There’s a growing sense of optimism amongst Florida brewers who believe 2015 could be the year 64 oz. growlers are finally legalized. Brewers are hopeful that a recently tabled bill will survive opposition from wholesalers who are okay with growlers, but have hangups pertaining to language in the proposed bill regarding brewery retail rights.

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) has announced its preliminary financial results for 2014, highlighting double-digit net sales growth across the company’s core family of brands including Kona, Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Omission. According to a release from the company, net sales increased 12 percent in 2014, and exceeded $200 million. Shipments grew 10 percent, a 6 percent increase over the year prior. Depletions, meanwhile, grew 7 percent despite an approximate 25 percent reduction in SKUs.

San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery has announced plans to expand distribution to Chicago this spring, sales director Ted Whitney told Brewbound. “We’ll be sitting down to plan the launch in the next few weeks and we expect this to be an epic beer landing,” he said. The company is currently in the process of finalizing its wholesaler partnerships, though it would not specify what distributors it’s teaming up with.

Home may be where the heart is, but the Utah Brewers Cooperative is beginning to feel the love elsewhere. In the 14 states where it distributes outside of its home market, the company, comprised of Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers, saw 2014 sales surge by 73 percent. That figure towers over the 11 percent growth that the company achieved in Utah. Squatters founder Peter Cole says the difference is due to the company’s already strong foothold in the state.

The Richmond City Council was left split on Monday night as members tried to determine how to add more financial oversight to a deal with Stone Brewing, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports. The council is struggling to finalize certain aspects of the deal, specifically, a proposed amendment that would give the council more control over excess revenue the Richmond Economic Development Authority takes in from the project.

The Brewers Association (BA) has appointed a new federal affairs manager to oversee and execute the organization’s craft-minded legislative, regulatory and political strategies in Washington D.C. Katie Marisic, who for the last five years has worked for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), has been hired to fill the role, the organization announced today. She will report to BA CEO Bob Pease, who currently leads the group’s government initiatives.

A Georgia lawmaker has filed a bill in the state Senate that aims to repeal a number of Prohibition-era regulations that brewers have said are overly burdensome and restrictive. As filed by State Sen. Hunter Hill (R-Smyrna), SB 63 would lift the limits currently imposed on the retail privileges of brewpubs and production breweries alike.

Of all the made up beer recipes Anheuser-Busch InBev could have conjured up to poke fun at the craft beer movement as caricature in one of its three Super Bowl ads, it just had to be a “pumpkin peach ale” that the company greenlit.

If the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) latest compliance survey is any gauge, about 22 percent of all malt-based beverages have an inaccurate alcohol content posted on their labels. As part of its annual random survey to discern how accurately manufacturers label their products, the TTB found the most common noncompliance issue among malt beverage producers involved understating the ABV of their products.

William K. Busch Brewing has announced plans to expand sales of Kräftig throughout Rolla and Springfield, Missouri this February, according to the St. Louis Dispatch. The company has inked deals with Premium Beverage Sales of Springfield and Grellner Sales and Service of Rola for coverage in each respective market, according to the article. “This expansion will result in our beers being sold in every major market other than Kansas City and Hannibal,” founder Billy Busch told the website. “It’s another step toward growing Kräftig into a national brand.”

Despite selling all of its beer within Michigan’s borders, Short’s Brewing grew production 51 percent in 2014, with three of its core products generating much of the surge through the company’s distribution channels. The brewery out of Bellaire closed out the year selling 34,443 barrels, it announced this week, up from 22,866 the year prior. According to one report from MLive.com, the growth was good enough to solidify the company’s spot as the state’s third largest brewery, past New Holland and behind Bell’s and Founders.

South Florida’s Cavalier Distributing has acquired the distribution rights to Bell’s Brewery from Reyes-owned Gold Coast Beverage Distributors, the brewery announced today. The Michigan brewery said it expects some “short term disruptions” in shipping, but the transition is complete, Cavalier take over delivery responsibilities in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties.

Since transferring 48 percent of its shares into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in July of last year, Harpoon Brewery has been minority owned by its employees. Now, according to co-founder and president Dan Kenary, the plan is for the brewing company to become fully employee-owned. During a recent speech in Vermont, where the Boston-based brewery operates a second facility, Kenary outlined the plan

For many small breweries, taprooms provide an imperative part of the business equation, inventing additional revenue streams while creating invaluable marketing opportunities. In fact, there has been an industry-wide recognition of that prospect, according to Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, who argues that the manufacturer/taproom has even superseded the brewpub as a preferred business model.