Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) has taken a small step forward in expanding its nearly 3-year-long partnership with Massachusetts-based Cisco Brewers, today announcing plans to rebrand the Redhook pub in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as an “island-inspired” destination. In a press release, CBA called the decision to convert the Redhook pub “an easy one,” pointing to the fact that the Nantucket-headquartered brewery’s flagship offerings, Whale’s Tale Pale Ale and Grey Lady, have been brewed and packaged at the Portsmouth facility since late 2015.
More than 100 brewers and state guild leaders traveled to Washington, D.C., last month to take part in the Brewers Association’s annual SAVOR craft beer and food pairing event in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol building. In addition to serving hundreds of beers alongside an assortment of cheeses, meats, and other fancy fare, industry attendees also spent time meeting with legislators to discuss a variety of issues impacting the beer industry.
Texas’ Deep Ellum Brewing was sold to Fireman Capital-backed Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective for an undisclosed sum, founder John Reardon confirmed to Brewbound. The transaction, which closed on Friday, June 8, will give Dallas-based Deep Ellum a much-needed capital infusion to finish a $3 million expansion and immediate access to increased brewing capacity at Colorado-headquartered Oskar Blues Brewing’s satellite production facility in Austin, Texas.
Molson Coors today announced the acquisition of California-based Clearly Kombucha, marking the multinational brewing company’s first purchase of a non-alcoholic beverage brand. The deal was led by TAP Ventures, a division within Molson Coors’ enterprise growth unit that launched last year and is tasked with identifying investment opportunities outside of the traditional beer segment.
Heineken USA today announced that Maggie Timoney, who currently serves as the CEO and managing director of Heineken Ireland, will take over as CEO of the international beer maker’s U.S. division starting September 1. With the appointment, Timoney, a U.S. citizen who got her start in the beer business in 1993 as a sales supervisor for New York’s Sound Distributing Corporation, will become the first female CEO at a major U.S. beer company.
As the clock turned to midnight, the exemption on aluminum and steel tariffs expired on Canada, the European Union and Mexico. The levies imposed by President Donald Trump — 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on aluminum — will now be collected from the nation’s trade allies, who have subsequently threatened to impose their own tariffs on U.S. exports. Brewbound stopped by the Beer Institute’s Washington, D.C., offices to discuss the news with CEO Jim McGreevy. Watch the video above.
Following months of turmoil, Green Flash Brewing Company has identified its next chief executive. The San Diego-based craft brewery, which was sold to a new investor group last month, today named former Anheuser-Busch executive Michael Taylor as its new CEO.
Less than one year after Coronado Brewing acquired a majority stake in nearby Monkey Paw Brewing, the San Diego-based regional craft beer producer today put the smaller outfit up for sale. The decision to sell its interest in the business comes about one month after Monkey Paw founder Scot Blair — an outspoken figure in the San Diego craft beer scene who also owns the popular Hamilton’s Tavern and South Park Brewing Company ventures — filed a lawsuit against Monkey Paw for breach of contract.
For the second consecutive year, production at half of the craft beer industry’s top 50 companies didn’t grow, according to new data released by trade group the Brewers Association. The organization, which published 2017 production figures for thousands of U.S. breweries in the latest issue of ‘The New Brewer,’ noted that 24 of the top 50 BA-defined regional craft brewing companies — those producing between 15,000 and six million barrels of beer annually — either declined or remained flat in 2017.
Earlier this month, nearly 14,000 beer industry professionals traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, hosted by trade group the Brewers Association. The BA used the gathering to further draw a line between the companies it represents — small and independent U.S. breweries — and those brands owned by larger, international beer conglomerates.
Jim Sabia, chief marketing officer of Constellation Brands’ beer division, has been promoted to a newly created role of executive vice president and CMO of the New York-based alcohol company. In a press release, Constellation Brands said Sabia, who joined the organization in 2007 as the vice president of the spirits division, would oversee all aspects of marketing across the company’s beer, wine, and liquor portfolios.
Earlier this month, Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease took the stage at the 2018 Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Nashville, Tennessee, and extolled the benefits of direct-to-consumer sales. Calling breweries with the ability to sell beer across the bar or to-go “ground zero for bringing new drinkers into the category,” Pease made his case for the continued expansion of the beer category via own-premise sales.
In a move that underscores just how quickly the craft beer segment has evolved, Shmaltz Brewing Company today announced plans to vacate an upstate New York brewing facility that it built just five years ago. The company — which launched in 1996 as a contract-brewed, Jewish-themed craft brand – has sold its brewery equipment assets to Queens-based Singlecut Beersmiths for an undisclosed sum.
Want to know what keeps craft brewers up at night? Here’s the short list: Taking care of employees, staying relevant, fighting for shelf space, differentiating brands in the marketplace, creating value for wholesalers and retailers, competing against taproom-focused breweries as well as corporately held brands, and the continued flood of new category entrants.
