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This week in 2009, sibling pub INSIGHTS Express noted two more signs of craft segment health and popularity. Wisconsin's New Glarus limited sales of its brands, including star Spotted Cow, to Wisc-only. "So it was a problem when NY liquor authority investigators spotted the Cow in a Manhattan bar earlier this month," AP reported. Bar faced a fine and possible license suspension for bootlegged beer. Meanwhile, upstate in Cooperstown, NY, Ommegang announced a $1.8-mil expansion to allow for more storage for bottle conditioning and production. Sales of Ommegang's Belgian-style brands were so strong that co had to brew some back home in Belgium, but now with expansion, all production could be handled in NY. "In a down economy, beer is the place to be," said CFO Wendy Hunt. This month in 2011, Tenth and Blake prexy Tom Cardella told regional meeting of MillerCoors distribs there was a "fundamental movement" among consumers that was "reshaping the industry." "That's further than most big brewer execs have typically gone in addressing craft phenom," noted CBN. Tom said shift was being driven by 2 powerful trends, the "foodie culture" that's attracted so much interest in authenticity, origin, flavor in so many products, not just beer, and also social media, where "tiny companies can tell their story to the masses." That shift is "going to continue," added Tom. At the time, Blue Moon Brewing was up 24% YTD with seasonals up 50%. Leinenkugel brands were up 20% YTD. Tom told distribs to "capitalize on craft movement," and promised Tenth and Blake would also "invest in smaller players," like the stake it took in Terrapin that year. "We do plan to invest in a number of craft brewers," he shared. While MC bought several craft brewers over the next decade, it ultimately sold those acquisitions to Tilray.This month in 2012, 5 senators wrote US Atty Gen Eric Holder warning against proposed AB InBev purchase of Modelo and Reuters article followed up with some pretty stark claims about purchase. Deal would "extend [ABI's] market share leadership" in US, given ABI "increased leverage to reduce competition" by enhancing ABI's ability to either acquire more wholesalers or "pressure" independent distribs to sever relationships with "rival brands," i.e. craft, letter charged. Senators also quoted ABI CEO Carlos Brito from 2d qtr conf call which he said ABI expects its distribs to devote "most of it not all of their share of mind" to AB brands. "Letter is another sign of craft brewers' growing participation in policy debates. Notable that 5 Senators, including 2 from DE and 1 each from VT, CO and HI, would reach out to the Justice Dept on this issue," wrote CBN. That was in addition to BA hiring a top DC law firm to provide input to DoJ. CBN pointed out that letter left out "some salient issues," including that Crown Imports will continue to sell the brands in US, not ABI. But previous week, Brooklyn's Steve Hindy told Reuters, "If you think AB InBev doesn't have huge influence on Crown, I have a bridge to sell you."Also this month in 2012, CBN noted there was lots of talk and some fear in beer biz, especially among craft brewers, about avoiding "wine-ification" of beer, i.e. selling/mktg/shelving products based on style instead of driving brands. But craft beer "developing almost exactly in the same way as the wine category," said Constellation CEO Robert Sands at our Beer Insights Seminar. What's more, "I don't think [this] is necessarily a bad thing," he added. Wine is "about styles," he acknowledged. Brands are "very important, by the way, and understated in the wine business, but styles are important too." Folks go out and order chardonnays, or cabernets, or whatever to accompany certain meals, "they don't necessarily go out and call a brand. The craft beer segment in particular is getting to be just like that." Rob used example of IPAs, with some consumers simply wanting to try different versions. "We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's really about the consumer and what the consumer wants," he suggested, more than once. Also, it's "all about making sure the categories remain healthy." And beer, wine and liquor are all healthy now, tho "perhaps to different degrees." Consumers are "enamored with the products" and trading up. These are very important dynamics that we have to make sure we nurture."This month in 2013, Harpoon Brewery CEO Rich Doyle pulled out his beer industry scalpel at our Beer Insights Seminar and dissected hot button topics. He urged brewers and distribs to keep disunity "out of the paper." "Small brewers are not strangers in the statehouse" any longer and carve outs had become a "rallying cry" for 48 state brewers guilds. Coverage in "editorial pages" is "never favorable" for distribs, according to Rich. He took issue with 2 arguments he'd seen in press: 1) why change a system that's allowed small brewers to flourish; and 2) 6 mil bbls isn't small. Small brewers flourished because consumers want their products, Rich claimed, not strictly because of the 3-tier system.As for defining "small," Rich compared the "smallness of the brewer" to the "largeness of the wholesaler." Rich wondered at what point "a billion-dollar-plus wholesaler" is "too big to get the protection they're looking for from some small brewer?" He wasn't a fan of laws with volume caps for brewers without talking "about size caps on the other side." Rich acknowledged that he "can't write off 5% of my business," (the % of Harpoon distribs that are underperforming) and a distributor can't either. But the 20% cap in bill proposed by small brewers in Mass at the time, that's up for negotiation, Rich said. He had no problem with blurring of 3-tier lines (Harpoon operated across all 3 to some degree). But many distributors do have a problem with it, which they offer as argument against carve out bills. In Rich's view, that argument was undermined if distribs hold ownership stakes in brewers.This month in 2014, CBN reported on the strong growth for Washington state-based megadistrib Columbia and how craft was a key part of their success. In Pac NW, Columbia was up to ~35 mil cases of beer and 15 mil cases of non-alcs, prexy (Washington) Chris Steffanci told Beer INSIGHTS Seminar. And it was having a great yr, +3.5%, driven by continued double digit increases on craft. Craft climbed to 36 share of volume in WA and was already 50+ in $$, Chris said. Craft "could easily" reach 50 share of volume in his mkt, he thought then. Columbia had 2600 SKUs (including non-alcs) and represented 80 different suppliers. "Forty percent of our tap handles rotate every single month," Chris noted. What's more cider was at 5 share of $$ in Seattle and Chris expected that to double in next 5 yrs. Angry Orchard was a "massive brand" there. "Believe it or not, Angry Orchard just passed Bud to become #4 in all channel scan data in Seattle," wrote CBN. While some of those projections turned out to be too lofty, Pac NW remains a mecca for regional craft beer and hard cider.This month in 2015, CBN reported that while a number of western brewers had built in the east, and New Belgium was about ready to test brew in Asheville, SweetWater was first big eastern craft brewer to announce plan for the west. "While we're continuing to develop the East Coast, it's time for us to simultaneously start looking to the West." So said SweetWater founder Freddy Bensch in announcement that he'd bought enough equipment from Pyramid's Berkeley, CA Brewery to brew up to 420K bbls. Freddy still needed a piece of land for 2d brewery. Meanwhile, he was also "considering a third location in the Central US." SweetWater was available in 18 states, as far west as Colorado. Freddy pointed to "incredible" response his beers were getting in expansion mkts and his desire to get "the freshest beer into more hands." Then too, there's a carbon footprint concern. "We don't want our beers to go from an Atlanta farm and drive out west in a truck when we could very well have a farm nearby," SweetWater spokesperson Tucker Sarkisian told Atlanta Journal Constitution. Five years later, SweetWater was sold to Tilray for $300 mil.

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