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» Beverage Industry NewsPernod Ricard plans to construct a new distillery in central Kentucky to produce bourbon brand Jefferson’s. The price tag to construct the 75,000-square-foot facility will be $196 million.
Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. announced that it has established an investment management company, Asahi Group Beverages & Innovation, LLC, based in San Francisco to invest in in US brewery startups.
Molson Coors will exit the US portion of its CBD joint venture with Canadian cannabis grower Hexo, ending the brewers CBD beverage business in the US.
Cleveland-based Saucy Brew Works, founded just 5 years ago, has rapidly expanded across Ohio and beyond. Its most recent acquisition, the purchase of Cartridge Brewing just outside of Cincinnati will another brand-set to its portfolio.
Tragedy has struck the craft brewing industry. Fire tore through McNeill’s Brewery Friday night, a longtime fixture in Brattleboro, Vermont, killing founder and owner Ray McNeill who lived in the buildings upstairs apartment. Another fire caused significant damage to Local Brewing in San Francisco early Saturday morning. There were no injuries reported in that incident.
Calwise Spirits and Firestone Walker Brewing Company have collaborated together to create “Old Tom Big Sur Gin,” using a special mash made at the brewery. According to a press release, Firestone Walker generated a mash of traditional brewing grains with a complement of wine grape juice, all fermented with native yeast and bacteria.
The Brewers Association has announced the five candidates elected to the Brewers Association Board of Directors in the recent election.
Representing packaging breweries will be Jason Perkins of Allagash Brewing Co. (Maine) and Mitch Steele from New Realm Brewing Co. (Ga.). The taproom breweries seat went to Melissa Romano of Lake Anne Brew House (Va.) and the two pub breweries positions were filled by Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant (Mich.) and Jason Lavery from Lavery Brewing Co. (Pa.).
All five new members will serve three-year terms starting in February 2023. At-large board seats for the term starting February 2023 will be discussed by the board of directors at the Dec. 1, 2022, board meeting.
Makers of RTD’s have been increasingly active in lobbying state legislators to lower taxes on the ready to drink cocktails. Their argument is that lower taxes will benefit the consumer by lowering the retail price.
But a recent analysis by Public Sector Consultants shows that in two states where the RTD tax was lowered, retail prices increased.
One of the craft brewing industry’s own has emerged as a hero in the horrific Colorado Springs mass shooting.
Rich Fierro, a US Army combat veteran who owns the Colorado Springs Atrevida Beer Company along with his wife, has been identified as the individual who tackled, disarmed and subdued the shooter during the mass casualty event at the Club Q in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Five people were killed and 18 more injured.
West Coast Hop Breeding, a network of six Oregon hop farmers that have teamed up to develop new hop varieties, has released their first varietal called McKenzie.
McKenzie was bred over a 5 year process. Lead breeder Pat Leavy grew up fishing the McKenzie River and came up with the name for the “bright and fruity” hop with grapefruit, lemon, nectarine, and melon aromas that is backed by pine, resin, and wood.
Brooklyn Brewery plans to close its brewery after more than 25 years in the summer of 2024 and move into a new 41,000-square-foot space just four blocks away. The new location will be over 10,000 square feet larger than the existing brewery and the company said they plan to hire at least 40 new employees.
Brooklyn Brewery was founded in 1988 by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter and was the first commercial brewery to open in Brooklyn in 20 years.
On the heels of the announcement that Keurig Dr. Pepper has invested $50 million into non-alcoholic brewer Athletic Brewing, the global brewer Asahi just announced the international launch of its alcohol-free beer, Asahi Super Dry 0.0%.
The brewer’s press release said that Asahi’s master brewers take the base recipe of Asahi Super Dry through a process of de-alcoholisation to create the finished beer at 0.0% ABV.
The beer will be available across eight markets worldwide in 2023, beginning with its launch in the UK and Ireland in January.
Not that we needed any more signs that non-alcoholic beer is surging, but the investment of $50 million into Athletic Brewing Company by Keurig Dr. Pepper is one more indication that the industry sees a lot more growth in the segment.
Athletic Brewing, founded in 2017 by Bill Shufelt and John Walker is the largest brand in the non-alcoholic craft beer category with a 55% share of market. Investors include a number of athletes and celebrities, including pro football players J. J. Watt and Justin Tuck, Momofuku founder David Chang, cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie. The company established the first brewing facility dedicated to non-alcoholic beer in Stratford, Connecticut in 2018 and then purchased the old Ballast Point production brewery in San Diego just two years later.
For the first time in 18 years, the Brewers Association will increase its membership dues. The increase will take effect February 1st, 2023.
New and existing members can lock in current dues by joining or renewing before the Feb. 1, 2023 deadline. For active members, an additional year will be added to the current expiration date.
In a rough and tumble economy, with ballooning inflation and fears of a looming recession, one of the most important indicators of where the beer industry might be headed is how beer drinkers feel about the economy, as measured by the Consumer Sentiment index published regularly by the University of Michigan. According to an analysis by beverage industry consulting firm First Key, this metric is highly predictive of certain beer-buying behaviors, and it’s currently at its lowest level since it was first measured in 1952.
First Key goes on to say that “what may be surprising to many is that falling consumer sentiment may actually be good for beer sales – although bad for beer’s price mix.”
Tilray Brands, the New York City based pharmaceutical and cannabis company announced the acquisition of Montauk Brewing Company of New York.
Past Tilray acquisitions in the craft beer space include SweetWater Brewing Company and the Alpine and Green Flash brands. The company has operations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, with growing facilities in Germany and Portugal. The Montauk acquisition is expected to deliver additional scale in Tilray’s craft beer segment and provide a stronger footprint in the Northeast rounding out their footprint across the U.S.
More details here.
Diageo, one of the largest alcohol beverage companies in the world announced it has acquired Balcones Distilling, a Texas craft distiller. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in Waco, Texas in 2008, Balcones is a producer of single malt whisky brands such as Texas “1” American Single Malt, Lineage American Single Malt and Baby Blue Corn Whisky. The brands are available across the United States and in 11 other countries including Great Britain, and the company sold the equivalent of 15,000 9-liter cases in 2021.
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Starting January 1, 2023, changes to the Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) will require foreign producers of beer, wine, and distilled spirits to register with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) before their US importers can take advantage of reduced tax rates or credits on the imported products. CBMA tax benefits are limited in quantity, and foreign producers may only assign a certain number of benefits to their US importers for each category of product imported.
The Lost Abbey, considered to be one of the best American producers of barrel-aged Belgian-style sour ales is making an unusual pivot in a rapidly changing and challenging beer industry: they are ‘growing down.’
The announcement from the San Diego county brewery, which is part of the Port Brewing and Pizza Port collection, came in a detailed story from San Diego Beer News in which Tomme Arthur, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Owner of Lost Abby said the company would be putting its 30-barrel brewhouse and fermentation tanks up for sale so that they can switch over to a smaller brewing setup with single- and double-batch flexibility as well as a cellar fit for their current and projected output.
The evolution from big to smaller is a noble one. In good times and in hard times, most companies try to cut costs and grow efficiencies by selling more. Growth has traditionally been the secret sauce to success. But in an industry that has never quite followed all of the traditional rules of business, maybe craft brewers will find that growing down is more fun – and more profitable, than growing up.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) descended on the Union City offices of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits last week according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Union City is located just across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco.