Category: Beer Industry

my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.

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CCBG

Usually mergers and acquisitions occur and it is a net negative.  Especially when it is the big players in the beer industry.  A big brewery buys a small one and then proceeds to water down the product or distributors get bigger and bigger until they cannot service all the beer they have in their portfolio.

But the new Circle of Crowns Beverage Group Strategic Alliance is indeed that an alliance.  CCBG includes Inglewood-based Crowns and Hops, Fresno-based Full Circle Brewing and its sister brands Speakeasy Ales and Lagers and Sonoma Cider. All black owned breweries.

The two main prongs of the alliance are a combined sales force bringing not just one brewery but multiple to the table and second Full Circle will use their excess brewing capacity to brew Crowns and Hops beers which, I think, may change once the Inglewood brewery is up and running.

Owning your local market is quite important these days so the fact that each one is in a different sector of California will help as well. But the combined weight might just push growth so that these beers get more placement.

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More Small Print

There is the potential that beer labels will have to squeeze in a lot more information onto them in the future.  More specifically, allergens and nutrition information.  Which is not good for those, like me, who need major magnification just to read what hops are in the beer.  And though I like the idea of a QR code that leads you to more detailed information, what percentage of people are going to use that and then what percentage of those will understand the governmental gobbledygook that passes for information?

You can read more HERE from the Brewers Association. 

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May the Brew Be With You

I am not a homebrewer but I know the vital importance of having them around to push the recipe envelope without having to sell their beers and to be a minor league from which new breweries can spring with new ideas.

And a cool new idea for the Big Brew 2024 on May 4th is to have a theme.  That theme? Homebrew recipes inspired by Star Wars.

The recipes are Degobah Dunkel, Jabba Juice Hazy IPA, A New Hope Pale Ale, Empire Strikes Back Dark Ale and rounding out the OG trilogy Return of the Jedi Pale Ale.  All OK names but I hope to see some deeper cuts like Ahsoka Amber or Order 66 Betr-Ale.

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San Diego Spider

Tarantula Hill Brewing is making a big leap to the San Diego area, San Marcos specifically as the Thousand Oaks based brewery will utilize the space once used by the Draft Republic restaurant.  This news was first broken by Brandon Hernandez at SD Beer News.

Will an outer rim of L.A. brewery fly in San Diego County?

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The Return of Contract Brews

Back in the day, craft beer had brands that were contract brewed. Breweries, especially ones in expensive real estate markets (like Los Angeles) or without the capital for buying mash tuns and fermenters would either provide a recipe or brew alongside workers at a brewery usually far away from their physical location.

Now, those breweries were looked down upon a bit (even by younger, less knowledgable me) as having less skin in the game but as is seen in the bourbon world, contract brands are not seen as less than currently and maybe that might translate into craft beer.

Now there are always pros and cons as is demonstrated in this Vinepair piece about contract distilling. The biggest one for me is the lack of disclosure. You can contract brew an excellent beer but many are just middle of the road. And it is only fair to a consumer that they can easily see that a beer is contract brewed. That way I can find out that Contract Brewery A is only average while Contract Brewery Q is quite good.

And I think that if there were more contract brewing facilities that made it easier to actually have the brewer make the beer on essentially rented equipment close to where they sell to lessen shipping and environmental costs, it could increase quality.

Incubators would be a good model or co-branded taprooms and bars. San Diego has had some luck with the former and Los Angeles has seen shared taprooms in the past and currently with Eagle Rock and Party Beer. They can be effective ways to begin a brewery within financial constraints.

All roads that can lead to a successful brewery should be explored.

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Capital of Craft

I have not seen a Brewers Guild with a podcast but The San Diego guild has just started The Capital of Craft.  It is “a podcast that focuses solely on the San Diego beer industry.”

According to the podcast description it is “Curated for industry professionals, we will cover topics specific to our city and provide relevant conversations with guests from all walks.”

I have listened to episode 1 about distribution and though it may be a bit deep in the weeds but craft beer fans should be aware of what happens to get local beer to you. Learning about shipping rates alone is an interesting facet of the beer business.

I will be following to see what guests and topics come next.

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No More Drizzle

I am not a deliver me my stuff person.  Especially when you hear all sorts of stories about gig workers being exploited and the companies like Amazon and Uber making money hand over fist but it doesn’t seem to trickle down.

Which leads me to the Uber which announced that they were shitcanning Drizly, techincally labeled as an “alcohol e-commerce deliver platform.  Uber bought them three years ago and is just now deciding that all orders should just come through their app.

Will this affect craft beer?  A bit.  Your bigger players like New Belgium and Sierra Nevada might lose some trade but those who are ordering booze online will migrate to Uber and do it there.  And you weren’t really finding local beer on it so it will be the same as before for them.

What it probably means longer term is that alcohol delivery, which should be a higher margin business, looks to be another delivery business casualty because it doesn’t make sense financially when you factor in infrastructure and potentially slows down in-store sales.

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Please No Chill

Well, the big industrial marketing brewers are at it again.  Spending time on advertising over ingredients.

Coors Light has had its iconic (?) Silver Bullet Train for as long as I can remember but now they are harnessing some Hollywood CGI so that lucky (?) fans can see their face in the ad during the Super Bowl.  They will also get $500 and swag.  

The downside is that the actual commercial during the game will be played at normal speed which means no one can see the faces.  You have to go to their website or god forbid the Coors YouTube channel to see a slow motion version where you might be able to catch your face if you don’t blink.

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Cacao in the Yeast

There is always lots of beer chatter about a new hop varietal even when given an unappetizing name like Anchovy but less attention to yeast unless it is Thiol Boosted.

But premiere Yeast Lab, White Labs has found a new and rare yeast….

…strange to have a yeast from rare cacao. Hope to find a beer with it.

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Cooking on Cook

When word came that famed Oregon brewer John Harris (Dechutes, Full Sail) was selling his brewery to Great Frontier Holdings, Ecliptic and that most of the beers would be brewed elsewhere, it was a blow as Ecliptic anchored the bottom of trendy Mississippi Avenue in North East Portland.

But news dropped earlier this month (about the same time that we learned that Bagby Beer Co was making way for Green Cheek) that…..

“…Von Ebert Brewing announced it is moving into the formerly Ecliptic Brewing facility on N. Cook Street in Portland, which allows the brewery to expand production and distribution from 4,000 barrels per year to as much as 20,000 barrels per year.”

And, “John Harris is a beer institution who helped put Oregon on the map. By taking over the N. Cook. Street space, Von Ebert will be able to continue the legacy of brewing Oregon’s world-class craft beer.”

The best part of the news comes from Harris, who says, “Von Ebert Brewing makes awesome beers and I look forward to working with them to continue to produce small batch Ecliptic beers on the same equipment.”

The transition to Von Ebert Brewing should have the N. Cook Street taproom reopened this spring.