Category: Beer Industry

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

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SB 788

Mention government to me and it is like letting the air out of those balloony whirlygig things at used car lots.  But the Golden State has made a good stride in being brewery friendly with the new Senate Bill 788 that was signed into law by Governor Newsom.

The law states that breweries that produce less than 60,000 barrels of beer annually, in paperwork speak also known as Type 23 licensees will not habe to obtain (and pay for) a separate winegrower’s license to produce ciders. And Perrys too.

Per the press release from the California Craft Brewers Association, “Previously, only large brewers with a Type 01 license and annual production of over 60,00 barrels were permitted to manufacture beer, cider, and perry under the same roof.”

That is one of those pesky rules that bedevil state brewery guilds and was obviously written for either A) giving big donating, big industrial brewers a leg up and / or B) making life hard on smaller competition.

Kudos to the CCBA and board chair Laurie Porter from SoCal’s Smog City Brewing for making brewery business life a bit easier.

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Telco Down

Looks like there is a brewery casualty up in Santa Clarita.  Telco Brewing posted this to social media…

I had made one visit north to Telco.  The beers were fine but there was not much reach into L.A. so it was a case of out of sight, out of mind for me. From the outside it looked like they had a great name and brand, decent industrial space and a large enough market but sometimes you can do things right and still not make it.

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Pick Six for Tilray

The purge continues!  Not to say that I told you so but any brewery selling to SABInBev had to know that it was not a marriage of love but rather financial convenience.  And when the money flow trickled, well as ‘N Sync would say, “Bye, bye bye”.

And now Tilray Brands and their CBD, THC, Kush, weed money has peeled off six breweries and one cidery from SABInBev. Shock Top, Breckenridge, Blue Point (the first purchased brewery if I am not too mistaken), 10 Barrel, Redhook, Widmer and Square Mile Cider.  

They will join the power conference of SweetWater, Montauk, Green Flash, Alpine and the new Good Supply Lager which I did not even know existed.

Before rejoices are sung. I do not know if this is a good change or not. These breweries all have different strengths and weaknesses and need investment and most importantly patience. I am cautiously pessimistic because one company can’t have all the tools to help this disparate group.

But at least they are out from the thumb of Bud.

Maybe Tilray can buy the four remaining Pac- 12 schools next

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Breaking News – Anchor Brewing to Cease Operations

Bad news has come to pass as Anchor Brewing who was bought by Sapporo in 2017 will cease operations and the business will be liquidated.  According to news released, Sapporo had been attempting to sell the San Francisco heritage brewery for some time now and found no bids.  

A financial knight could ride in during the liquidation process and the Anchor Public Taps will remain open until the beer runs out.  One of the beers on tap is the 2023 Christmas Ale which was being ramped into production. Probably the biggest whale in the beer ticking world for some time.  

You can get the sad details from Dave Infante at Vinepair who should get a tip of the hat for the journalism he has done on this story.  But, to me, this development seems to come at a weird time.  A history of Anchor (which I reviewed on this blog) came out recently, Sapporo let Anchor buy the ingredients for Christmas Ale, Anchor came out with a new summer Mexican lager and the vitriol over the bland logo re-brand had faded.  Those moves don’t signal floundering to me.

If Sapporo thought that the money would come from brewing Sapporo in San Francisco, that seems misguided since Sapporo owned Stone seems much better suited to that task.

Fingers crossed that this is not the end, end but maybe, and this might be an idea too crazy, there should be a brewery who only does beers from defunct craft breweries.  A place that snaps up recipes like the steam beer and Christmas ale and Liberty Ale so that they are not completely lost.  

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Acreage

Time to talk agriculture AND business.  One intersection point is the planning of which and how many hops to grow.  It is hard to make such estimates into the future but with craft brewing slower than the past, the amount of hops needed is lower.

The USDA is forecasting that, in the Northwest, hop acreage for harvest will be down 8% from 2023. The biggest hop varietals, Citra and Mosaic were reduced the most as growers are trying to balance out their portfolios.

Might be more reductions and varietal shifts coming.  It is serious logistical work being a hop grower.

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Buyback

Last month Appalachian Mountain Brewing bought their company back from the SABInBev Craft Brew Alliance and I my first wonder was if more would follow that lead.

It is one possible benefit of the slowness of the craft beer industry is that breweries who had sold out to the big beer barons, might see that their treatment at the hands of their overlords wasn’t great and the price is now right to get their company back into their hands.

My second wonder was that maybe the people that sold already moved on? But then Funky Buddha and Four Corners were reverted back to their OG owners from Constellation who bet ever so wrong on craft beer.

I think more will follow.

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Where’s the Next Trend?

We are heading toward the halfway point of 2023 and I have yet to pinpoint a new beer style trend. I know that I ask this repetitive question each year, at least twice a year, but has craft beer hit a creative wall? Or is the next trend lurking underwater off the coast of Amity?

Pastry stouts seem to have stalled a bit either due to expense of ingredients or brewers have found the outer limit of America’s sweet tooth which is something I never thought was possible. Cold IPA’s might find headwinds of IPL logic slows that trend down.

The only big news of the year seems to be stovepipe cans. 19.2% is finding cooler room in limited spaces from gas stations to grocery stores.

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In the Bin

Most recycling pitches are based on guilt trips so it is refreshing to see one that leavens the mood with humor.  Take a watch right HERE.

Now we just need to get a better, national recycling plan in place where ALL of the glass gets made into new bottles and one doesn’t need to consult multiple sources to find out if a can label needs to be peeled off beforehand.

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State of the Craft Beer Union

Yesterday, Bart Watson presented the Top 50 Breweries in the US for 2022 along with answering questions about other items of craft beer economic import. Y’all probably saw the shares and re-tweets of the list but below are my take-aways from the press conference.

  • overall production was static at around 24+ Million barrels
  • total retail dollars grew due to higher beer prices and a shift back to on premise drinking
  • 9,552 active breweries in 2022 (though some may not have finished the year as active)
  • openings still outpace closings 549 to 319
  • no correlation between higher beer prices and slower growth
  • taproom only models are skewing younger in years and perform better in general
  • leases tend to be the main drivers in closings

I will dip into the Top 50 from a California perspective but this year saw the exit of Bell’s from the list since they do not meet the ownership criteria for craft and Stone will exit next year due to their sale to Sapporo. Also Yuengling is numero uno this year.

Here are the CA breweries in the Top 10

#3 Sierra Nevada

#4 Duvel US (which includes Firestone Walker)

# 7 Stone

Others include both Coasts, Lost and North, Pizza Port, Gordon Biersch and Craft Ohana which is the Maui Brewing / Modern Times group.

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More Summit News – Part 2

Another bit of good news gleaned from last months California Craft Beer Summit is the creation of the National Black Brewers Association.  Anytime there can be a critical enough mass to form an association means that there is steam behind it and I hope to see events here in the Los Angeles area for the group.