Florida’s Cigar City Brewing, which sold to the Fireman Capital-backed Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective in 2016, is quickly emerging as the consortium’s most promising brand. Growing at more than 60 percent year-to-date, the Tampa-based craft brewery has already shipped more than 107,000 barrels of beer through the first nine months of 2018 and is on pace to produce an estimated 143,000 barrels.
Another round of leadership changes is on tap at Anheuser-Busch. Months after splitting its so-called “High End” craft and import division into two separate business units, and after it reorganized its North American sales and marketing teams, Anheuser-Busch today announced that Felipe Szpigel would leave his post as president of the craft business unit for a newly created position within the company.
In this week’s Last Call: Scofflaw’s UK foray is marred by a ‘rogue’ press release, Rivertowne Brewing is on the auction block, and the New Jersey ABC imposes new rules on breweries.
Last week’s Great American Beer Festival was the largest in history, as a record 62,000 attendees turned out to sample over 4,000 beers from more than 800 breweries that were set up across 584,000 sq. ft. space inside the Denver Convention Center. Here are three takeaways from the 2018 GABF.
Newly appointed Heineken USA CEO Maggie Timoney, who earlier this month became the first female executive to lead a top five U.S. beer company, wants her performance, not her gender, to do the talking. “I’ll be judged on my results, not on whether I’m male or female,” she said, to applause from a crowd of mostly male beer distributors who attended the trade group’s annual meeting in San Diego.
During a meeting with his company’s distribution partners, Dogfish Head founder and CEO Sam Calagione compared the brewery to a shark: In order to survive, it must keep swimming forward. Speaking to a room full beer wholesalers and brewery employees on Tuesday morning, Dogfish Head executives unveiled their 2019 plans along with an ask. Dogfish wants its distribution partners to prioritize sales of 60-Minute IPA and SeaQuench Ale.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Stone Brewing hires a new COO, Atlanta’s Wild Heaven Beer unveils a $5 pale ale at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Anheuser-Busch heir Adolphus A. Busch V launches a cannabis company and more.
Yet another major U.S. alcohol company is getting into the cannabis sector. Breakthru Beverage, a multi-state wholesaler that was formed via the 2015 merger of Chicago-based Wirtz Beverage Group and New York’s Charmer Sunbelt Group, has agreed to invest $9.2 million in CannTrust, a Canadian marijuana maker.
Pabst Brewing Company today announced a number of executive changes, including the departure of chief executive officer Simon Thorpe, whose time with the company lasted 21 months. In a press release, the company said Thorpe, along with chief operating officer Brian Bousely, had stepped down from their roles.
In this week’s Last Call: Red Brick reverts back to Atlanta Brewing Company; Coronado closes the Monkey Paw brewpub; Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective announces cross-platform mixed pack (and its GABF presence); Harpoon says it will brew, distribute a former Red Sox Player’s beer offerings.
Year-to-Date volume sales of beer are basically flat, according to market research firm IRI Worldwide, which tracks scan data at major off-premise retailers throughout the U.S. In its latest monthly report, the firm also said off-premise retail volume sales of craft beer had grown 1.4 percent year-to-date through the period ending August 12.
The Brewers Association (BA) has rolled out a new national advertising campaign aimed at bringing another round of consumer attention to its independent craft brewer seal that was unveiled last year. Launched today, the effort, called “That’s Independence You’re Tasting,” includes a pair of 30-second commercials that will be “presented across a variety of media platforms,” according to a press release.
More often than not, Evil Twin Brewing founder Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø finds himself in the news for a supposed “feud” with his identical twin brother, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the founder of Mikkeller Beer. But the storyline is getting old to Jeppe, who has, at times, turned to social media to express his discontent with how media outlets compare the Evil Twin and Mikkeller businesses. Still, Jeppe, who met with Brewbound in June to discuss the forthcoming opening of his first brick and mortar production facility in Queens, New York, says the fractured relationship with his brother is not an act.
Scottish craft brewery BrewDog is continuing to expand its reach beyond the beer category, today announcing the launch of a namesake streaming video service that features more than 100 hours of drinks-related content.
