Category: Beverage Industry News
- Business of Beer 773
- Commentary 159
- Crisis Response 190
News American Craft Beer Sales on the Decline in Europe
Sales of American craft beer in Europe is declining, likely a product of a ‘drink local’ trend and consumers migrating into non-beer beverages. Overall craft beer volume exported to Europe declined by about 20% from 78,994 barrels in 2021 to 63,755 in 2022.
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News Boston Beer Sues Ex-Employee for Allegedly Taking Proprietary Information to Competitor
Boston Beer Co. has filed a lawsuit against a former employee, charging that the employee took proprietary information before going to work for Downeast Cider despite signing a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement.
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News Chicago Brewseum Rebrands as ‘Beer Culture Center’ with Hopes to Expand
The Chicago Brewseum has officially rebranded itself to the Beer Culture Center. While the non-profit organization currently hosts in-person events at various locations along with virtual programs, their goal is to have a physical home where visitors can take in engaging, interactive exhibits profiling stories of beer history and culture around the world.
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News Four UK Pubs Announced as Finalists in the CAMERA National Pub of the Year Competition
Headed to the UK anytime soon? If so, here are four pubs to check out. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has announced the four finalists in its National Pub of the Year competition, with each certain to pour a perfect pint for visitors.
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News Beer Segment Continues to Sag in 2023 – Domestic Beer Shipments Down 5.1% in August
The Beer Institute (BI) published its estimate of domestic tax paid shipments by beer brewers for August 2023. It was another poor performance in a year that has consistently been down compared to 2022. Only one month this year has shown growth.
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News The Tax Man is Watching – TTB Accepts ‘Offers in Compromise’ for Alleged Tax Violations
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has accepted an “offer in compromise” from five alcohol beverage industry companies in the last few months for alleged tax violations. The amount of the compromise in these five cases ranged from $57,000 to $1.17 million.
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News Ackley Brands Winery Buys Mac & Jack’s
There are a lot of craft brewery owners who are ready to exit the industry and are quietly looking for a buyer. But who is buying craft breweries in this new era of slow growth? The wine industry may be one avenue to look at. Ackley Brands, a family-based, Pacific Northwest company that owns several Northwest wineries announced that it has acquired Mac & Jack’s Brewing of Redmond, Washington.
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News Industry Celebrates National Black Brewers Day – Interview with Alana Koenig-Busy of NB2A
Less than 1% of craft breweries in the U.S. are owned by African Americans. The National Black Brewers Association (NB2A) was recently formed as a membership-based non-profit organization to help African American brewers and brewery owners with their specific needs and issues. Today we celebrate the first National Black Brewers Day, the day in 1970 that Peoples Brewing Company became the first Black-owned brewery in U.S. history. NB2A Program Manager Alana Koenig-Busey discusses with ProBrewer co-founder Mark Silva the details of this monumental day and more about the mission of NB2A.
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News Slowing Interest in Draft Beer May Impact Brewery Tap Rooms
Draft sales across the on-premise trade have still not recovered since the pandemic and are struggling to reach 2019 levels. This is likely a trend that won’t change anytime soon, as retailers balk at higher keg prices, non-beer products take more tap handles and consumer habits continue to shift in new directions. While this decline in draft beer sales has been noticed in the retail sector, concern is growing that the trend may begin to impact the brewery tap room business.
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News Beer Growth Drives Strong Q2 for Constellation Brands
Growth in craft beer may be flattening, but imports are booming, at least for Constellation Brands, which reported a 9% increase in Modelo Especial and an 8% increase in beer sales overall in the company’s second quarter earnings report.
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News Brewers Association 2023 Board of Directors Election Now Open
The 2023 Brewers Association (BA) Board of Directors election will run Oct. 4 through Oct. 31. Voting members of the association will have the option to vote online or by mail-in ballot. Five board positions are open: three for the packaging brewer class, one for the pub brewer class, and one for the taproom brewer class.
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News Smithsonian Obtains Important Items and Documents from Anchor Brewing
As yet, no buyer has step up to purchase the now-closed Anchor Brewing Co, leaving the intellectual property rights to Anchor Steam and other Anchor brands still unknown. But the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has recently acquired objects and archival materials from Anchor for its collections. The museum collected the company’s business records and a selection of items including brewing charts and photographs.
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News Beer Institute Updates Advertising and Marketing Code
The Beer Institute has announced updates to its Advertising and Marketing Code. The updates include new language regarding alcohol variants of non-alcohol products, updated language regarding social media influencers and social media content, updated language regarding outdoor signage among other changes.
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News It’s Final – Molson Coors Owes Stone Brewing $56M in Trademark Dispute
In a legal dispute that dates back to 2018, a judge has denied a request for a retrial, making it final that Molson Coors must pay Stone Brewing $56 million for violating Stone’s trademark when using the word “stone” in its ad campaign for Keystone Light. The court also rejected Molson Coors’ bid to cut or overturn the damages payment.
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News ICP Rules that Welsh Brewer Beer Labels Appeal to Children
Complaints about beer labels from Welsh brewer Tiny Rebel were upheld by the alcohol industry’s Independent Complaints Panel (ICP). Three of the brewery’s beers, Monstar, TinyFast and Primed were ruled to appeal to under-age drinkers or encouraging irresponsible consumption and suggesting the products had therapeutic qualities.
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News Cape May Brewing Ends Self-Distribution – Moves to MillerCoors Network
Cape May Brewing Company has announced that it will divest its distribution rights and cease self-distribution of its products through Cape Beverage Distributing. The move may be a rising trend among craft brewers who decide to focus their attention on the brewing side of the business and at the same time extract working capital by selling the distribution rights to beer wholesalers.
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News And The Winner Is – GABF Awards Handed Out in Denver
The Brewers Associations’ Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony was held today with 303 medals awarded to 263 breweries from a total of 9,298 entries. This year there were 99 beer categories across 175 beer styles (including all subcategories).
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News MJF Announces Seven New Scholarship Recipients
The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling (MJF) recently announced that seven individuals are the recipients of its scholarship awards, bringing its total scholarship beneficiaries to 36 since its establishment in 2020.
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News Brewery Closures Offer Opportunities for Brewery Expansions
Hardship is not universal in these challenging times. Many breweries are doing well, and in fact thriving, despite the slow-to-no growth in the craft beer sector. For those breweries that are doing well and looking to add capacity or additional on-premise space, buying a brewery that has closed can be exceptionally beneficial and far less costly than building out a space from scratch.
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News The Future of Hard Seltzer
Posted by Tom McCormick
Don’t count out hard seltzers, at least according to one industry consulting firm. Although hard seltzers have generally gone through a rather quick boom/bust cycle, the category is forecast to grow globally at a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% up until 2028.
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