California

New Belgium shuttered its San Francisco taproom today, after nearly three years in business, the company announced.

Los Angeles-based Open Brewing has begun rolling its lager out in Southern California thanks in part to a business partnership with New Belgium Brewing. In addition to a minority investment, New Belgium contract brews Open’s beer, consults the brewery’s team and offers other “shared resources,” a New Belgium spokesperson told Brewbound.

After 35 years in business in downtown San Diego, Karl Strauss Brewing finally owns the keys to its original brewpub. The company closed on its brewery at Columbia and B streets on October 1, it announced yesterday.

Firestone Walker leadership shared their vision for 2024 with their wholesaler partners while also providing a business update of 2023 so far. The lion’s share of the meeting with its distributor partners was centered around the Paso Robles, California-headquartered craft brewery’s top brand, 805.

Seven California beer and beverage distributors have formed an alliance to provide a nearly statewide network to suppliers under the California Beverage Solution banner. The founding seven distributors include six independent Anheuser-Busch distributors, along with one of the largest craft-focused distributors in the country.

The 2023 edition of Russian River’s Pliny the Younger generated a record $6.3 million in economic impact, a more than $200,000 increase over last year’s record-breaking release, according to the Sonoma County Economic Development Board (EDB).

The rights to 15 brands will change hands from Richmond, California-based Bay Area Distributing to Antioch-based Markstein Sales Company.

Dokkaebier, the Northern California brand inspired by Asian culinary ingredients, has its first brick-and-mortar location after acquiring Oakland-based Federation Brewing last week. “Definitely, it gives us a lot of opportunity to see a lot of customers in person,” Dokkaebier founder and CEO Youngwon Lee told Brewbound. “I think it is very critical to have customers… Read more »

Mikkeller’s outpost in San Diego’s Little Italy – the Danish brewer’s last U.S. location – will close this weekend, the brewery announced on Instagram.

The California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) has sponsored two bills this legislative session: one that would allow members to produce cider and perry with existing licenses, and another that would restore transparency in beer production data reporting.

The Brewbound team reports live from the California Craft Beer Summit in Sacramento. The team discusses early takeaways from the first major meeting of California’s craft brewers since 2019, including thoughts on David Walker of Firestone Walker’s optimism for craft beer, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson’s early production data and much more.

Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson continues to tease early data from the BA’s annual production survey, and the numbers aren’t getting any better.

“We are beer culture now,” Firestone Walker co-founder David Walker opined Tuesday morning during the keynote speech at the California Craft Brewers Association’s Summit in Sacramento.