The day after the festival closed, the Brewers Association announced the number of breweries in the United States had passed 4,000 for the first time since probably the 1870s.
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“Winning a medal for Mocha Machine at this year’s GABF was a humbling experience”, said Shrago.
While the guys at Hackney Brewery are very pleased with how their business is progressing, their production figure is a mere drop in the global beer ocean.
In what would be the ultimate merger, Anheuser- Busch and MillerCoors have been talking about hooking up.
Since opening the brewery in 2012, Townsite staff members have turned their original marketing plan on its head, marketing mainly in Powell River and the Sunshine Coast, bringing home beer awards in BC and Canada. Wicked Weed Brewing of Asheville, which recently opened a large production facility in Candler, captured a silver medal for American-style India Pale Ale – the largest field in the 29-year history of the competition, in any category, with 336 entries – with its Pernicious IPA. “Now three months later these are being re-interpreted”. So the big question is, who’s going to do the math? The resulting company would have a market capitalisation of $275bn. The Fort Worth brewery won bronze for the beer last year and has now taken gold, and one sip will tell you why it’s done so well two years in a row. “That was on full display at this year’s Great American Beer Festival”, said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. One time and then they are gone.
“Everything else is either in Europe or Russian Federation, which is ex-growth, or China which is the only “go go” bit of the business – but China only represents 5% of profits”. “From our perspective, distribution doesn’t make sense”. Each brewery released a limited availability collaboration beer with Sam Adams, and has received a loan as well as coaching through the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program. The autumnal offerings will continue at the South Dock on Saturday, October 3, for Dry Dock’s annual Docktoberfest, which will including the tapping of Dry Dock’s Märzen beer, German music from Denver’s Rhinelanders, and the announcement of the winners of The Brew Hut’s homebrew competition. Their barrel beers are mind blowing.
The event, which took over the city, recruited the help of 3,400 volunteers and served as a testament to the skyrocketing growth of the craft beer industry.
Instead they have been moving to increasingly buy them up. A few days ago, they took the Los Angeles brewery Golden Road, that city’s top craft brewery (40,000 barrels).
This is its fifth craft brewery acquisition in five years – an aggressive strategy created to roll up regional craft brands.
So if you are a fan of handmade beer or crafts, the Fargo Brewing Company is the place to be October 3.
Brian Purcell, the founder and CEO of Three Taverns Craft Brewery summed up the frustrations of his fellow Georgia brewers. “Our goal is to get people to think of taste first”.
Meanwhile, back at Hackney Breweries keeping it small is the name of the game.
The reaction of brewers I spoke to about the bulletin ranged from outrage to disbelief to deep depression, especially over the fact that the Department of Revenue has refused to meet with them.
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“We’re making a unique product using the best ingredients – so at the moment, the plan is to stay under the railway arch forever”.
