Category: Crisis Response
News and articles pertaining to the pandemic and the economic recovery
News Homebrewing COVID Bounce
The American Homebrewers Association set a record earlier this month with its annual Big Brew Day celebration when nearly 5,000 people in 77 countries pledged to make more than 31,300 gallons of beer. The prior record was 11,000 gallons in 2016. After years of declining AHA membership and overall interest in homebrewing, the nearly-global stay-at-home orders have driven a bounce in homebrewing.
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News MN Bill to Provide Relief for Craft Brewers is Opposed
Like all states, Minnesota’s stay-home order has forced breweries to close their tap rooms. For now, breweries can only sell beer in growlers and crowlers from the brewery for off-site sales while it is unlawful to sell beer in bottles or cans directly to customers from the brewery.
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News Sierra Nevada Brewing Producing COVID-19 Testing Medium
A crisis begets creativity. And craft brewers are a creative bunch. Many craft breweries have engaged in ‘outside the box’ thinking to adjust their business model during the COVID-19 crisis. Sierra Nevada Brewing in Choco, California is lending their talent, and their quality control lab, to help a local hospital increase the availability of COVID-19 testing.
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News Maine Brewery Loses License After Deifying Shutdown Orders
Sunday River Brewing, a craft brewery and restaurant in Maine lost their beer manufacturing license and health department license after deifying state orders for restaurants to stay closed for on-site dining and only provide meals to-go.
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News Slow Start to On-Premise Likely When Reopen Begins
A survey of 1,000 consumers conducted by Datassential found that only 20% of consumers will “absolutely dine in right away” when restaurants reopen, with 39% considering and 41% saying “no way.” That is a common theme being painted by multiple surveys including a survey by Monday Night Brewing Co. that said 75% of craft beer consumers would be unlikely to visit a brewery in the month of June.
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News Survey Reports 75% of Craft Beer Consumers Won’t Return to a Brewery Until June
Following up on a story we posted yesterday with a bit deeper look at the survey from Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing. Craft breweries should prepare for smaller crowds in their taprooms even after social distancing and retail restrictions are lifted. That’s just one of the meaningful insights that Monday Night Brewing gleaned from a recent survey.
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News American Craft Beer Week Coming May 11-17, Focuses on Supporting Craft in Crisis
The annual American Beer Week is running May 11-17, 2020 — this year it turns to helping craft breweries with a focus on support during crisis. Consumer action items like gifting craft brewery merchandise and gift cards and social sharing of support messages directly tuned to support craft breweries during this crisis. Also included is a $1,000,000 GoFundMe campaign to directly support craft breweries, the Believe in Beer Craft Brewery Relief Fund.
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News After Reopening Taprooms Shouldn’t Expect a Rush of Returning Customers Immediately
Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing did a survey of recent customers to gauge when they through they would return to taprooms. Especially interesting since breweries in Georgia are now allowed to be open, with many restrictions in place.
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News Brewers Association Lay’s Off 23% of Staff
The Brewers Association announced yesterday that the organization has laid off 23% of its workforce due to operational budget cuts in anticipation of reduced revenue. The association has also enacted tiered salary reductions for the management team.
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News BA & Bottleshare Create Fund to Support Breweries – State Guilds
The Brewers Association has partnered with Bottleshare—a fundraising nonprofit dedicated to the craft beverage community—to create the Believe in Beer Fund to support breweries and state brewers guilds impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The fund is open for breweries and guilds from across the country to apply for immediate financial assistance for operational expenses such as payroll, rent, and utilities.
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News A Peek on How Brewery Tap Rooms May Reopen
California Governor Gavin Newson laid out a rough sketch on how he will direct businesses to operate once the state begins to reopen as COVID-19 cases decrease. The Governor said that restaurants (and presumably bars and brewery tap rooms) will have to follow strict precautionary measures in their serving areas. This may be a peek at what a reopening will look like across much of the US.
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News Alcohol Justice Protests Regulatory Changes to Help Industry
Alcohol Justice, the California-based alcohol industry watchdog group has written a letter to the California Department Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) protesting the ABC’s temporarily suspension of some alcohol regulations to help those in the alcohol beverage and hospitality industry stay in business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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News Brewery Tap Rooms Likely to See Reduced Seating as Business Reopens
Jon Taffer, an industry expert in the bar and tavern business and host of Bar Rescue is giving a lot of thought to how bars, restaurants and brewery tap rooms will be impacted as the country begins the re-opening process after the worst of the COVID-19 crisis passes.
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News Survival Guide for Brewers – New Site Provides Essential Virtual Resources
With industry conferences and gatherings put on indefinite hold, webinars, podcasts and other virtual platforms are becoming widely available to industry members. ProBrewer has posted a dedicated resource site to list the many virtual events that are taking place to help brewers and others in the industry.
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News Craft Brewers Look Outside the Box to Stay Afloat
Craft brewers have always been a creative bunch. Resourceful, innovative and visionary, they have built thousands of businesses across the country by transforming beer culture in America. That same set of skills in coming in handy as the COVID-19 crisis continues on.
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News BA Offers ‘CBC Online’ – A Five-Week Free Online Seminar
The Brewers Association announced today a free online seminar series called “CBC Online.” The five-week digital program offers two seminars per day and “is an opportunity to invest in your education, so that when the dust finally settles, you will emerge stronger and smarter than ever before,” said the statement. “We promise you’ll leave with some great new ideas to bring to your job.”
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News Sharp Drop in Craft Beer Sales – Large Number of Closings Likely
A recent Brewers Association survey of craft brewery members indicate both a big drop in craft beer sales and the increasing likelihood of hundreds if not thousands of brewery closings over the coming months due to the Covid-19 crisis.
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News Alcohol Sales Upended Due to COVID-19
There has never been anything like the current pandemic to compare consumer trends in the alcohol beverage sector to. This is new territory. With the vast majority of the on-premise business now closed across most of the country, purchases have shifted to the off-premise. Early data appears to show that the uptick in off-premise may be making up for the downturn in the on-premise.
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