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This month in 2011, it wasn't exactly a new theme but it was notable that leading marketing publication AdAge saw fit to frontpage what it called "The New Drinking Session: How Craft Brewers Are Drawing in More Consumers" with lower-alc, more sessionable beers. Among notable aspects of AdAge article, it said Redhook was "on the leading edge of what looks to be another trend, adding a pilsner to its full-time portfolio." That had to be first time in a while Redhook has been called "on leading edge" of anything, noted CBN. There were some interesting stats in article too. MillerCoors survey found avg mainstream light beer drinker had 11.8 servings per week, compared with 8.5 for craft, said CMO Andy England at MC's convention. Andy added that by offering craft, the retailer's "intent is to make his establishment more interesting and unique. The unintended consequences of his strategy are that the product he's touting encourages drinkers to have a couple and go home." As something of a counter to that, turned out avg craft drinker spent $60.16 on food/drink in a bar/restaurant compared to $44.18 for avg premium light drinker, according to Nielsen. And so lotsa restaurants were adding craft brands. "A total of 1133 craft brewers appeared on the menus of 169 of the top 250 beverage selling chains in 2010, up from 803 beers and 154 chains in 2008" wrote AdAge, citing Technomic. Those totals exploded over the next decade before starting to retract a bit in recent yrs.This month in 2012, CBN visited Ballast Point out in San Diego. Ballast Point was on path to reach 35-40,000 bbls that yr selling in 16 states (tho not throughout any state). That was 40-60% growth, but over half its volume remained in San Diego, where it was distributed by Crest (part of Reyes Bev Group). And it was growing 60% or so in San Diego alone again YTD. So Ballast Point was becoming a force in local mkt, where Stone remained #1 craft brewer and Karl Strauss was long-established. It competed on-premise both with larger craft brands and mainstream imports. Indeed, its draft distribution levels were purportedly comparable to much bigger brands. So this was a good example of how a hot local brewer could take off in any given metro area. It was becoming a sizable enterprise with 60 employees and had 60K bbls capacity when it finished building out later that yr. The brand went on quite a roller coaster ride from there.This month in 2013, there was "no end in sight to the new capacity coming online, more and more from small breweries adding second facilities," wrote CBN. We shared a snapshot of Upslope Brewing, which had two locations in hometown Boulder at the time. The co was 5 yrs old, shipped about 5,600 bbls in 2012 and had just opened a new $1.5 mil, 17K sq-ft facility, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. That was after doubling its footprint at its first facility and maxing out capacity there prior yr. Upslope was looking to brew 9-10K bbls in 2013, though 12K was possible with current equipment; it had the space to boost capacity up to 50K bbls. As the first site shifted to working on specialty brands (then a familiar choice for the ever-exploratory craft brewer), the larger spot planned to focus on Upslope's four core canned brands: Pale Ale, Craft Lager, India Pale Ale and Brown Ale. The twist was: the lager was the top seller. Head brewer Alex Violette was working to "put as much flavor into as low an alcohol beer as possible," he told the Denver Post. And founder Matt Cutter added that success of the lager may have been a surprise, but "there's absolutely a market for session beers, or transitional beers," as he called 'em.This week in 2014, INSIGHTS reported Reyes Bev Group was testing a new distrib unit called Unique Craft Solutions to service parts of SoCal where it didn&#39;t have full-service distribs and enabled it to provide suppliers with a one-stop solution for all of SoCal. "We plan on a portfolio of local and regional craft brands, along with complimentary specialty imports," said Harbor Dist&#39;s Ned Hall. RBG "developed the idea to compete with other Southern California distribution solutions." Those included Wine Warehouse, Craft Guild of Calif (L. Knife), Stone. So Unique Craft Solutions would only sell in territories where RBG didn&#39;t have full-service distribution, principally LA area. "Local MC distribs Classic and Beauchamp likely view this warily," noted INSIGHTS. But Unique Craft had very small volume to start. Principally, it enabled RBG to sell some brands thruout SoCal. Brands included early on were Paulaner, Belching Beaver, San Tan (AZ) and Hess. Unique Craft Solutions was also planning to sell craft spirits.This month in 2015, analysts asked ABI CEO Carlos Brito about the craft strategy in US and elsewhere during co's quarterly conference call. Craft was "more developed" in US, Brito noted, and here ABI looked for "more regional, relevant brands" thru acquisition. "A few&hellip; could be nationally expanded," said Brito. "Some will go national, others just stay regional," Brito added. But AB was also "developing our own," like Shock Top, at the time. ABI was also looking at different brands to lead its efforts in specific segments of craft and/or high end. For example, Goose in IPA, Shock Top in Wheat and Stella Artois in Lager. Co's craft/high-end strategy and portfolio have changed many times over since then, but focus on style leadership and regional strength remain constants.This month in 2016, Dogfish Head unveiled a series of new moves including new packaging, 2 new brands and was tripling its sales force to ~80 people over the course of the yr. Dogfish Head aimed to have its canning line in operation too later in yr. Taken together, these moves marked a modernization and an upgrade of this "off-centered" top 20 craft brewer that had consistently grown its biz for 20 yrs, heretofore without what seemed increasingly necessary larger craft co accoutrements, like a chain dept. Indeed, Dogfish Head would go from 1 to 8 people selling in chains, founder Sam Calagione told CBN, as sales dept ramped up under sales veep Todd Bollig.Part of what made it successful yr after yr was sticking to its guns, for example in its pricing philosophy. Now Dogfish team was adding structure to a vision that founder Sam Calagione had always espoused, i.e. higher prices as a component of its differentiation. Dogfish's letter to distribs showed Dogfish Beers by Pricing Tier. Using an architecture of craft pricing tiers articulated by consultant Bump Willams, Dogfish Head showed that all its beers played in the higher priced craft tiers; premium ($40-49.99 per case), superpremium ($50-$59.99) and apex. Below $40 in big letters, the chart sez "none." Yup, not a single Dogfish Head beer sold below $40 per case. And while most of its volume was in "premium" craft, its 2d biggest brand, 90 Minute, was over $60 per case. Dogfish Head followed a strategy of triangulating by brand, velocity and price per CE, Sam told CBN, as opposed to focusing on unit growth.

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