Idle Hands Craft Ales, a small Boston-area microbrewery that got its start on a 1 ½ barrel nano-brewing system in 2011, today announced it has been forced to vacate its facility in Everett, MA. Idle Hands’ current space sits just blocks from the proposed site of a new $1.3 billion Wynn Everett resort and casino. In order to make room for a construction access road, Idle Hands and a handful of small businesses must be out by June 30.
With an expansion to its North Carolina brewing facility underway, Oskar Blues is continuing to grow its footprint throughout the eastern half of the U.S. The company, which just last week revealed plans to increase production capacity at its Brevard outpost, has announced plans to add distribution in West Virginia and Arkansas.
Scottish craft beer company BrewDog has unveiled plans to establish a U.S. beachhead, last week announcing that Columbus, Ohio, will become the company’s stateside brewing headquarters. On its blog, BrewDog wrote that it has “provisionally agreed” to acquire 42 acres of land in Columbus and said it intends to build a 100,000 sq. ft. brewery complete with a 100-barrel brewhouse, canning machine and bottling line to serve markets across the U.S.
After years of debate over how to best reduce the federal excise tax rate on brewers, two of the beer industry’s leading organizations — the Brewers Association and the Beer Institute — have finally come together in support of a single bill. At a press conference hosted at Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Ore. on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) addressed industry and media members and unveiled the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, a comprehensive tax reform bill aimed at modernizing “outdated regulations” imposed on craft brewers and other alcoholic beverage manufacturers.
More than 150 craft brewery owners and state brewers guild leaders descended on Capitol Hill last Thursday to meet with lawmakers and discuss legislative reform, most notably a bipartisan bill that aims to slash the federal excise tax rate imposed on every barrel of beer produced in the country.
The TTB has formally announced Battle’s retirement from the U.S. Treasury, which is tasked with monitoring and enforcing compliance for the expansive beverage alcoholic category. “Battle’s departure marks the end of an era at TTB,” a statement read. The end of an era indeed — Battle processed over 60,000 malt beverage labels in 2013 and 2014 alone. Since just last October, he had already reviewed over 25,000 labels.
Five days after airing its now infamous Super Bowl ad poking fun at craft brewers, Anheuser-Busch attempted to trademark the phrase upon which the ad was built: “Brewed the Hard Way.” Turns out, as noted by Kaider Law, an intellectual property firm, the beer giant was actually beat to the punch. On February 5 — one day before A-B filed its own trademark — a small brewpub in Kansas City called Martin City Brewing filed a trademark application of its own for its “Hard Way IPA.”
In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy. Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.
Two prominent west coast craft breweries today announced pivotal brewing operations hires.
Molson Coors today appointed Geoff Molson, a member of the Molson Coors board of directors, as its new chairman. In accordance with company bylaws that require the roles of chairman and vice chairman to alternate between the Molson and Coors families every two years, Geoff Molson, a seventh generation member of the Molson family, supplants Pete Coors who will become vice chairman.
For the second year in a row, Colorado’s Odell Brewing Company topped Tamarron Consulting’s annual Craft Brewer Performance Survey. With an average performance score of 4.19 (out of 5), Odell led a group that featured seven of the country’s leading craft breweries, including Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head, Great Lakes Brewing, Stone Brewing and Summit Brewing.
In a gesture more symbolic than anything else, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Sunday in appreciation of thousands of American Craft Beer Week events as well as the jobs and wages craft has generated in recent years.
Founders Brewing will expand its distribution footprint in the Midwest this month, tapping two new states and broadening its presence in a third.
Less than one year after selling a partial ownership to private equity firm The Riverside Company, Uinta Brewing today announced that it has hired former Duvel Moortgat USA and Boulevard Brewing sales chief Steve Mills as its new chief financial officer. Mills takes over for Uinta founder Will Hamill, who had been acting as CEO and will now focus on brand development and brewery innovation in his new role as a company board member.
