It’s no shock that Brewbound readers in 2022 sought out data on the yr’s largest craft brewery sale: the acquisition of Stone Brewing by Japanese brewing big Sapporo.
Brewery offers are all the time among the many most-read tales on Brewbound. Nonetheless, the sale wasn’t the one factor protecting the San Diego craft brewery within the information in 2022.
We’ve rounded up the ten most-read tales of 2022, in reverse order.
Not even a full yr faraway from the craft brewing business’s talking out motion that dropped at mild allegations of poisonous office conduct, sexual harassment and worse, further revalations continued to return to mild, together with allegations in opposition to Scottish craft brewery BrewDog and its co-founder and CEO James Watt.
A BBC expose in January included accusations of inappropriate conduct by Watt towards feminine workers and friends following visits to the corporate’s U.S. brewery and taprooms. A number of former workers advised the BBC that employees members created whisper networks to warn their coworkers of Watt’s pending visits to the BrewDog areas and his alleged conduct.
Watt responded to the BBC report with a risk of authorized motion and posted in a discussion board for BrewDog shareholders that being accused of “inappropriate behaviour” was “essentially the most upsetting and damaging” “of all of the false claims made within the programme.”
BrewDog is now not B Corp licensed, lower than two years after incomes the standing. BrewDog has denied that the certification was revoked, and that the corporate has as a substitute determined to “step apart” from it “in the meanwhile” in favor of specializing in the corporate’s personal moral goals, specified by its BrewDog Blueprint, the corporate advised Eater.
9. Jury Awards Stone Brewing $56 Million in Trademark Infringement Case with Molson Coors
4 years after Stone Brewing filed a lawsuit in opposition to Molson Coors alleging that the macro brewery’s Keystone model had infringed upon the craft brewery’s “Stone” trademark, a federal jury sided with Stone and awarded the brewery $56 million in late March.
The $56 million award was effectively under Stone’s ask of $216 million. Over the course of some weeks in March, there have been a number of revelations, together with the attorneys for Stone arguing that the 2017 Keystone Mild rebrand that separated the phrases key and emphasised stone, led to a 20% decline in enterprise for the craft brewery (a lack of $174 million) and that the brewery had thought-about a sale (extra on that later).
The October raid by federal regulators of the Bay Space workplace of Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the nation’s largest wine and spirits distributor, raised quite a lot of eyebrows however left extra questions than solutions.
Spokespeople for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Commerce Bureau and the Inside Income Service confirmed that representatives from their respective companies had been on-site at Southern Glazer’s Bay Space workplace however declined to share the aim of the “official exercise.”
In the meantime, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) proposed an order in opposition to Uber-owned Drizly and CEO James Rellas, alleging the alcohol e-commerce platform “failed to make use of applicable data safety practices to guard shoppers’ private data,” leading to a knowledge breach that affected 2.5 million shoppers.
“Respondents’ failures to offer cheap safety for shoppers’ private data have induced or are prone to trigger substantial harm to shoppers,” the FTC wrote.
Molson Coors is more and more pulling the plug on manufacturers that aren’t performing. In January, the corporate ceased manufacturing and distribution of the Saint Archer craft brewery model. The transfer got here two years after the corporate tried to go nationwide with the Saint Archer Gold problem model to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Michelob Extremely, together with selling it with a 2020 Tremendous Bowl advert purchase that featured professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez skating from retailer to retailer looking for the beer whereas whistling alongside to Weapons N Roses’ “Persistence.” However the firm was impatient with the brand new product and introduced its hibernation seven months later.
Enter, as soon as once more, Kings & Convicts, which swooped in and scooped up Saint Archer’s San Diego manufacturing facility. Kings & Convicts beforehand acquired the Ballast Level model from Constellation Manufacturers in 2019.
Brewery model auctions aren’t over till they’re over. San Diego’s Fashionable Occasions Beer Co. was placed on the public sale block by court docket order, however the successful bidder didn’t find yourself because the proprietor of the beer model.
Anaheim’s Brewery X positioned the $20 million successful bid for Fashionable Occasions through the June public sale course of. Nonetheless, the corporate later backed out of the deal. Ultimately, Maui Brewing, who served because the stalking horse bidder within the public sale, wound up getting Fashionable Occasions for $10 million, well-below the $264 million that the corporate’s founder valued the enterprise.
5. Greg Koch Muses on Life After Stone in Farewell Publish
The leaders of the craft beer revolution within the Nineteen Eighties, Nineties and even 2000s are starting to look to their subsequent chapters – together with one of the outspoken revolutionaries. Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch had vowed to by no means promote his craft brewery to the person. That pledge proved breakable in 2022 when Stone was bought to Sapporo for $165 million.
In a virtually 2,500-word missive that opened with quotes from Metallica and Roman poet Heraclitus, Koch mirrored on what the sale of his firm to the Japanese brewing big means for his future. For Koch, he referred to as stepping away “most likely the toughest factor I’ve ever achieved.”
“I’ve to be self-aware sufficient to know that simply because I co-founded and led the corporate for a few years, I will not be the very best particular person to helm Stone into the longer term,” he wrote. “I’d deliberate to function the puppet strings all the way in which to my final days, however can simply see now how disrespectful that may be to all of the people who have shared our imaginative and prescient alongside the way in which … particularly the oldsters which might be right here now and exhibiting up and dealing laborious each day. I’ve run the calculus each which method (again and again in my head for years now), and that is essentially the most pragmatic determination to make sure this stunning factor I care a lot about has a future.”
As for Stone sans Koch, the corporate launched a spirits-based ready-to-drink canned cocktail line and is gearing up for manufacturing of Sapporo merchandise at its bicoastal amenities.
Some had been most likely extra excited for a non-alcoholic model of Guinness, however a hunch tells us extra had been into discovering out that Baja Blast could be the fourth Laborious MTN Dew taste.
The tropical fruit flavored FMB joined MTN Dew Authentic, Black Cherry and Watermelon in a 12 oz. can selection 12-pack for the model’s restricted roll out for the product, which Boston Beer licensed by way of PepsiCo, which distributed the product by its new distribution department, Blue Cloud. The roll out to new markets has confirmed bumpy as a consequence of regulatory hurdles. However, Boston Beer brass stated in July that they count on Laborious MTN Dew to be “a giant contributor” in 2023. We’ll have to attend for the This autumn earnings name to seek out out in the event that they’ve since cooled on the product because it has misplaced traction in its longer-tenured markets.
The Brewers Affiliation’s (BA) annual launch of its rankings of the highest 50 craft breweries by gross sales quantity is among the many most anticipated reveals of the yr. In sharing the listing, the commerce group additionally revealed that craft brewer volumes elevated by +8% in 2021.
Though the highest of the listing stays pretty static, the intrigue comes from the newcomers. In 2021, non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing jumped from No. 65 to No. 27, with the Stratford, Connecticut-based brewer crossing the 100,000-barrel threshold.
Kona Brewing in Hawaii returned at No. 29, after returning to BA craft standing following Anheuser-Busch InBev and Craft Brew Alliance divesting of Kona’s Hawaii enterprise with the intention to full their merger.
Maui Brewing, which wasn’t ranked in 2020, checked in at No. 43; Scofflaw Brewing leaped 21 spots to take the No. 45 spot. Fiddlehead Brewing rocketed 37 spots to rank as No. 49; and North Coast Brewing returned to the highest 50 after a 1-year hiatus to take No. 50.
Anticipate the 2022 listing to be launched round early April 2023.
2. 30 Staff Laid Off Following New Belgium and Bell’s Merger
Following the November 2021 sale of Bell’s Brewery to New Belgium guardian firm Lion Little World Drinks, about 30 workers had been laid off in April 2022. The layoffs amounted to lower than 3% of New Belgium and Bell’s mixed workforce.
Nearly all of affected workers had been within the firm’s gross sales group as a consequence of overlaps in geographic territories and wholesaler or retailer relationships. Workers had been supplied severance packages, and are invited to use for open gross sales roles in different territories.
“We’ve achieved all the pieces attainable to guard as many roles as we might, however in a couple of circumstances there was irreconcilable overlap,” Adam Fetcher, senior director of communications and public engagement, advised Brewbound in a press release on the time. “In the end, we made the powerful determination to say goodbye to a small variety of good folks.”
Sadly, layoffs inside craft beer continued late into 2022.
1. Stone Brewing Offered to Sapporo
The yr’s largest transaction – the sale of San Diego’s Stone Brewing to Sapporo for $165 million – was the most-read story on Brewbound in 2022. Brewbound was the primary information outlet to report the information at 2:16 a.m. ET, which doubtless helped skyrocket this story to No. 1.
In Stone, Sapporo secured the ninth-largest, BA-defined craft brewery by quantity within the U.S. in 2021, the 18th largest brewing firm general within the U.S., one of the recognizable names within the craft brewing motion, and bicoastal manufacturing amenities.
Sapporo beer produced at Stone’s breweries is anticipated to hit the market by Q3 2023.
What’s subsequent in 2023? We’re only some weeks away from discovering out.
