.
Just days after it was revealed that a pair of top Ballast Point Brewing executives would leave the organization to “pursue other interests within the beverage alcohol space,” two more key figures are also headed out the door. Founder Jack White Jr. and chief operating officer Yuseff Cherney — who also served as the company’s head brewer and distiller — have officially departed, according to Michael McGrew, a spokesman with Ballast Point’s parent company, Constellation Brands.
Fresh off last week’s purchase of Georgia-based Terrapin Beer Company, MillerCoors, via its Tenth and Blake craft and import division, today announced it has acquired a majority stake in Oregon’s Hop Valley Brewing. Specific financial terms were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.
The Brewers Association, together with market research firm Nielsen, today presented the findings of their jointly produced “Craft Insights Poll,” which looked at the purchasing habits of craft beer drinkers. Fielded in early June, the 20-minute online survey solicited answers from 1,000 “regular” craft beer drinkers that consume craft products at least several times per year.
A key pair of Ballast Point Brewing executives have departed the San Diego-based brewery less than nine months after its $1 billion sale to Constellation Brands, a spokesperson from the larger company confirmed to Brewbound. Ballast Point president and CEO, Jim Buechler, and chief commercial officer Earl Kight have left Ballast Point to “pursue other interests within the beverage alcohol space,” according to Constellation Brands spokesman Michael McGrew.
Although overall craft beer growth has slowed considerably, production for America’s small and independent brewers was still up eight percent through the first six months of 2016, according to a new report from the Brewers Association.
The U.S Department of Justice today announced it has agreed to a settlement with Anheuser-Busch InBev that would permit the world’s largest beer company to “proceed with its acquisition” of the world’s second-largest beer company, SABMiller. In an effort to move forward with the merger, and as part of the consent decree, A-B InBev agreed to a number of conditions in the U.S., including the much anticipated divestiture of MillerCoors, as well as other requirements that could impact the way small and independent brewers and beer wholesalers operate.
MillerCoors today announced that Tenth and Blake Beer Company, its craft beer and import division, has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Terrapin Beer Company. The purchase builds on a pre-existing relationship between the two companies: MillerCoors, via Tenth and Blake, had previously acquired a minority (less than 25 percent) stake in the Athens, GA-based craft brewery in early 2012.
U.S. hop production is set to increase by double-digits once again in 2016, according to a new report from the Hop Growers of America (HGA). According to the group, more than 53,200 acres of hops were strung for harvest in the U.S. this year, which represents more than 8,300 new acres – an 18.5 percent increase over last year.
If you’ve worked in any industry for more than 30 years, it’s safe to assume that you’re an expert in that field. So by that logic, Harpoon Brewery co-founder Dan Kenary, who started the Boston-based company with partners Rich Doyle and George Ligeti in 1986, is a bona fide beer business expert. In a wide-ranging interview with Kenary, the longtime beer executive shares with Brewbound the business lessons he’s learned over the last three decades and thoughts on how the craft category will continue to evolve over the next few years.
There’s more private equity money flowing into the craft brewing industry, this time via consumer products-focused firm VMG Consumer Partners and popular San Diego beermaker Stone Brewing. VMG — which specializes in food and beverage investments and has purchased stakes in entrepreneurial ventures like KIND Healthy Snacks, Pirate’s Booty, Justin’s and Spindrift, among others — will invest $89.5 million into a recently formed limited partnership called “VMG Stone Brewing Coinvestment,” according to a June SEC filing.
In this week’s distribution roundup: Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing begins distributing in Wyoming, the 37th state where its products are sold; California’s Knee Deep Brewing Company plans to enter Kansas this summer and San Diego’s Alesmith Brewing Company will soon begin selling its beers in Sin City.
