Michael and Guest Kate Cone, Author of "What's Brewing in New England" discuss this week's Beer News. Check out Kate's Website at https://www.saucyscrivener.com/

Craft Brew News – 3/15/19

(Courtesy of Brewbound.com)

New Belgium Begins Contract Brewing for Startup Lager Brand

After experiencing an 11 percent production decline in 2018, New Belgium Brewing has opened its Colorado brewing facility to an upstart lager brand that is aiming to eclipse the 100,000-barrel threshold within two years.

New Belgium — the fourth largest craft brewery in the U.S. — and Charleston, South Carolina-based East Island Brewing Co., maker of the “Island Coastal Lager” brand, today announced the new brewing arrangement in a joint press release.

Scott Hansen, who launched the Island Coastal Lager brand with partner Brandon Perry at the end
of 2017 said “Last year, we sold 5,000 barrels into the market, and we were ranked by IRI as the No. 1 craft lager in 6-packs in South Carolina,” he said. “With New Belgium’s logistics, capacity, quality control, and supply chain support, our ultimate goal is to pass the 100,000 barrel threshold over the next 18 to 24 months.”

New Belgium production declined from 955,000 barrels in 2017 to 846,000 barrels last year, representing about 56.4 percent capacity utilization across its entire brewing footprint.

East Island Brewing Co. also recently secured $2 million in series A funding, which Hansen said would be used to “pour gasoline on the fire and accelerate growth.”

ZX Ventures: 28 Percent of Consumers Don’t Know They Can Buy Beer Online

Nearly one-third of U.S. consumers don’t realize they can purchase booze online, according to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “global growth and innovation” division, ZX Ventures.

ZX Ventures’ e-commerce team recently teamed with Mintel to survey 1,000 U.S. consumers about
their “awareness of online beer shopping, preferences, and purchase drivers.”

Among the most notable discoveries was that 28 percent of U.S. consumers don’t realize they can buy beer online, and those who have purchased beer online represent “roughly 6 percent” of the legal-drinking-age population in the U.S.

According to ZX, which cited a potentially outdated Business Insider article from 2014, less than 1 percent of food and beverage sales occur online in the U.S.

It’s worth noting that Justin Robinson, the co-founder of online alcohol marketplace Drizly, who spoke at the 2017 Brewbound Session, said he believed online sales could account for as much as 15 percent of all alcohol transactions by 2025.

All About Beer Files for Bankruptcy; 2 Pacific Northwest Print Magazines Cease Operations

North Carolina-based All About Beer LLC and publisher Christopher Rice filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last month, according to the Triangle Business Journal.
Court documents revealed the company is more than $4.5 million in debt and has more than 5,000 creditors – including former employees and subscribers who are owed subscription dollars — according to the Business Journal

The company’s assets, including glassware and camera equipment, total less than $50,000, the outlet noted.

In addition to All About Beer, which had purchased Draft Magazine and ceased production of that publication, Celebrator Beer News shuttered its print business to focused exclusively on digital content.

BrewDog Rebrands Streaming Network, Lowers Monthly Subscription Price

After shamelessly stooping to sophomoric sexual innuendos to launch a streaming video-on-demand service last summer, the private equity-backed “punks” over at Scottish craft brewery BrewDog have rebranded the network to DrinkTV and slashed the monthly subscription price (now $2.99) by 40 percent.

According to a press release, DrinkTV will offer “new and curated cocktail, beer, wine and travel content that aims to do for drinking culture what food-focused programming has done for foodies.”

“Why isn’t drink culture celebrated in the same way as food?” said Jared Cotton, the co-founder of Redtail Media, which also co-founded the streaming network. “We are aiming to change that; bringing exciting and engaging programming that highlights the world of booze that permeates our culture, but just hasn’t been captured yet … until now.”

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Michael Potorti is the Host of Craft Beer Storm and Founder/Brewer at Beara Brewing Co. in Portsmouth, NH

Michael Potorti
Founder/Brewer
Host of "Craft Beer Storm" Podcast
michael@craftbeerstorm.com
michael@bearairishbrew.com

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