Fresh off a year in which the company added five states to its distribution footprint, SweetWater Brewing has announced plans to broaden its availability once again, this time to Texas and Maryland.
Southern Tier Brewing has hired Sean Lavery, a former Anheuser-Busch (A-B) brewmaster, to serve as its newest director of brewing, the company announced this week. Lavery, who held a variety of brewing positions during his time with Anheuser-Busch, officially joined Southern Tier earlier this week.
When you stick a few hundred beer executives in a room with each other, you can usually count on two things happening: a debate about franchise law reform will undoubtedly break out and some suave corporate marketer will tell you how he unlocked the secrets of the internet and is finally getting through to all those unloyal millennial beer consumers. That was the case last week in Palm Beach, Fla., where upscale oceanfront resort The Breakers played host to Beer Business Daily’s 12th annual Beer Summit.
Launched by Indianapolis’ Sun King Brewing and Munster-based 3 Floyds Brewing, the Support Indiana Brewers campaign seeks to at least double the state’s production cap of 30,000 barrels annually for brewers that also operate in the wholesale and retail tiers. While breweries can produce an unlimited amount of beer for sale within Indiana, under current law, once a brewery surpasses 30,000 barrels it forfeits the right to self-distribute and operate a taproom.
Despite ongoing capacity constraints, Cigar City Brewing managed to grow its annual production by more than 28 percent in 2014, selling over 44,000 barrels of beer, founder Joey Redner told Brewbound. The growth was driven primarily by the brewery’s top-selling flagship, Jai Alai IPA, which accounted for more than half — about 23,000 barrels — of all barrels sold. Cigar City sold just over 5,000 barrels of its second most popular brew, Florida Cracker, Redner said.
A sweeping bill recently filed by a Florida lawmaker could potentially loosen a number of restrictive regulations faced by craft brewers while simultaneously streamlining rules pertaining to the state’s three-tier alcohol distribution system. House Bill 107, in its current form, would overhaul the mechanics of franchise agreements, settle the state’s ongoing growler debate(link?), clarify brewery retail rights, and more.
Ninkasi Brewing is in the process of realigning its wholesale network in the Pacific Northwest, the brewery announced this week, leaving two houses owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) in order to partner up with a pair of independent distributors. Per a statement from the company, Ninkasi has agreed to deals with Bigfoot Beverage Distributors and the Odom Corporation for coverage throughout downstate Oregon (the company’s home state) and western Washington, respectively.
Lagunitas Brewing founder Tony Magee said on Tuesday his company will drop a trademark infringement lawsuit against Sierra Nevada Brewing, following backlash from what Magee called “the court of public opinion.” The announcement — which Magee made via his personal Twitter account late on Tuesday evening — comes just one day after Lagunitas asked a judge to issue a restraining order that, if issued, would have prevented Sierra Nevada from releasing its new Hop Hunter IPA.
The two largest craft brewers in California are now embroiled in a trademark dispute over craft’s most ubiquitous style — the India Pale Ale. On Jan. 12, Lagunitas Brewing Co. filed a lawsuit against rival Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., the second-largest craft brewery in the country. According to the suit, a new Sierra release, Hop Hunter, infringes on Lagunitas’ trademarked logo designs and packaging for its own Lagunitas IPA — particularly the company’s famous labels that feature the stylized, oversized letters “IPA.”
The Beer Institute is soon expected to announce the introduction of bipartisan legislation that would, if enacted, reform the federal beer excise tax. While the BI is withholding specific details at the moment, including the name of the bill and its sponsors, Chris Thorne, the organization’s vice president of communications, said it would provide relief for every brewer and beer importer.
Later this month, Sierra, craft beer’s second-largest company, will release Hop Hunter IPA, a new, year-round offering that brewery officials are hoping will benefit from the growing attention beer fans are paying to wet hop and fresh hop styles. Sierra is betting that its reputation for a mastery of hops, coupled with an intense focus on innovation, will allow it to consolidate leadership in the evolving subcategory of those wet hop beers.
For the fourth time, members of Congress have filed a bipartisan bill that, if enacted, would dramatically cut the federal beer excise tax that the nation’s small brewers pay on every barrel of beer they produce. The Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act – Small BREW Act for short – seeks to implement a new tax structure to better reflect the evolving nature of the country’s booming craft beer industry, according to a statement from the Brewers Association.
Using the crowdfunding platform Bolstr, an online marketplace where entrepreneurs can access capital from accredited investors, the San Francisco brewery raised $150,000 in less than 24 hours. With the money, Magnolia will purchase additional brewing, packaging and laboratory equipment to expand production, and to roll out a line of packaged beers. To date, Magnolia products have been available only on draft and in growlers.
As we enter our 5th year of covering the rapidly evolving craft beer business, we thought it was time to hit the refresh button and give our website a facelift. With the newly redesigned Brewbound, our goal is to improve the reader experience and deliver a news platform more in line with our maturing brand, our core values and our growing audience. That means a website that peels back some of the unnecessary layers and places a greater emphasis on compelling and engaging news content.
