After three years with Golden Road Brewing, brewmaster Jesse Houck has departed the company and accepted a new position as Maui Brewing Company’s director of brewery operations, Brewbound has learned. The news comes less than four months after it was announced that Anheuser-Busch InBev would purchase the fast-growing Los Angeles craft brewery.
A California startup is betting on the increasing interest in home delivery services and the growth of craft beer by selling and delivering growlers of brew to drinkers in the Bay Area. Hopsy, based near Berkeley, views itself a disruptive force in beer distribution.
Charlie Papazian, the president of the Brewers Association and founder of the Great American Beer Festival, will step back from day-to-day responsibilities this month after 37 years. Papazian, who “discovered craft homebrewing 45 years ago,” will remain an integral part of the Brewers Association, according to a statement published on the organization’s website. His title will shift to “founder, past president” and current CEO Bob Pease will add president to his title, the BA said.
After three years of selling 805 Blonde Ale in California only, Firestone Walker will begin shipping the beer to Arizona, Nevada and Texas for the first time this month. A low-alcohol session offering that Firestone originally brewed as a reaction to increasing local competition, 805 emerged as one of the best-selling national craft brands in 2015. According to market research firm IRI Worldwide, sales of 805, the 24th largest craft brand in supermarkets, were up more than 166 percent through Nov. 29, 2015.
Breakthru Beverage Group, which was formed after two prominent multi-state wholesalers — Wirtz Beverage Group and Charmer Sunbelt Group — merged in October, has officially launched in 19 markets across the U.S. and Canada. The combined companies will represent a portfolio of wine, beer and spirits brands totaling more than $6 billion in annual sales, according to a statement from the group.
Garrett Marrero, the founder and CEO of Maui Brewing, Hawaii’s largest brewery, has been elected to the Brewers Association board of directors. Marrero, who currently serves on the organization’s government affairs committee, will begin his three-year term as a board member in February.
What an exhausting year. 2015 was undoubtedly the busiest year Brewbound has ever experienced from a coverage standpoint and we don’t expect 2016 to be any different. As we prepare for another busy year in the beer biz, let’s take a moment to look back at the year’s most important stories in craft beer. Here are the top 10 stories that shaped the craft narrative in 2015.
What a year for craft litigation. Whether it was an attempt to define “craft beer” or efforts to own IPA, 2015 sure had its fair share of notable legal spats. So what do craft-minded attorneys think about the increasing amount of trademark disputes? Brewbound reached out to four of the industry’s leading experts in trademark and copyright law to get their thoughts on 2015.
After nearly 20 years, Wolaver’s Fine Organic Ales — a pioneering organic craft beer brand that was acquired by Vermont’s Long Trail Brewing in 2010 — has ceased production. Citing the rising cost and availability of organic ingredients, as well as cost-prohibitive production realities, Otter Creek said it would no longer brew the nation’s first USDA-certified organic craft beer brand and will instead focus more energy on accelerating the growth of its recently rebranded Otter Creek line.
Starr Hill Brewery, one of the largest producers of craft beer in the state of Virginia, plans to open a new location in 2017. The new space, a collaborative venture with global real estate developer The Cordish Companies, will be located at the “Waterside District” marketplace currently under construction in Norfolk, VA.
In a year-end note to distributors, Adam Lambert, the former Dogfish Head sales grunt who took his talents to New Holland Brewing late last year, said the Michigan-based craft brewery would be up 24 percent in 2015. The company’s top performing brands include Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel stout, which was up 48 percent, and Mad Hatter IPA, which was up more than 20 percent. Poet, an oatmeal stout, was also up more than 20 percent, Lambert said.
Here’s something we didn’t quite expect to hear from Brew Hub founder Tim Schoen: In the company’s $100 million quest to build out a nationwide network of five contract facilities by 2018, Brew Hub would consider acquisition, and not just construction as a means of establishing a brewing presence in the Northeast, Texas and on the West Coast.
It’s the question on every craft brewery owners mind: who’s next? After a record-breaking year that included 24 different craft brewery transactions (infographic included), it’s no longer a matter of if, but when a prominent craft beer company will announce some kind of sale. In the wake of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s holiday shopping spree — one that saw the company acquire Breckenridge Brewery, Four Peaks Brewing and Camden Town Brewery over the course of three business days — the rumor mill started churning once again. These days, the mill feels more like a turbine.
Another craft-focused contract brewing operation has entered the fray. Great Central Brewing Company (GCBC) broke ground on a new 32,000 sq. ft. contract brewing facility in Chicago last week. Scheduled for a summer 2016 opening, the brewery joins a growing list of craft-minded contract facilities established to help other small producers scale up, instead of focusing on their own in-house labels.
