Jack’s Abby, one of Massachusetts’ fastest growing craft breweries, is set to embark on a major expansion that will more than triple its brewing capacity. The Framingham-based company today announced its development plans, which will boost annual production capabilities and enable the brewery to expand distribution throughout New England.
Following a seven-month rebranding effort, Twisted Pine Brewing will enter 2015 with new year-round offerings, a shift in style for its flagship beer, and completely redesigned packaging, the company has announced. In moving forward with a new look and updated lineup, the company, out of Boulder, Colo., has also retired four established products.
Sun King Brewing has severed relationships with three wholesalers outside of Central Indiana, cutting back to Indianapolis and Bloomington from a footprint that had spread across the state. The decision to pull out from those territories stems from a state law that caps production for small brewers at 30,000 barrels per year, a figure Sun King projects to brush against this year.
This Sunday Avery Brewing Company is having a party in honor of No. 24 and No. 25 in their Barrel-Aged Series, Spontanea and Einzigartig. This is Avery’s second time to release grape-beer hybrids, a rare category that incorporates both malted barley and grape must. Adam Avery, founder and CEO of Avery Brewing, says, “They came from our love of stretching the boundaries of what beer can be.”
Oskar Blues is adding PINNER Throwback IPA to the brewery’s year-round lineup of beers in 12-ounce CANs and on draft. PINNER will be released first in Oskar Blues’ home states of ColoRADo and North Carolina in mid-December. Coming in at 4.9 percent ABV and 35 IBUs, this primo dry-hopped brew will be easy to throw back. To put it bluntly, PINNER will be the lowest year-round ABV beer to blaze out of Oskar Blues’ brewhouses.
Delta Airlines has added seven craft beer offerings to its in-flight drink menu. Effective now, Delta customers can enjoy offerings from Ballast Point, Blue Point, Brooklyn Brewery, Lagunitas, Newburyport Brewing, Stone, SweetWater, as well as Boston Beer.
Beer wholesalers in Idaho are asking the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau to clarify a law enabling small brewers to operate as both producers and retailers with multiple locations. As written, Idaho law permits breweries that produce fewer than 30,000 barrels per year to manage retail fronts and brewpubs.
Ninkasi Brewing has expanded distribution throughout Colorado, tapping C.R. Goodman Companies for statewide coverage. The brewery, headquartered in Eugene, Ore., will launch in the market today with offerings including Total Domination IPA, Believer Double Red, and Oatis Oatmeal Stout.
Founders Brewing has received an additional boost from the state of Michigan to help expand its production facility, this time in the form of a $250,000 performance-based grant. According to MiBiz.com, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved the grant last week to assist the brewery in its effort to build out a $40.4 million expansion.
Maui | Stone Craft Beverages, the Hawaiian distribution arm jointly owned by Stone Brewing and Maui Brewing, has built out its portfolio and is now selling 21 craft brands throughout the island of Maui, the company announced today. The company, which launched in February, sells a curated lineup of beers and ciders from California, Hawaii, Colorado and Oregon, refrigerated “through every link of the distribution chain.”
Acclaimed San Diego brewer Tomme Arthur is launching yet another brand of unique craft beers. Already lauded for his popular Port Brewing and Lost Abbey offerings, Arthur and his team plan to launch a third distinct line products in 2015 under the ‘Hop Concept Brewing’ moniker.
What sets J.J. Taylor Distributing apart from other wholesalers is what president and general manager Jay Martin calls “the three P’s.” “It’s our people, it’s our portfolio, and it’s our planning process,” he says, while conceding “I guess you could say some of that sounds cliché-ish.” Perhaps, but it’s helping the Florida distributor move beer in a growing, albeit underdeveloped market.
Perhaps the most startling fact from the Wall Street Journal’s recent report on the state of Budweiser is that, by Anheuser-Busch InBev’s own admission, nearly half — 44 percent — of 21- to 27-year-old drinkers have never even tried the beer. To bring young drinkers back to the brand, A-B InBev, the article adds, plans to trot out some “distinctly un-Budlike” marketing in the next year to appeal to the highly sought after millennial demographic.
The state of Virginia and Loudoun County are together awarding $80,000 in grants to aid an effort to build the Mid-Atlantic region’s first ever commercial-scale hops processing facility. Black Hops Farm LLC will itself invest $1 million to convert a 15-acre pasture in Leesburg into the state’s largest hops yard to operate in conjunction with the processing plant.
