Denver Beer Co. NFT Auction at Nearly $1,900
Denver Beer Co. is joining the NFT scene.
The brewery announced the creation of the “Beer For Life” NFT, or non-fungible token, a digital gold coin that will allow its owner to have up to four free beers a day for life at any Denver Beer taproom.
The coin went up for auction on June 23, and will be open for bidding until 5 p.m. MST on July 7. The current high bid is $1,869.99, according to the auction site.
“We are in love with the concept of NFTs,” Charlie Berger, Denver Beer’s co-founder, said in a release. “We think they are going to revolutionize digital media and have so many other applications that are just beginning to be realized.”
NFTs are digital assets — art, music, videos, etc. — that are often bought with cryptocurrency and are usually encoded so they cannot be shared or exchanged with anyone but the owner. While originally created in 2014, the concept has become popular over the past few years, with NFT transactions reaching $250 million in 2020, according to NonFungible.com.
Denver Beer isn’t the first brewery to create an NFT but appears to be the first to offer a lifetime supply of beer. Whistle Buoy Brewing in Canada created an NFT beer and digital art piece last month.
The “Beer for Life” NFT will not expire, and can be sold by the winner if they choose. According to Denver Beer, the digital coin is equivalent to $664,000 or 95,000 beers if a 35-year-old were to use it to its full extent until they were 100. Factoring in inflation, it would be worth $4.5 million by 2086, according to the release.
Blue Tusk Craft Beer Bar to Close
The Blue Tusk, one of Central New York’s first craft beer bars, will close this summer after 26 years in downtown Syracuse, according to Syracuse.com.
Although a specific closing date has not been determined, owner Tim Yorton told Syracuse.com he will likely close at the end of September, citing issues with maintaining the bar’s lease. He said the bar had been operating on a month-to-month lease for more than three years, following the sale of the ground level of its building to Long Island developer Ed Gottlieb. Earlier this month, The Scripa Group, which manages the property for Gottlieb, allegedly told Yorton that a new tenant had agreed to a 25-year lease, and that the Blue Tusk would have to vacate the premises, according to the bar owner.
“This is just really tough,” Yorton told Syracuse. “We’re not ready to go.”
The Tusk was an early adopter of craft beer, and began serving local brands such as Syracuse’s Middle Ages Brewing and Cooperstown’s Brewery Ommegang when the breweries were just beginning. In 2008, All About Beer magazine ranked the Blue Tusk No. 48 in the “top 125 places in the world to have a beer before you die.”
Joe Scripa, owner of The Scripa Group, told Syracuse he hopes they can “replace the Tusk with a tenant that will be as community-minded as Tim and the Tusk.”
CGA: Gap in RTDs and Seltzer Consumption at Stadiums/Arenas vs. On-Premise
The market share of hard seltzers and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages (RTDs) may be growing, but there is still room for the “beyond beer” category to grow and reach its full potential with consumers in stadiums and arenas, according to market research firm CGA.
CGA’s latest channel strategy report found that only 15% of consumers at stadiums and arenas ordered RTDs, and 13% ordered hard seltzers. In other on-premise establishments, 23% of consumers said they drink RTDs, while 24% said they drink hard seltzers.
CGA suggests that RTDs and hard seltzers have the potential to increase stadium consumption, due in part to the category’s success in sports bars and restaurants. Nearly half — 48% — of stadium visitors also visited sports bars pre-COVID, according to CGA, showing a demographic overlap between the two areas. As such, CGA suggests “suppliers should consider an approach that transcends both channels.”
Additionally, the report emphasized the need to capture younger consumers. Nearly one-fifth –19% — of consumers younger than 55 who frequent sports bars drink hard seltzers, and 18% drink RTDs. Meanwhile, 17% of consumers younger than 55 drink hard seltzers in stadiums, and 19% drink RTDs.
The hard seltzer and RTD segments significantly over-index with consumers younger than 55. Only 5% of consumers older than 55 in sports bars drink hard seltzers, and 3% drink RTDs. In stadiums, only 4% of those older than 55 drink either category.
Cayman Islands-Based Partnerships Hold 23% of BrewDog’s Shares
Almost a quarter of BrewDog’s shares are owned by a pair of exempted limited partnerships based in the Cayman Islands, the Scotsman reported.
Those partnerships — TSG7 A AIV II (Cayman) LP and TSG7 A Lassies and Laddies (Cayman) LP — own 891,383 ordinary A shares and 16.1 million preferred C shares of BrewDog, which is equivalent to 23.25% of the Scottish beer maker.
TSG Consumer Partners, the private equity firm that BrewDog sold 22% to in 2017, controls the Cayman Islands-based partnerships. The shares the partnerships hold have liquidation preference and will be paid back first, were BrewDog to be liquidated, according to the Scotsman.
The Cayman Islands are notorious for allowing business and individuals to shelter funds to avoid paying taxes.
“It is a jurisdiction overwhelmingly dedicated to facilitating anonymous ownership, profit shifting and the avoidance of tax on capital gains that would otherwise arise in the places where the real business happens,” Alex Cobham, CEO of Tax Justice Network, told the Scotsman.
BrewDog has come under fire recently as the beer industry has begun to reckon with how employees — particularly women — are treated, after an outpouring of stories of sexual harassment and hostile workplaces began to be shared last month on the Instagram accounts of Brienne Allan (@ratmagnet) and @EmboldenActAdvance.
Several hundred former and current BrewDog employees signed an open letter earlier this month accusing the company of fostering a toxic work environment. The employee group, named Punks With Purpose, laid the blame for the company’s “rotten culture” on the shoulders of co-founder James Watt.
Portland’s Great Notion to Open Shipping, Delivery Hub in Sacramento
Portland, Oregon-headquartered Great Notion Brewing is set to open a shipping and delivery hub in Sacramento, California, by the end of this summer, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
The new facility — a 5,196 sq. ft. space located in the Natomas community — will allow Great Notion to ship its beer directly to California consumers for the first time.
“We are only opening a brewery in Sacramento because state law requires us to brew in California in order to ship direct to customers in California,” Great Notion co-founder Paul Reiter wrote in an email to the Business Journal. “We plan to brew only a very small amount of beer in Sacramento, barrel-aging only, and instead maintain the majority of our beer production in Portland, Oregon.
“We definitely do plan on opening a taproom in Sacramento though at some point in the near future,” he continued.
Currently, Great Notion operates five taprooms in the Pacific Northwest, including three in Portland. More than 90% of the company’s e-commerce sales come through Great Notion’s mobile app, which includes a lumberjack-themed video game and expanded shipping and delivery options, Reiter told the Portland Business Journal.
The brewery has partnered with DoorDash Inc. for same-day deliveries to people within a 10-mile radius of its current taprooms. Reiter said he would continue that partnership in California if a new Great Notion on-premise location were to open in the state.
The Lost Abbey to Break Ground on East Village ‘Church’ Location
The Lost Abbey will break ground next week on its “Church” location in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood. The project has been three years in the making and is expected to finally open this fall, founder Tomme Arthur told Brewbound.
The location is registered as a historical landmark in the city and was the Mexican Presbyterian Church of 1906. Arthur said he expects a quick turn on the construction, as the building is already standing.
The Lost Abbey operates three other locations in California: a tasting room in San Marcos, its “Confessional” in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and its “Sanctuary” in San Marcos.
$119,000 Raised to Help Chicago’s Skeleton Key After Tornado
A tornado with winds up to 135 miles per hour tore through the Chicago area late Sunday, injuring at least eight people and damaging more than 225 structures, according to the Chicago Tribune. Included in the damage was Skeleton Key Brewing in Woodridge.
“I heard over the police scanner when they said it was ‘extreme structural damage at 8102 Lemont Road, Skeleton Key Brewery,” Emily Slayton, Skeleton Key’s co-owner, told NBC Chicago. “I lost it.”
Slayton owns the company with her husband Paul Slayton and brother John Szopa. They reopened Skeleton Key in February after renovating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the 8,500 sq. ft. space has a torn roof and immense damage that adjusters have yet to give an estimate on, according to Eater Chicago.
“We keep hearing people are like: ‘Were they not insured?’ Yeah, of course we’re insured,” Slayton told Eater. “It’s just the hardest thing for us is we, as a family business, put so much of ourselves in this. … It’s absolutely crushing to see those things destroyed. No amount of insurance is going to get that back, and that’s the real emotional damage.”
To help with what can be repaired, Charolette Converse, the social media and special events director of Mikerphone Brewing in Elk Grove Village, set up a GoFundMe for Skeleton Key. After three days, more than 1,300 donors contributed more than $120,000, including large donations from fellow breweries such as Goose Island Beer, Exit Strategy Brewing, Scorched Earth Brewing, and more. The Chicago Beer Society also contributed to the fund.
Locals are also donating their time and labor to help the brewery rebuild. People from more than 20 other breweries went to Skeleton Key on Tuesday to help salvage and transport stock, according to the Daily Herald. Mikerphone hosted an event Thursday serving Skeleton Key beer, with all proceeds going back to the damaged brewery. Other breweries have also agreed to sell Skeleton Key beer, according to Danielle D’Alessandro, the executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, in a statement to the Herald.
Nathan Whipple No Longer Lord Hobo President
A little more than a year after becoming president, Nathan Whipple is out of the role as part of the leadership shakeup at the Woburn, Massachusetts-based craft brewery, Brewbound has confirmed. Craft Brew News first reported the news Thursday.
As Brewbound previously reported, Whipple will continue to serve as a member of the brewery’s eight-member board of directors, along with founder Daniel Lanigan, beer industry vet Simon Thorpe, four representatives from private investment firm Valterra Partners, and a yet-to-be-named member.
Beer industry veteran Brian Walsh took over as CEO of Lord Hobo last week for Lanigan.
U.S. Hop Acreage Reaches Record-High Yet Again, Breaking 60,000 Acres
Hop acreage is up 4% from 2020, with 60,735 acres strung for harvest in the U.S., according to the June, 2021 report by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Hop harvested acreage increased 2,094 acres from 2020, reaching a record high for the country. Most of the growth comes from 2020 plantings in Oregon, as well as plans delayed from COVID-19 impacts now being executed, according to the report.
Last year, acreage declined by 533 acres from June 2020 to the year-end, NASS reported, due to wildfires and windstorms that damaged harvests in primary growing states Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
Within the current hop landscape, varieties are fluctuating depending on demand, with aroma and dual-purpose varieties on the rise, and alpha hops declining. The top five varieties strung for harvest in the country, which make up 53% of the total acreage, are Citra Brand HBC 394, Mosaic Brand HBC 369, CTZ, Cascade, and Simcoe Brand YCR 14.
At the International Hop Growers Convention on June 21, hop acreage was reported up 1,386 acres globally, according to NASS.
HopFly Brewing Acquires Unknown Brewing Co Assets and Property
HopFly Brewing of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, has acquired Charlotte’s Unknown Brewing Co, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
The announcement comes less than a week after Unknown owner Brad Shell announced he would be transitioning the brand away from craft beer, focusing instead on the Unknown Ginger Ale Company.
“The Unknown Brewing Company is really five businesses — brewery, taproom, distillery, ginger ale company, and a food truck,” Shell wrote on Instagram. He cited the effects of the pandemic on his family and business as changing his view of the company. “The above reasons have made it an apparent decision to pare down my life and find balance over anxiety.
“We want to put all our efforts into this single brand to be [a] national business that our community can be proud of. Mentally, I am very excited to be able to focus on a singular business,” he continued.
Through the deal (the terms of which were not disclosed), HopFly will acquire Unknown’s assets and intellectual property, but does not plan to continue the brand, according to HopFly founder Cam Schulz. The company will also assume the lease for Unknown’s 22,500 sq. ft. facility and 30-barrel brewhouse in the South End.
HopFly will start renovations on the space by early September, according to Schulz. The company currently has a 8,000 sq. ft. space in Rocky Mount, which includes a taproom, 10-barrel brewhouse, and cold storage.