The story of Georgetown Brewing in Seattle is a unique one. A craft brewery dedicated first to draft beer — something that should make its bar and restaurant clients incredibly happy. One that has committed to offer one of its top beers — Manny’s Pale Ale — exclusively on draft. (With one exception during the pandemic to can it with some proceeds going to bars and restaurants.)
Brewbound managing editor Jess Infante profiled Georgetown, which crossed the 100,000-barrel threshold in 2021 and is on pace for more than 120,000 barrels of beer produced this year. As dedicated as the brewery is to draft and its on-premise customers, it’s also in love with Point Break, the Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze 1990s classic. Check out Jess’ story.
Also this week …
Brooklyn Brewery revealed that it will move its headquarters to a new Greenpoint-Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone real estate development, with plans to open in the space in summer 2024.
Stone Brewing CEO Maria Stipp popped on the Brewbound Podcast to share how the integration with Sapporo is going four months after the sale closed of the Escondido, California-headquartered craft brewery to the Japanese beer giant. Stipp also dishes on Stone’s 2023 plans.
Meanwhile, Stone Distribution — which was carved out of the sale to Sapporo — has picked up the Coronado Brewing portfolio after several years apart. Coronado co-founder and president Rick Chapman shared why Stone Distro is the right fit again for his brands.
It’s conference season. Zoe Licata traveled to New York City to attend the Beer Insights Seminar. Lots of positivity around beer, which is a nice change of pace from the industry’s default doom and gloom. NBWA chief economist Lester Jones, Beer Institute VP of research Danelle Kosmal, and Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson shared their perspectives on where the beer category is headed in 2023.
Zoe filed a second report emptying out her notebook. Among the highlights: Boston Beer founder Jim Koch shared that his company may look to its traditional wholesaler network to distribute Hard MTN Dew in states that refuse to permit Blue Cloud Distribution, the network PepsiCo set up to distribute alcoholic beverages.
Brewbound Live is less than two weeks away. We’re sharing details of what’s to come, including one of last year’s most popular talks: Beer Buyers Tell All. Whole Foods’ Mary Guiver returns, and this year she’s joined by Buffalo Wild Wings’ Jamie Carawan.
We’ll also dive into the fourth category — everything from hard seltzers to canned cocktails to hard tea and more — with Molson Coors’ Jamie Wideman, Rhinegeist’s Adam Bankovich and Bump Williams Consulting’s Dave Williams. Wideman has helped create some of the most buzzed about new products at Molson Coors (Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, Simply Spiked), while Bankovich will help guide Rhinegeist’s RGBeves portfolio of fruited malt beverages. And Williams will provide context to what’s going on in the market.
And we’ll get a peek into the minds of Generation Z consumers with the help of Mario X. Carrasco, co-founder and principal of technology-driven cultural insights agency ThinkNow.
Get your tickets while you can.
One fourth category offering with an uncertain future is hard coffee. Spirits reporter Ferron Salniker explores where the subsegment goes next after Pabst discounted its PBR-branded hard coffee brand.
Speaking of coffee, but of the non-alcoholic variety, Molson Coors is getting out of its 10-year distribution deal with coffee maker La Colombe. Molson Coors is also breaking up its CBD joint venture, Truss, with Hexo. Sometimes things just don’t work out.
The fight over equal tax rates and market access between the beer and spirits industries is now getting analytical. A study found that the price of canned cocktails in Michigan and Nebraska increased after those states reduced RTD taxes in 2021. However, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) questioned the validity of the study, calling the research “seriously flawed,” “lack[ing] credibility” and “misleading.”
The Brewers Association laid out its 2023 legislative priorities last week. Among them, pushing back on spirits-based equalization efforts, but also franchise law reform and direct-to-consumer shipping rights. They’ll also be keeping an eye on the Department of Treasury’s report on competition and call for comments on proposed rulemaking.
One company looking to pump out a whole lot more RTDs is Pernod Ricard, which is investing $22 million to add canning capabilities to the company’s plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Beverly, Massachusetts-based Channel Marker Brewing is rebranding to become Coastal Mass Brewing.
Finally, this is the latest year-round offering from … Yuengling.
And that’s a wrap for this week. Thanks again to all of our Insider subscribers for supporting the work we do at Brewbound. If you’d like to join, hit the link.
Until next week.