Here’s a handful of new breweries on the verge of opening this yr that popped up on the wires over last few days.  List ranges from completely new bizzes to a pre-existing brewer finding a home, to a concept brewpub at a new location. 

In Bakersfield, CA Don Bynum and Tom Maxwell are working on a project to start Temblor Brewing Co as of last June, reported The Bakersfield Californian.  They will “leap from home-brewing to a 20-barrel brewhouse,” hoping to be ready to brew this July and open by fall 2015.  Interestingly, they’ll also bring in “a head brewer from San Diego with 20 years of experience in commercial brewing and several awards to his name,” who remains unnamed.  They’re two weeks into construction with 4 mos to go, sez paper. 

In Columbus OH, a casino called Scioto Downs Racino is adding a brewpub, Brew Brothers, as “a central component of the company’s planned $9.5 million Phase II expansion of the property,” reported Casino City Times.  “The Brew Brothers is a proven 15-year old concept which originated at the Company’s Eldorado Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada.”

In San Antonio, TX after “several years” of planning, Alamo Beer Co will open its $8 mil “East Side brewery, beer garden and beer hall this Friday,” reported San Antonio Business Journal.  Co expects to produce “between 6,000 and 10,000 barrels” a yr, and will add a few new brews to its portfolio. 

In Goshen, IN new micro-brewery/restaurant dubbed Goshen Brewing Co will open this spring as part of an ongoing “15-year redevelopment effort” in town, reported Goshen News.   

In Covington, KY Braxton Brewing co announced last week it’ll officially open its doors Mar 27. At same time it’ll also begin partnership with Stagnaro Dist in northern KY and southwest OH.  

Fredericksburg Tex’s Pedernales Brewing grew about 17% to 70,000 cases last yr, and plans to reach 120,000 cases in 2015, founder and ceo Lee Hereford told Times Record News in lengthy report on the brewery.  Pedernales just recently made decision to pull distribution from its only two out-of-state markets in US, New Mexico and Arizona, Lee told paper.  Instead, co expects to sell more beer with its current Tex distributors and expand distribution thruout the rest of Texas “in the next year,” according to the local sales rep.  Last yr Pedernales partnered with AB house, Falls Distributing in Wichita Falls mkt, which continuously sold more of its beer each month since, Falls General Manager Michael Stokes told paper.  Craft in Wichita Falls is only 2.5 share, according to Michael, yet nearly doubled (+97%) in 2014, and so far this year up 200%.  Pedernales “is one of five craft beer brands” it carries that’s not owned by AB, paper noted.  Editor’s note: Pedernales volume was down 1%, $$ down 6% in natl IRI multi-outlet + c-store data in 2014, yet grew at 30-40% clip in Dallas Fort Worth and Houston foodstores.  DFW and Houston mkts combined still only 10% of its total biz in scans. 

In segment that’s seeing accelerating investments and acquisitions by global beer giants and private equity firms, Green Flash/Alpine deal harkens back to what longtime brewers like Alpine founder Pat McIlhenney like to view as earlier era of goodwill and cooperation among local brewers plying same accounts.  During recent stopover at craft-centric haven called Dive Bar in NYC to launch that market, retired career firefighter McIlhenney outlined genesis of deal, which adds big increment of available capacity to coveted brand that only eked out about 3K bbl over past year, while eliminating headache of funding significant expansion for team that would rather focus on brewing than biz side.  Under new owner, Alpine is taking deliberate path to expansion, testing markets like NY and soon Tex, Chicago and Portland, Ore, via Green Flash network and sales force before settling on permanent plan. Pat launched Alpine as contract brewer in 1999 with his wife Val, inspired in part by what he’d encountered at Mendocino Brewing on firefighting job in Northern Calif, and graduated to operating its own brewery in 2002. His first beer was McIlhenney’s Irish Red, but by now he does broad array ranging from IPAs to more esoteric styles like Calif common and wild-fermented ales.  (Dive Bar flight of 2 Alpine beers side by side with equivalent Green Flash style attested to Pat’s view that breweries’ beers are “similar but not identical.”)

Tho brewers were friends a long time, biz relationship with Green Flash started when its founder Mike Hinkley approached Pat with offer to contract-brew 1,500 bbls for him, with lure of helping Alpine boost growth enough to fund its own expansion. Pat had been doing 1,500 bbls per year from his 12-bbl system, so that doubled capacity of brand that was going thru so much beer in its own tap room that it had little to offer its 6 key outside accounts in Southern Calif.  Timing of Mike’s approach was fortuitous, coming just as contract brewing discussions with Cold Spring in Minn fell thru, Pat said.

Contract relationship between the 2 brewers located about 40 miles apart kicked off in Nov 2013 as “handshake deal – a contract relationship with no contract,” Pat noted.  Tho Alpine beers often use unusual techniques, contract alliance proceeded well enough for Mike to approach him about outright acquisition. Mike recognized Pat’s trepidation at undertaking major expansion, particularly with core team that’s more brewing-savvy than business-savvy.  “He initiated it,” Pat recalled.  “He’s a very good businessman, and from our corporate view, that was a component that was missing.”

Pat adds: “We were on a path to build our own brewery, but with our revenue stream it would have taken 8 years to build in 15,000 barrels of capacity with 35,000 barrels upside – and I’m 60.”  Tho specific terms of deal undisclosed, Pat said he gets both cash and participation in upside.  For its part, Green Flash is close to 100K bbls now and ready to open a clone brewery in Norfolk, VA, offering ability to support Alpine on both coasts.  Until Green Flash installs such equipment as hopback, it’s unable to brew full range of Alpine beers, but that’s in works.  Still, “we have 40 recipes and sneak a new one in every couple of weeks,” Pat said.

Early into new relationship, Alpine continues to operate just as it did before merger, with the McIlhenneys’ 34-year-old son Shawn as head brewer.  Tho Alpine has 18 barrels on hand now for aging, Green Flash just opened barrel facility in Poway, Calif called Cellar 3 that will boost that capacity. Green Flash also will run Alpine’s first bottles, proprietary 22-oz packs embossed with Alpine mountains and arc above.  And under whatever name, collaborations will be coming.

For Pat, who readily notes that he sees elbows getting a bit sharper in craft segment as clutter of players grows, his faith that partnership will work out is driven by more than idealism.  “Mike is savvy: he knows the Alpine image and creativity is nothing to mess with,” he said.

Kinda ironic that state law exceptions originally passed to accommodate AB’s desires to retail beer at its Busch Gardens facilities now being used by craft brewers to open taprooms and their own retail outlets.  Recall, Busch Gardens exception at root of Fla fracas between craft brewers, distribs and traditional retailers in that state as craft brewers claim to follow AB’s model there, tho they don’t exactly fit the tourism aspect fashioned for AB.  Similar story playing out in VA as Stone readies its big Richmond project, detailed by Richmond Times Dispatch in Sunday’s edition.  VA law explicitly separates brewer, distrib and retail tiers. Busch Gardens exception there crafted to allow brewer to retail beer, but only on “contiguous” property.  Current plan is to have brewery on one side of Main St, a bistro/beer garden on the other side.  So properties not strictly contiguous.  “Historically, the interpretation has been the strict one of touching,” chief operating officer told the paper. 

VA distribs have history of being sticklers about 3-tier separation, tho the “contiguous” exception has allowed brewpubs.  And distribs have worked with state legislature to craft non-contiguous accommodations for other licensees.  Then too, head of VA Manufacturer’s Assn reminded “everybody needs to be treated the same.  If you don’t, you open all sorts of challenges to the three-tier system.  It gets real ugly, real fast.”  Indeed, we’ve seen that and it’s a bit surprising this issue hadn’t surfaced earlier.  Stone planned to brew and retail beer in the 2 spots all along, but spokesman told the paper that “the conversation really just got started about the way we interpret” the law.  Officials are looking at a definition of contiguous that means “in close proximity,” Dispatch reported.  Long-time atty for VA distrib assn, Walter Marston, suggested “with a little creativity, Stone could solve the problem.”  A pedestrian walkway over Main St might be enough, he suggested.  Assn head Dennis Gallagher noted “importance of the process” in working thru these kinds of challenges.  For example, VA adopted a farm brewery license last yr, with input from distribs.  “You get a lot further in Virginia by engaging the folks who have an interest and a stake,” Gallagher said.  Given the money at stake here, from Stone, the city and the state, gotta figure the Busch Gardens exception will be tweaked to make it happen.

Just as Stone looking to exploit exception carved for AB, across the pond, Stone’s partner BrewDog (it will import Stone brands for UK distribution) seems to have adopted slightly different attitude toward the “Nanny State” it has ridiculed in past.  Scottish brewer just accepted £1.5 mil grant from Scottish Govt to expand its Ellon brewery and add 130 employees.  A govt minister called BrewDog a “remarkable Scottish success story.  I am delighted to support this growth through today’s RSA [regional selective assistance] award,” reported the Aberdeen Press and Journal.  Co-founder James Watt was equally amicable: “We are truly thankful for the immense support from the RSA and Scottish Enterprise.  With the increased funding we are able to make our dreams a reality and add loads more talented people to the BrewDog team,” he told The Scotsman.                          

Be careful of a Raging Bitch scorned.  That’s takeaway from a rare US Court of Appeals-level decision involving beer biz last week.  Recall that the Michigan Liquor Control Comm (MLCC) originally denied registration for Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch label back in 2009, saying the label “includes language deemed detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the general public.”  FD’s owner Jim Caruso made a federal case of the denial, claiming MLCC violated FD’s 1st Amendment free speech rights.  But while US Dist Ct case pending, MLCC relented and allowed the label.  The case proceeded solely on issue of whether commissioners were immune from any financial damages stemming from the time Raging Bitch kept out of the market.  US Dist Ct ruled they were immune.  But US Appeals Court reversed that decision last week.

Citing a string of other commercial speech and alc bev cases, including the infamous Bad Frog case over a label that depicted a frog flipping the bird, the judges ruled that when MLCC ruled in 2009, these cases “should have placed any reasonable state liquor commissioner on notice that banning a beer label based on its content would violate the First Amendment” unless the ban passed specific tests for commercial speech established by the US Supreme Ct.  For that and other reasons, the Appeals Ct reversed the US District Ct and found the commissioners should not have been given immunity.  In addition, the Appeals Court ordered that the US District Ct resolve the question of whether the MLCC violated Flying Dog’s 1st Amendment rights.  

Interestingly, one dissenting judge argued that the record was sufficient to show that Flying Dog’s rights were violated and that the US District should simply decide damages.  But the majority disagreed and said there was a “lack of critical evidence and fact-finding by the district court.”  Indeed, while the dissenting judge found that “the Commissioners have no evidence – anecdotal, empirical or otherwise – that the sight of the ‘Raging Bitch’ label would harm the citizens of Michigan,” the majority wants more analysis.  They even suggested that “comparable cases establish that the Commissioners here may be able to justify their restriction on Flying Dog’s speech through various kinds of proof, including reference to empirical data, studies and anecdotes, and perhaps through ‘history, consensus and simple common sense.’”   Caruso has pledged that any damages from a court victory would be used to “establish a Freedom of Speech society” in FD’s hometown.  Should be an interesting trial.

Last yr craft segment sold over 1 mil cases in IRI supers 5 different weeks, compared to just one week in 2013, so craft’s “ability to generate over 1 million cases” in a wk is becoming “more of the norm,” said Dan Wandel during last week’s Power Hr presentation.  Spanning from 1.2 mil cases sold during July 4 week (ending the 6th) to just over 1 mil cases sold in week ending Dec 21, craft segment is hitting hardest during key holiday periods (July 4, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Labor Day). 

Then too, 2/3 of the top single weeks for craft case sales were in key October, November, December (OND) period, and that’s translated to much higher share of both total bev alc $$ sales and beer sales for craft in supers.  Craft $$ gained nearly 2 share to 17.5 during OND (13 wks thru Jan 4).  That’s over 2 full share points higher than craft segment for full 2014 (15.3).  Handful of Calif cos particularly shone in OND, as Lagunitas and Sierra gained most $$ sales, and Lagunitas (+1.1 share) Stone (+0.5), and Ballast Point (+0.4) gained most share during period.

Lookin’ at total alc bev $$ sales, craft gained 0.7 share to 7.6 of total alc in supers for OND period even as total beer segment lost half a share (primarily from premium and sub-premium segments).  Wine segment picked up that 0.5 share from total beer to reach its highest share (38.5) in “last 4 years” during OND, Dan noted.  In terms of new product sales released during OND, “spirits dominated” with over half of total new alc bev $$ ($4.4 mil).  Beer segment actually added least amount of new SKUs during OND (127) compared to wine (179) and spirits (152), tho still generated more $$ sales ($2.6 mil) than wine ($1.65 mil).  And impressively craft segment was over 3/4 of total new beer package sales during OND period, surprisingly led by Small Town Brewery’s Not Your Father’s Rootbeer 6pk.

By many measures, craft accelerated again in 2014. And so did the pace of announced craft mergers, acquisitions and other transactions. We reported on almost a dozen of varying sizes and structures. Creative craft brewers are coming up with novel solutions to questions about the future ownership of their companies just as they’ve come up with unique biz models and beers to get them this far. These deals and the influx of capital, expertise and connections that come with them, can offer more than just an exit strategy. Folks squawked loudest about AB-InBev’s acquisitions of Elysian, 10 Barrel and Blue Point, which expand the larger co’s high-end US biz but also clear the way for those smaller cos to make use of some of ABI’s scale and might. Founders gives Mahou San Miguel a strong horse here; Mahou offers Founders a pathway to growth abroad and more. SweetWater, Long Trail, Southern Tier, Uinta, Schlafly and others (including some that may not have been revealed publicly) may benefit from close ties to capital, biz-minded financial whizzes, well-connected consumer goods experts or all of the above.

Rumblings suggest future deals could introduce more models unlike those already working in the space. Publicly-traded craft companies Boston Beer and Craft Brew Alliance haven’t made big M&A moves recently. Will that change? Will more standalone craft cos or yet-to-be-formed groupings go public too? Will firms that already own stakes in craftdom – like Fireman’s Capital (with Utah Brewers Cooperative), Riverside (Uinta), Ulysses (Southern Tier), TSG (SweetWater and Pabst connections) – make more craft beer investments? Will others with experience in wine, spirits or non-alc bevs that have expressed interest in this particular corner of the beer space make moves too? If so, how will a few more portfolio plays or roll-ups of multiple craft brands affect sales reps’ abilities to work into tap rotations? How will they alter the work of craft chain managers? Will brewers unwilling to exchange equity for expertise turn to consulting companies instead? The category has long benefited from a collegial community of brewers sharing knowledge and best practices. How does each of the possible pathways to the future affect those companies’ willingness to share? If you have thoughts or responses, send them along in confidence to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or fill out an anonymous comment form here.

A majority of Full Sail employees voted to approve the company’s sale to newly-formed Oregon Craft Brewers Co (OCBC) late last week, as the co suggested it might last month (see Feb 24 issue). The transaction marks a new era for Full Sail, one of the original Oregon craft brands, which initiated an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) back in 1999. “It gives us more resources and deep branding and marketing expertise,” CEO/founder Irene Firmat shared with CBN. Recall, San Francisco-based private equity firm Encore Consumer Capital will be one source of that expertise. But there will be others. “Encore will be the largest investor,” managing director Scott Sellers told us, but the “mostly local” individuals joining Encore in OCBC investment also “have experience growing brands,” he explained. Though the deal effectively eliminates Full Sail’s ESOP – the first time we’ve seen a majority employee-owned craft co choose to sell – leadership “will also be significant owners” by way of “a stock option program,” Scott said. And once the deal closes, new employees could soon come on board as “number one on the wishlist,” Irene said, is to “grow our sales team.”

Irene acknowledged “the challenges of the ESOP ownership structure” to moving forward with deals of this kind. But “our new partner showed a great willingness to listen to our concerns and address them in a very fair and meaningful way,” she added. “A great deal of mutual respect on both sides,” Irene said, “was critical.” Facing speculation about future deals to larger brewers, Irene noted that “our distributor alignments make a purchase by a big brewer very difficult and more expensive,” reported Oreg-based The New School. The new company needs “each and every one of our employees and the expertise they provide,” she told us, so they all will stay on, a key piece of the deal for Irene. Their ESOP “shares will be cashed out and placed into our employees’ 401K accounts.” She too will remain, with longtime exec brewmaster Jamie Emmerson, for “at least a year to insure a very smooth transition.” And Scott shared that “we are hopeful they will want to stay involved longer.” Indeed, focus for new owners will remain “on growing the Full Sail and Session brands,” he noted, as they’re “not looking to make acquisitions.”

Full Sail shipped approx 115,000 bbls last yr, about the same as it did the year prior. It’s grown volume 28% since 2009, a 5-yr period during which the craft category more than doubled. To compete and participate in the next stage of the craft segment’s growth, Full Sail will tap the “great deal of knowledge in growing consumer brands” held by its new partners, as Irene described them.

Leadership team at Craft Brew Alliance repeatedly expressed pleasure with co’s 2014 performance, including solid volume, revenue and gross margin growth. “A year that was simply an across-the-board win,” CEO Andy Thomas began, was made “even more remarkable” by fact that CBA grew each of its 3 brand families. But the co also “brought it all together on the bottom line,” making strides on financial side by growing full-yr gross margin to 29.4%, up from 28.1% in 2013. Andy “check”-ed off “promises” he made a year ago and kept throughout year, adding that he “couldn’t be prouder” of results and team. “At the end of the day, we are a growth company,” he told investors. BREW stock up about 4% at presstime to around $13 per share, after spiking slightly higher after results reported yesterday. CBA $$ +3.7% YTD thru Feb 22 in IRI MULC data, volume +0.7%, down slightly for 4 wks. Interestingly, Widmer Hefe had strongest $$ trend of CBA’s 3 biggest brands in MULC channel YTD, +3.4%, compared to Redhook Long Hammer IPA +2.2% and Kona Longboard Lager +1.2%. (For 2014 financial and volume specifics, see issues from Feb 6 and yesterday.)

The year of “transition” and “progress,” CMO Ken Kunze said, during which CBA “crossed the 10-million case mark for the first time,” was led by Kona again. The biggest CBA brand “is now approaching 40% of the portfolio mix,” Ken said. Its 4 lead brands (Longboard Lager, Big Wave Golden, Castaway IPA, vty pack) comprise about 80% of Kona mix. And it’s likely to remain lead CBA brand for some time to come. “Long-term, we see Kona becoming a bigger and bigger part of the portfolio,” Ken said during Q&A. And it got big boost from first tv ads that CBA ran, upwards of a 35% lift in pair of test markets, San Diego and Florida. So CBA will run the spots in Sacramento too in 2015. Why just Sacramento, an analyst pushed, if the response was so good? Because the folks at CBA “don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Andy responded. The co has “really good scale” in these areas, with “very good distribution built out in the retail channels and very good distribution partners,” echoing comments he’s made previously “that we can’t just put media on the air” without the “partner support locally.” Ken added that Kona is relatively “young,” so CBA will “go slow,” here.

At the same time, Redhook grew despite being the brand most slimmed down during CBA’s “SKU rationalization” last yr. And Widmer returned to growth too. Hefeweizen posted its first shipment growth in years in Q4 and accelerated growth in home market Oregon between Q2 and Q4. But full-yr Widmer depletions (+2%) helped along by inclusion of Omission brands and Square Mile Cider. Omission leads these days in gluten-free category, representing almost all of growth for the category in scan data, Ken noted. And Square Mile debuted in 10 new western states last year. CBA still way over-indexes in west. But “ongoing progress” at CBA pushed along heavily by brewing in Memphis, brewing ops veep Scott Mennen said on call. Work there helps build biz in Southeast, which contributed about half of incremental volume growth last yr, Ken said. Memphis also helps CBA attain its margin improvement goals.

During Q&A, CBA’s work contracting production for others called out, as it bumped up over 30% last yr (recall, CBA lost some contract production it did for Goose Island in 2013). The co “brought on a new partner,” Scott said, and exec team believes contracting levels will be “pretty stable in 2015.” And though capital expenditures expected to continue up, CBA’s “making sure we can satisfy the demand,” Andy said, “without having to over-invest” or jump into “capacity arms race.” Instead, CBA will spend towards “safety, quality,” and “driving efficiencies,” Scott said, “right-sizing itself.” Final question on consolidation taken by Andy added some more commentary to our recent talk with him (see Feb 24 issue). “We are starting to see the beginning of something,” he said, with “private equity,” “foreign equity” and “big brewers” on lookout. But it’s “not going to be the traditional M&A that we’ve seen in other industries.” For its own part, CBA will be “planting seeds,” like its deal with Appalachian Mountain Brewery.

Craft $$ grew 18% in IRI-tracked supers in 2014, IRI’s Dan Wandel noted during this yr’s Brewers Assn Power Hour presentation dubbed “To Infinity and Beyond.”  That’s the best trend the overall craft segment has had in IRI-tracked supers since Dan started doing Power Hour in 2003, which is “very significant” since each year comps get tuffer and tuffer.  Notably, SweetWater moved up three spots to enter top-10 suppliers at #9, and both Founders (no longer BA-defined craft starting this yr) and Firestone Walker became top-15 suppliers in supers last yr (about 5-10 ranks higher vs MULC).  And of course, Lagunitas (+1 share) and New Belgium (+0.7) gained most share, as previously reported.   This yr will be a “challenging year to replicate the 18% growth,” Dan acknowledged, but “it certainly is very encouraging to see how well it’s doing early on.”  (Editor’s note: recall, craft sales started off even stronger in early 2014; $$ were up 22% in supers thru Feb 22 2014, which makes 2015 trends that much more impressive.) 

741 IPA Brands, 1,165 Pkgs; American IPAs Dominant; Session IPA Up 300%+, “Big Driver” This Yr  Dan dove deep into IPA data to “better understand” what’s drivin’ scorching hot IPA trends with “no signs of slowing down.”  IRI tracked 741 IPAs, and 1,165 IPA SKUs in 2014.  It’s “probably well over 800 IPAs” if you could tease out IPAs offered seasonally or in variety pks, Dan added.  That’s over 100 new IPA brands and 156 new IPA skus in 2014 (more like 220 brands and 340 skus in last 2 yrs).  Dan broke out IPA sales into 7 main sub-styles based on BA definitions, and found that American IPAs were a whopping 2/3 of all IPA sales, and continued to grow at a 42% clip.  Indeed, largest number of new IPAs brought to market in 2014 were American IPAs again, as 50 new ones entered mkt.  Imperial IPAs (+26%) were only other style with good chunk of IPA share at 26.  The rest are 3 share and under.  Session IPAs are already the 3d largest IPA sub-style as sales shot up more than 4X to 3.3 share of total IPAs.  Indeed, Dan expects session IPAs to be “big big driver of IPA sales growth this year,” as new intro brands starting to hit the mkt.   Interestingly Belgian/White IPAs, and Other IPAs (Red, Rye and Brown styles) were both down double-digits, and Black IPAs were only up 6%, tho each under 1 share of style.  Recall, IPAs are up another 3 share to over 1/4 of all craft sales in scans to start off the new year.

Rebel IPA and Sierra Variety Pk Led Record Yr for Craft New Product Sales Led by record intros from Sam Adams Rebel IPA ($21.1 mil) and Sierra Nevada Variety Pk ($11.4 mil), total craft new product sales in supers reached $92.2 mil; that’s more than double the previous record in supers.  An IPA has been top new product 7 of last 9 yrs, and Dan certainly “wouldn’t be surprised” if 2015 continues the trend (think Sam Rebel series and/or Sierra Hop Hunter).  NBB Snapshot Wheat sales passed $4.5 mil, Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA sales passed $3 mil, Stone Go To IPA over $2 mil to round out top-5 intros.  Other notable new intros: Sierra Beer Camp Across America managed to be 7th best into in its short stint over the summer, just behind NBB Special Release; Small Town Not Your Father’s Rootbeer, which just entered agreement with Pabst, was top-15 new craft brand, ahead of Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin IPA and Rhinegeist Truth IPA; Cigar City Invasion Pale Ale was 10th best-selling intro not too far behind Dogfish Namaste and Anchor IPA, despite being much smaller co in comparison; and two Ommegang Game of Thrones beers cracked top-15 new intros list. 

Total Craft Can Sales up 79%; 1/3 of Growth from New Pkgs Craft can sales jumped 79% to nearly $120 mil in supers last yr.  Cans now 8% of total craft sales in this channel, up 3 share from 2013.  Just over 1/3 of craft can growth came from new packages in 2014, led by New Belgium’s Variety Pk in cans and Founders All Day IPA 15pks, as well as SweetWater and Bell’s can intros, SweetWater 420 Pale Ale 12pks and Bell’s Two Hearted Ale 4pks.  Each of those new canned packages were top-10 total craft new packages last yr.  Also gotta note, Sam moved up to #2 craft can vendor.

Craft Gained Most Share of Total Alc On-Premise, to 10 Share As total beer segment continues to lose share to spirits in on-premise, craft segment continues to be lone bright spot.  Craft gained another 0.7 share of total alc $$ sales on-premise to just about 10 share, while all other beer combined to shed nearly a full pt (mostly from Premium Lights) to 23.5 share of total alc in 2014, according to Guest Metrics.  All in, beer was about flat (+0.1%) and lost 0.3 share of Total Alc, primarily to spirits, and particularly during late night occasions.

Only lookin’ at beer segment, Craft grew 2.1 share of beer volume on premise, and is now larger than Premium Lights (-1.8 share) in terms of units sold.  Only other category to gain share of beer sales was Cider, +0.5.   IPAs not quite as developed on-premise as off-premise thru 2014, but getting there as IPAs grew 23% to 19.2 share of total craft sales. “Nearly 300” new IPA brands came out in 2014, to 1318 total, Dan added later in presentation. 

Number of New Vendors & New SKUs Accelerated Number of new craft vendors tracked in IRI supers accelerated again in 2014, as 140 new cos were tracked to reach 735 total vendors.  OH’s Rhinegeist Brewing was best-selling out of the bunch, behind its Truth IPA (a top-15 intro brand in supers), followed by Mich’s Griffin Claw Brewing, Ill’s Small Town Brewery, Oreg’s Gilgamesh Brewing, and IA’s Exile Brewing.  “This year 10 different states were represented by the top 10 new craft vendors,” Dan noted.  Pace of new SKUs accelerated in 2014 supers too, as IRI tracked 809 new pkgs in 2014 compared to 762 new in 2013. 

Great Lakes Led All Regions Again in Craft Growth; Mid-South Pickin’ Up For 2d straight yr craft trend and $$ gains were highest in Great Lakes Region; $$ up 23%, +$43.7 mil in 2014.  Mid-South region’s craft sales grew enough, +22.5%, to move up 2 spots to now the 4th best-selling craft region.  West (+12.6%) and Southeast (+21.3%) got “highest merchandising support increases,” and only Northeast (+15%) and South Central (+15.8%) “lagged behind the previous year” trends.  Dan also singled out a handful of mkts where craft attained exceptional share of mkt and gains last year: Portland (39.3) and Seattle Tacoma (35) were highest, as each grew over 2 share.  In Portland, craft actually “achieved 45.6 share” during one selling week toward end of year.  Columbus OH (+4.8), San Diego (+4.1), Detroit (+3.7) and Grand Rapids (+3.7) each gained most share yr over yr.