Category: Commentary
Opinion and commentary relating to the alcohol beverage industry
News Busy Week at Constellation: Going to Pot, Layoffs and a Brewpub
An interesting week at Constellation as various industry sources reported the company has laid off 60 employees in their craft division while at the same time investing $4 billion (billion with a “B”) in the cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation.
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News CANarchy Adds Another
After a relatively quiet half of the year in craft brewery ownership changes, a second shoe has dropped in the span of one week. Three Weavers Brewing of Inglewood, CA announced today that they have entered into a strategic partnership with CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, the self-described “disruptive collective of like-minded brewers.” In an unrelated deal, Constellation announced the acquisition of Four Corners Brewing just last week.
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News Coronado Brewing to Sell Recent Acquisition
The news surrounding the sales and transactions of craft breweries seems to keep getting stranger with each passing month. Coronado Brewing Company, which recently acquired a small nearby fellow San Diego brewery has announced that they are now selling it.
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News Green Flash Brewing Forecloses and Sells
In a flash of events, Green Flash Brewing was foreclosed on by their largest lender Comerica which in turn has sold the assets of the company to an investor group under the name WC IPA LLC. The Virginia Beach brewery was not picked up by WC IPA and will be sold separately.
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News Calif. Breweries Dodge Fires So Far
It’s not just the California wine industry being hit by massive and devastating fires in Sonoma and Nap counties. The region is also home to a rich and thriving brewing community as well. In fact, New Albion Brewing Company, the first microbrewery to be built from the ground up opened just outside of the town of Sonoma making the area the birthplace of the craft brewing movement. As the fire has ravaged the wine industry by scorching vineyards, holding up the harvest of late-season grapes and damaging or destroying numerous wineries, the beer industry has so far been spared any direct hits. The closest call was at Moonlight Brewing where founder Brian Hunt described the fire as burning within one block of the brewery with “total devastation” beyond that.
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News ABInBev Dips Toe Further into Craft Beer Media
ZX Ventures, a division of AB InBev, has purchased an ownership interest in RateBeer, the consumer beer forum where beer drinkers exchange information and opinions of beer. The acquisition was made in October of last year but just announced on Friday.
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News BA Defined Craft Up 6% in 2016
The Brewers Association announced that craft breweries* produced 24.6 million barrels of beer in 2016, 6% more than in 2015. It was the smallest increase since 2008. Retail dollar sales grew 10% to $23.5 billion. Microbreweries and brewpubs delivered 90% of the growth.
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News Scan Data Shows Craft Up 6.3% in 2016
The Brewers Association’s monthly Power Hour showcased the 2016 year-in-review with Dan Wandel of IRI – and it wasn’t pretty. The title of the hour-long presentation was “Turn the Page,” a reference to the struggling sales in the last year. Dan said the craft beer industry slowed down both “suddenly and substantially” and described the year as “sobering.” He said that most brewers he talked to had a “highly challenging” year.
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News GABF; 35 and Alive and Bigger in All Ways
The 2016 Great American Beer Festival was, yet again, bigger, and I suppose better, than ever before. The massive festival has become overwhelming on almost all fronts. But the near perfect execution by the Brewers Association, host of the GABF, has created a festival that is just plain epic in scale and in performance. Yes, the pretzel necklaces were abundant, the karaoke stage was busy and there were plenty of wiggling bodies at the silent disco stage, but the 379,000 square feet of all-things beer attended by 60,000 attendees is yet one more example of why the GABf has become the largest commercial beer competition in the world.
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News Bubble? What Bubble?
The consistent and prolonged success of the craft brewing industry seems to have confounded many people, including those in the mainstream media. There has been a steady trend of articles suggesting that there are simply too many breweries in the U.S. and that the craft beer bubble could pop at any time.
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News Massive CBC Concludes in Philly
For those of you who were in Philadelphia last week for the annual Brewers Association Craft Brewers Conference, it was a sight to behold. Over 13,000 industry members descended on the city, taking over the nightlife, city-life and massive convention center for the week. This was a big jump in attendance even over just one year ago, and the vibe and “feel” of the conference has changed dramatically in a short few years. It is all part of the new normal, and it’s no surprise that the annual conference for the craft brewing industry would grow and transform to reflect the rapid change in the industry it represents. This reporter has attended over 30 CBC’s going back to 1984, it has been a fascinating ride to watch this industry conference grow. But never over the course of that time has the conference grown so dramatically in such a short period of time. It will be very interesting to see what the future holds.
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News Kansas’ Largest Brewery to Cease Operations
Posted by Tom McCormick
Kansas certainly isn’t known as a top-tier state for craft beer, but when the largest craft brewery in the state closes, it is notable. According to numerous news sites, Tallgrass Brewing is ceasing all production this week as it failed to secure financing to keep the kettles boiling.
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