Founders Breakfast Stout label depicting a baby eating oatmeal with a spoon was denied approval in state of New Hampshire after NH Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan vetoed bill that would've approved alc bevs (like Founders Breakfast Stout) use of labels depicting minors, reported Associated Press. NH statistically "has among the highest rates of underage drinking in the country," noted Gov. Hassan, and suggested that "allowing the images could undermine the state's efforts to fight underage drinking," according to paper. Republican state rep. Keith Murphy argues that neighboring states such as MA, ME and VT all sell the beer, and pointed out that local NH beer, Smuttynose Baltic Porter, also needs to change its label since it depicts a baby on the label. While federal gov't prohibits labeling or advertising on alc bevs that target minors, "no reasonable person would believe that this label is intended to appeal to minors in any way," he said. Yet NH Liquor Commission director of enforcement and licensing, James Wilson already had "bright line standard" for labeling, and was "opposed" to Rep Murphy's proposal from the start, paper noted.  

Both Illinois and United States Senates had Sunday deadlines to pass bills during regular session. And compromise between brewers and distribs in Ill didn't make it there. The bill's sponsor urged folks not to worry though: "It's an agreed bill, and it's going to be widely supported," Rep Feigenholtz said. The bill can be passed during the state's summer session, which requires a vote to pass by a greater majority. But "everyone has to take a deep breath and keep the powder dry. It's going to be fine," she added, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

Meanwhile, in DC, the Senate failed to pass an extension of the Patriot Act during a special Sunday session but squeezed in a vote on a resolution recognizing American Craft Beer Week, the National Journal reported. The brainchild of the Brewers Assn, ACBW is annual week-long celebration of craft beer that came and went a few weeks ago. BA staff, board and other brewery reps are in DC this week prepping for this weekend's SAVOR and meeting with legislators to discuss big legislative focus for the org, the Small BREW Act.  

Founders' Mike Stevens and New Holland's Brett Vanderkamp shared thoughts regarding current state of craft beer industry at Start Garden venture capital firm event in Grand Rapids, MI last week, reported MLive. "The industry is probably at its most hyper state," said Mike. On current state of M&A in craft space, "there's very limited people for breweries out there that would be a good partner," he reflected. Founders "probably talked to ten, twenty PE firms," and "you name the brewery, we talked to them." But once Founders met with Mahou "it became very apparent" that "this was the right choice for our brand." Mike "knew the time was right" because "right now we could dictate the way that contract would look, who that buyer was going to be and how they would take care of our product in the future. And we had control at that point. Five years from now that buyer could have been gone," he concluded. Brett doesn't see "what's the big deal," since "we're really talking inside baseball," in regard to Founders sale of 30% stake to Mahou San Miguel. While it's "big news in Grand Rapids" others outside of the industry aren't really "following" these deals, he thought.

More Choice Words on PE Thinking back to this yr's Craft Brewers Conference in particular, Brett referenced "VC and private equity [that] are really circling our industry." He admitted to taking "a couple of meetings, but frankly private equity all say the same thing. They want to come into my company, own a majority of my company, keep me around and buy me out or I buy them back in six or seven years." During Founders process, Mike realized "for us, private equity sucked because the interest in your product isn't there." Instead "they're a machine that makes money, and that's fine," but ultimately "I'm a little worried about who owns this industry 10, 20 years from now."

Founders Too Busy Growin' to Be Buyer; New Holland Has "Talked" About It Asked if either co would consider buying another brewery, Mike replied: "our compound annual growth rate for the last 6 years is averaging 72 percent. We're not even out west yet…why would we want to hit the reset button and have those complications when we've got so much in front of us?" On the other hand, "it's definitely something we've talked about" at New Holland, said Brett, but it would "depend on if it's a fit culturally."  

Craft managed to crack 43 share of $$ in Portland, OR in Nielsen data for 52 weeks thru Dec 27, 2014, noted Washington Beer Blog in recent post highlighting "top 10 beer cities in America" based on highest craft mkt share. (Editor's note: post doesn't specify which outlets are included). List has most of the usual suspects at or near the top; craft above 30 share in each: Seattle, WA (37.2), San Fran (34), San Diego (33) and Sacramento (31.5). Washington D.C (28.1) is a full point ahead of Cleveland (27). And craft had 25.4 share in two northeast cities - Rochester, NY and Hartford/New Haven, CT - slightly ahead of craft-centric Grand Rapids, MI (25.2). Then too, craft was above 20 share in each of the four "runners up" cities too: Columbus, OH (23.8), Detroit, MI (23.4), New York City (21.7). Also gotta note, Vermont (30.6) and Wisconsin (25.1) were highlighted as two states with "impressive numbers."  

Missouri's Urban Chestnut Brewing is up 80% yr-to-date, co told CBN. Last yr Urban Chestnut grew nearly 70% to 11K bbls, so if it keeps up pace it'll blow past regional status to nearly 20K bbls this yr. Meanwhile, Urban Chestnut officially brewed its "first batches" of beer "just two weeks ago" at its recently acquired brewery in Wolnzach, Germany, in the Hallertau region of Bavaria, co announced. Co purchased brewery back in Jan and originally hoped to get operations up and running by end of this year (see Jan 9 issue). Now, starting this mo, "Urban Chestnut Hallertauer Brauerei will begin distributing bier locally in Bavaria and to other areas of Germany," with plans to extend distribution "into other parts of Europe" and begin "importing their Bavarian-brewed biers into the United States," noted co-founder David Wolfe. It'll "initially" brew its flagship Bavarian Lager, Zwickel, as well as a new Pale Ale and new "hop-forward Helles Lager" under new line of brews dubbed "Hallertauer Serie," added other co-founder Florian Kuplent, who's originally from Bavaria.  

Once Sierra Nevada "finishes installation of 10 new fermentation tanks" at Mills River facility, it'll increase production capacity 40% to 500,000 bbls/yr, reported Hendersonville Lightning. Sierra had to speed up expansion plan in Mills River "a bit" because of its growth this yr, co-manager of Mills River plant, Stan Cooper told paper. Not much will change after installation, other than Mills River will take on more of the seasonal beer production; "more like 45 percent," compared to current 30%, said spokesman Bill Manly. Capacity in Chico, CA is "just shy of a million barrels," he added, and acknowledged that everyone's wary of "water restrictions" that're "being talked about." Butte County is asked to "reduce consumption by 30 percent," and "there's only so much we can cut." Meanwhile, back in Mills River, Sierra's "11-week old tasting room" just had "the two busiest days we've ever had," to the point where "we had to place (extra) beer orders" to keep the tasting room in stock.  

Growing craft breweries and craft distrib divisions are creating new roles, movin' personnel up and out to fill 'em. Steve Mills will be new CEO for Uinta Brewing in Utah, moving from sales veep role at Duvel Moortgat USA/Boulevard, Uinta announced this week. Steve spent nearly 20 years with Boulevard, including as chief oper officer for a time. He replaces founder Will Hamill as Uinta's leader but will be the first to fill a "more 'traditional' CEO post," the co announced. Will remains on Uinta's board. Recall, Uinta sold a minority stake to Riverside Co private equity firm last fall.

Steve's departure "a big surprise," Duvel Moortgat USA ceo Simon Thorpe told CBN. Steve had "long career" and was "one of strongest on the team" at Boulevard. "I genuinely wish he was staying," added Simon. While Simon's "sad that he's leaving," he quickly added "I can't fault him at all. Opportunities like this don't grow on trees." In meantime, Simon will stay closely in touch with the co's 5 sales directors until they decide on Steve's replacement, likely chosen from within, taking advantage of what Simon called "tremendous talent" on the "bench."

Reyes Bev Grp promoted Jessica Muskey from Premium of DC's mktg veep to new Craft Category Development Director for its East Coast Division. Jessica fills Eastern version of role that Steve Almaraz created in West last yr, providing additional focus and education opportunities around craft brands in appointed region. Jessica will remain based at Premium of DC, where she's worked for 9+ years. One other notable personnel announcement: Dave Duffy, a New Belgium and Great Divide vet who more recently ran Colorado Craft Advisors, will join First Beverage investment banking team as director.  

There's a big lift in recent Duvel Moortgat trends, just as sales veep Steve Mills departs to run Uinta, so he's leaving on an up note (see below). Plans following Duvel's late 2013 acquisition of Boulevard finally starting to come to fruition. You can see uptick clearly in scan data; Duvel Moortgat USA volume now up 10% for 13 weeks thru May 17 in IRI multi-outlet +convenience, compared to just flat for 52 weeks (up 0.3%). And revs up 16.6% in IRI MULC for 13 weeks. But growth more broadly-based than scan: thru May, Duvel Moortgat USA volume up 11% and revs up 16% in all channels, prexy/ceo Simon Thorpe told CBN. That's quite an acceleration following 3% volume growth last yr and 6% rev growth.

So what's going right for #12 BA defined craft brewer? Lots of different elements of plan coming into play. Boulevard now available in cans as means to "reinvigorate" core midwest mkts. Meanwhile, Boulevard entered NY at beginning of yr, ending this phase of its expansion. Featured brand in Smokestack Series, Tank 7, up 47%. Boulevard also has a couple of new IPAs, the Calling and Heavy Lifter, which are off to strong start. Even Ommegang is offering its first IPA called Nirvana, for which co has high hopes. Duvel brand up about 14%. As is typical for co, Simon especially pleased that his revs up 5 points ahead of volume, reflecting significant trade-up within portfolio.

For the yr, Duvel Moortgat USA expects volume up 10%. Simon broke down the period following the acquisition into 6-mo increments. In first 6 mos, "you find out where the toilets are," get to know each other, develop confidence and trust; in 2d 6 mos "prioritize," develop key projects and action plans; in 3d 6 mo period (where they are now), "come to market" with plans. "We're now in full execution mode," said Simon.

So now that Duvel Moortgat USA picking up speed, making further inroads integrating its Boulevard acquisition and returning to solid growth, is it ready for next acquisition? Duvel Moortgat USA will "take its time to pick the right projects," said Simon and "build a family of beautiful jewels of craft brewers" here in US as it has in Europe. This is "not a roll-up play," but rather Duvel Moortgat USA aims at "creating a family of breweries that can help each other."  

Tijuana, Mexico beer scene is rapidly changing, as 8 breweries already located in "open-air mall called Plaza Fiesta," reported LA Weekly. Plaza's been known for restaurants, night clubs, but just a yr ago was mostly empty or filled with cheaper dive bars. Now, it's come back to life as major brewery hub "because of a loophole that allows several narrowly connected businesses to operate under a single liquor license," noted paper. So 5 city breweries opened taprooms in plaza in the last yr, 2 in last mo, and 2 more planning to open soon. Some work "under the umbrella" oof other bars, some not, and "several of the brewer's wives have set up kitchens inside the taprooms, launching their own restaurants and catering services outside the plaza."

Bosiger Beer, founded in 2013, is regarded as brewery that started it all, occupying "a massive two-story building in the center of the plaza" with beers for on-premise consumption. Coupla breweries that've moved in already had pre-existing breweries: Mamut, Ramuri (just moved in last mo), and Insurgente and Border Psycho (coming soon). But this is only outlet for most of the other breweries. None of these beers are "yet available in L.A." paper notes, yet Tijuana known for bringing in Americans crossing the border.  

Too Craft Collective, Boston areas newest and "only" craft exclusive distrib, "brought its first beer to market just two months ago" and now has "eight brands sold at around 60 pubs and packies," reported Boston Herald's The Edge. Its model is based on idea that "people are in tune with what's out there, even if they can't get it in their town," so "we're playing into that concept of making beers available that local beer drinkers wouldn't normally get," co-founder and president Bryan Ferguson told paper. For example, Craft Collective partnered with NY's Finback and Rushing Duck Brewing; both very small, and very specific to their local mkts. Interestingly, in its "second phase of innovation" co plans to start a "brewery incubator" geared toward "upstart beer-makers" and "small brands." However there's still no timetable on when that brewery will open, so for now "we are laser focused on distribution," said Bryan.