New Belgium Brewing is once again expanding its distribution footprint, this time to Ohio. The country’s third largest craft brewery today announced that it has signed agreements with a mix of nine different Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors wholesalers.
Over the years, the Boston Beer Company founder has dabbled in the space, sure. The company released its first “Boston IPA,” an English style made with the Fuggle and East Kent Golding hop varietals, in the 1990s. It’s played with hops over the years, rolling out offerings like Latitude 48, Whitewater IPA, Third Voyage Double IPA, even a mixed-IPA variety pack.
Demand continues to balloon at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Brewers Association (B.A.), which runs the event, will add more breweries or beer drinkers. “Demand for the festival, demand for the competition was huge this year,” said Paul Gatza, the B.A.’s director.
Craft brewers are once again questioning the safety of plastic kegs after new reports of a keg explosion surfaced this week on an industry forum. On Tuesday, the Brewers Association (BA) — which moderates the forum — posted an anonymous note from a craft brewery which claimed to have recently experienced what was described as… Read more »
Napa Smith Brewery & Winery produced fewer than 500 barrels when Smoke Wallin started there in 2010. In 18 months, Wallin took Napa Smith from distribution in California alone to placements in 32 states. Soon into the expansion, Wallin realized that the brewery’s quick growth couldn’t match its infrastructure.
On Tuesday, when a panel featuring Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione, Anheuser-Busch president Luiz Edmond, Crown Imports president Bill Hackett, MillerCoors CEO Tom Long and Heineken USA CEO Dolf van den Brink took the stage to address thousands of U.S. beer distributors, it was with an eye toward ways to lessen the bleeding.
To kick off Craft Brew Alliance’s first-ever national distributor meeting, CBA-Con, held today in Las Vegas, president Andy Thomas asked the company’s roughly 500 Anheuser-Busch wholesale partners a question. “Is poker a game of skill or a game of luck,” he said. “Some of the best players will tell you that it is 100 percent… Read more »
Sierra Nevada Brewing is expanding its business operations to include a new on-premise retail location in Berkeley, Calif. The space, named the “Torpedo Room” after its signature hopping device and the current best-selling IPA in the U.S., is scheduled to open in November.
A small piece of Portsmouth, N.H. is headed west. Smuttynose Brewing today announced new distribution agreements with two of L. Knife & Son Companies craft-focused wholesale operations in California: San Diego-based Craft Beer Guild Distributing of California and Los Angeles area’s El Dorado Distributing.
American craft brewers, especially some of the founding fathers at Boston Beer Company and Redhook, for example, have culled and modernized recipes from the Germans, Belgians, English and Irish, to name a few. As a result, many forms of the faraway beer styles can be found in the U.S. In certain cases, American brewers seem to have digested the influence and gone their own way.
First it was brats, now its bedrooms. Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione just can’t seem to stay away from opportunities to extend the Dogfish brand beyond beer. The brewery today announced that it has taken over ownership of the property and plans to redesign the lodging facility with plenty of “Dogfish vibes.”
Aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for craft beer and an increasing need for commercial brewing space, two New York City-based entrepreneurs are planning to redevelop the defunct Neuweiler Brewery in Allentown, Penn. and turn it into a new contract brewing facility.
For the past two years, Brooklyn Brewery has remained steadfast in its commitment to grow organically in existing markets despite repeated attempts from wholesalers looking to lure the company into new states. “Our 25 percent growth this year has come organically,” said Robin Ottaway, the company’s vice president of sales. “At the end of this… Read more »
It’s a trend seen since the emergence of craft: brewers christening their beers with inventive and catchy names that often play on ingredients, formulation or seasonal release. In the case of Dogfish Head’s Wet Hop American Summer, it’s all of the above. And so when it came time to name its first year-round IPA, Sierra Nevada chose a similar path with its choice of “Torpedo,” which takes its name from the brewery’s innovative “Hop Torpedo” device.
