An early leader in brewing American wild ales and founder of Colorado Springs-based brewpub Trinity Brewing, Jason Yester sold the biz to local restaurateur Matthew Dettman, Westword wrote this wk. Opened in 2008, Trinity made a name for itself in large part due to Jason's experiments with wild yeast, especially Brettanomyces, and saison expertise. But the restaurant side of the biz was never a focus. And in recent years the brewer became perhaps more known for his outspoken distaste with the way the market for the smallest craft brewers shifted heavily toward hazies, pastry stouts and smoothie beers. "I think American beer has hit its pinnacle," he told the outlet. "I don't think it is going to improve," and he thinks it got "worse" over last 2 yrs. Jason started seeking a buyer for the biz in 2018, according to Westword. "Craft beer was a movement… It was a special time that happened. But when the hazy IPA thing hit, everything seemed to change, and not in a direction that inspired me," he said. While perhaps an outlier, Jason's far from the first brewer to object to how stylistically "homogenous" craft has become, again, especially for small taproom-focused brewers. The brewpub's new owner plans to keep many of Trinity's existing beers in rotation alongside new experiments, while increasing attention on restaurant ops.

Mikkeller is no longer part of project to restore the defunct Burnside brewery space in east Portland, Oreg, as Chefstable now "teaming up with Culmination Brewing founder Tomas Sluiter to open a new brewery and taproom called Craft Beer Collective," reported the New School. Craft Beer Collective will open July 10 "with guest taps from local breweries and a wood fired pizza menu from chef Doug Miriello."

Re-closures continue to mount as states and municipalities across the US head back into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But in addition to various gov't mandates forcing on-premise locations to close (see last issue), several add'l brewery locations have temporarily shut back down due to Covid-19 outbreaks within their own walls over the past week. Count 3 AB acquired craft cos among 'em, as OH-based Platform, NC-based Wicked Weed, and TX-based Karbach each dealing with their own respective cases. Karbach's restaurant and biergarten locations temporarily shut down alongside most breweries in Texas after at least one employee tested positive for the virus, co announced via Facebook post on July 3. "This will allow us time to perform a thorough cleaning, sanitation, and contact tracing following guidelines from health authorities," the brewery wrote and Houston Biz Journal reported. Similarly, Wicked Weed's Asheville-based Funkatorium announced on July 6 that it would close "out of extreme caution" after an employee tested positive, even tho Buncombe County bizzes "are not required to report positive cases on their premises, nor are they required by the county to close," according to Citizen Times. (Wicked Weed's main brewpub wasn't impacted.) And Platform Beer Co announced on Instagram that it is temporarily closing its Cleveland, Columbus and Phunkenship taproom locations after a Cleveland-based employee tested positive, tho "contactless home beer delivery services" are still available. Some other cos to re-close taprooms after an employee tested positive include: NC's Wooden Robots, WY's Snake River, WI's Vintage Brewing, and several Florida brewers, as Miami Dade county also moved to re-close indoor dining to help slow the outbreak.

Among the 121K Michigan businesses that borrowed money as part of Payment Protection Program, a handful of breweries were listed among some of the highest $$ recipients, reported Crain's Detroit. Bell's Brewery and HopCat's now bankrupt parent co, BarFly Ventures, were two of 185 MI cos that borrowed between $5-10 mil, according to paper. And New Holland and Northern United Brewing were two of 821 cos that borrowed between $2 and $5 mil in Mich. Notably, BarFly's $6.6 mil in PPP loan thru First Savings Bank is part of $28 mil in secured debt listed in its bankruptcy filing, paper reminded.

Changes to state alc bev regulatory schemes almost always involve give and take. In Michigan, a collection of recently-passed bills already signed into law, largely offer small brewer licensees new or expanded privileges. But not entirely. A couple of key provisions of that package of bills, plus a separate recently-enacted law close loopholes or take some useful oppys previously enjoyed by brewers off the table.

On top of 3 Floyds addition (see Jun 19 issue), Sheehan Family Cos' NJ-based Hunterdon is bringing on several new brands lately, co shared in latest brewsletter. Co added red hot non-alc brand, Athletic, OH's Great Lakes, VT's Alchemist (Heady Topper/Focal Banger maker), as well as Juneshine and Jiant hard kombuchas. Recall, Hunterdon was one of the larger Dogfish Head distribs before it ultimately agreed to sell Dogfish brand rights early this yr, allowing brand to align distribution with parent co Boston Beer (see Jan 6 issue). Hunterdon was paid ~7X GP for about ~200K cases of Dogfish, tho looks like Sheehan Family is keen on trying to make up that volume too, even in midst of Covid-19. Also gotta note, Great Lakes just added VA statewide with Sheehan Family Cos' Specialty Bev in late Jun (see Jun 16 issue), tho opted to go with indie distrib, Backup Beverage, in MD.

In major move, the Brewers Assn hired longtime outside counsel and veteran alc bev atty Marc Sorini to be org’s first in-house general counsel, it announced today. The hire formalizes a “very long relationship,” as Marc told Craft Brew News. He began representing the Brewers Assn of America, one of the BA’s predecessor orgs, back in 1998 and was “part of the One Voice committee that merged” the orgs, he reminded us.

Tho in the works for some time, this significant hire announced just over a week after BA went thru 2nd round of layoffs, letting go of a number of key, long-time employees. But while those layoffs a response to hard hits to the org’s revenue streams due to the pandemic, Marc’s hire and early-July start-date “solidified in February,” BA prexy/CEO Bob Pease told us, “well before Covid.” He acknowledged that “the timing’s awkward.” However, “this move to hire Marc is a financial wash for us,” Bob explained, and has been “in our budget from the start of the year.” The cost of having Marc and his colleagues at McDermott Will & Emery on retainer, for “maybe 20 hours a month,” basically shift to a salary cost and a whole lot more hours, Bob said.  

“When you’re outside counsel, you’re a bit of a tool in a toolbox, and you’re an expensive tool,” as Marc put it. Now Bob and the BA “get more of my time” and “more bandwidth to do things like support guilds in legal matters,” he told us. As outside counsel, Marc had already been supporting state guilds in their legislative and legal efforts. And the BA will still call on his old firm and Marc’s hand-picked successor there, Alva Mather, for certain issues, both he and Bob noted. But especially when consulting with state guild execs, Marc underscored that “the math changes when we can do some of that in-house.”

Focus on the States as “Market Access Issues” Percolate  In fact, “Marc’s going to have a large state guild focus, to help them achieve their priorities,” Bob said. Indeed, Marc is very cognizant that the BA is “not driving the bus on priorities” at the state level and only “there to help if appropriate,” he reminded multiple times. “We don’t do anything in the states unless the state guild is in support.” That said, Marc will “lead for us on the policy development side,” Bob said, especially on “market access issues.” He sees “a lot of market access issues at the state level percolating.” 

There’s another oddity of the timing, because many of those issues weren’t percolating quite as quickly when the org made the call to bring on Marc full-time. Again, the timing is “unfortunate. It sucks,” Bob said plainly, “but there’s an opportunity right now to maybe change some rules and regulations that allow the smallest craft brewers to have the access to market that they should have” and “that quite frankly, before Covid, they didn’t have.” Small brewers in many states now have “an opportunity to level the playing field a little bit,” Bob said. And he sees having Marc in-house as a clear way to take those oppys. “Right-sizing doesn’t mean shrinking forever,” he said, recalling comments he made during the all-staff meeting announcing recent layoffs. “We are having a horrific year,” he told his team, “but we are financially solvent. We are solid. The moves we are making will allow us to be here this year, next year and beyond.” 

Defense Against Tax Increases Top o’ Mind at State, Fedl Levels  In Marc’s view, he expects to be spending quite a bit of time defending small brewers in challenging tax battles in near-future legislative sessions. “It’s no secret that almost every state budget has taken a beating,” Marc said, so naturally states will look to “raise revenues.” But “with most of our members taking 30, 40, 50% hits in their sales, a tax increase is going to be devastating.” The good news is, on tax hikes, BA and brewers guilds unlikely to go it alone, as other producers and wholesalers generally aligned. Plus, Marc “doubt[s] this will be beer only.” On the federal level, taxes are clearly Marc’s top priority, he told us. “Absolutely number one is CBMTRA,” he said, or bill that would make permanent the current lower fedl excise tax rates, initially passed in late 2017. While BA fedl affairs head Katie Marisic is the org’s “boots on the ground in Congress,” he’s “going to be supporting her in those efforts.” 

Covid & Craft: Relief Efforts, Consignment, To-Go Sales and Direct Shipping  Marc will also assist Bob and Katie as they work on other fedl Covid relief measures, including the org’s role in Perishable Food and Beverage Coalition, currently lobbying for a tax credit for consumables that are no longer saleable due to the pandemic. Marc and org also looking to ensure that the Natl Restaurant Assn’s RESTAURANTS Act, “if that comes to fruition,” includes “assistance for brewpubs and other retail focused businesses like that,” he commented. Plus, plenty more potential relief packages and measures could be still to come, natch. 

But among temporary Covid-related regulatory relief measures that Marc sees as having real potential for longer-lasting change is relaxation of rules against consignment sales. Tho BA hasn’t yet developed official stance, Marc wonders if it’s “time to maybe rethink this one” and “try to come up with a rule that ensures better beer quality for the consumer,” without so many hoops or red tape. He’s “not sure” a  prohibition against consignment sales “helps or hinders any kind of level playing field in the market.” Instead, a lot of the time, such laws just “make sure there’s more old beer in the market,” he thinks. And that’s “bad for the industry in general,” especially “if retailers get stuck with some old beer” and run a “fire sale.” He found it “amazing how quickly every state” (or so it seems) relaxed consignment rules “and the sky didn’t fall.”

Hottest temporary relief measures, like to-go alc bev sales by on-premise retailers, delivery/curbside pickup and direct shipping, also likely to pop up, natch. “Beer consumers want the kind of variety and choice that 8,000 breweries in America offer,” Marc summed up trajectory of craft over last 5-10 yrs. But “a lot of that growth over the last 5 years especially has been driven by consumers going to the brewery. And Covid has changed that.” So brewers have “got to figure out ways to get beer to the consumer.” He suspects that’ll include “to-go laws” and, if certain state guilds choose to make it a priority, direct shipping too. Marc recalled prior CBC speeches highlighting “the winery model and the bundle of rights that wineries have” that help the US “support eleven- or twelve-thousand wineries” alongside a “very robust distribution system for mainstream products.” Currently, self-distribution and taproom privileges more common for breweries than direct shipments and brewers “don’t have all three in most states,” Marc reminded. So on shipping, given difficulty of operating on-premise outlets during Covid and for foreseeable future, “I would imagine guilds would start looking at that as a priority,” he said. 

Back to Bob: Remember Bart; “Preeminent Subject Matter Expert” of Bev Alc Law “Coming Home”  Explaining reasoning behind the hire, Bob related it to hiring Bart Watson as chief economist. When initially proposing a “pretty high-priced hire” for (at the time) a rather amorphous economist role, the board was “skeptical,” Bob shared. But “if we hire the right person, [they] will create value well beyond” the tasks the org knew then that an economist would handle, he told them. Then came Bart. And now look. Tho the BA considered hiring in-house legal counsel for some time, it always figured that would be an add-on to working with Marc and McDermott. This outcome, “for me, it’s the best of both worlds,” Bob told us. In his eyes, BA hired the “preeminent subject matter expert of beverage alcohol law.”

Reflecting on this next “exciting chapter,” Marc acknowledged that despite the various industry folks he’s met and worked with over the years, “[I] always had my heart with the small brewers.” Just out of law school, he began focusing on alc bev law “because of Michael Jackson books” and “going to beer tastings at the Brickskeller,” the iconic DC beer haunt. Recalling the “great personalities throughout the industry,” Marc commented that it “certainly feels to me like the great personalities in some of the other segments of the industry” are “not there anymore” as those parts of the biz became “a little bit professionalized.” But “craft producers are still producing lots of quirky personalities,” Marc quipped. After feeling like he achieved all he could at McDermott, joining the BA “feels like coming home.”

MI's Short's Brewing entered New York City and Long Island with SKI Beer Distribs, marking its 10th state. Recall, Short's is another craft brewer with broader range of beyond beer, including Beaches Hard Seltzer and Starcut Ciders. Co will start with core products from each brand family in NYC: Short's Soft Parade fruit ale, Huma Lupa Licious IPA and Local's Light American Lager; Beaches variety pk, featuring "cocktail-inspired" flavors like Margarita, Mojito, Paloma and Pina Colada; and Starcut's Pulsar, Octorock and Mosa ciders. NYC expansion doesn't include Arcadia which Short's subsidiary co, Superfluid Supply, recently obtained brand rights for and announced plans to revive.

A couple of breweries recently confirmed temporary and permanent taproom closings last week. Given expansion of 2nd, 3rd and more taproom outlets by major craft players over last few yrs, no surprise that costs associated with operating those sites often among the first small brewers are cutting off as the spread of the coronavirus causes everyone to check their belts.