Independent Brewers Association’s Post

I attended the American Cider Association's CiderCon this past week in Portland. Among the varied discussions about where the category is heading, I was encouraged to hear broad acknowledgment—at least among presenters and panelists—that today's drinkers are category agnostic. It's a fact: They're swapping among cider, beer, wine, cocktails, non-alcoholic products, cannabis, and more. But what was less encouraging is that most producers I talked to still look only within their own category for information. (This is true of craft beer, too.) While customers are exploring the big, wide beverage playground, suppliers tend to dig in their own sandboxes. A huge portion of what Bryan Roth and I do at Sightlines is research and synthesize what's happening broadly in beverages and CPG to help bev-alc companies make more informed, ahead-of-the-curve decisions. We keep our newsletters clear and digestible, so companies can stay abreast of broader developments in real time. Subscribe and join us: https://lnkd.in/dWPCy2Xn

After two successful editions, the European Beer Star #FutureAward is entering its third round this year. But what added value do breweries gain by taking part? Stefan Stang, Managing Director, Private Brauereien Bayern e.V.: Participation in the Future Award allows breweries to compare themselves with other industry players. The objective jury provides the breweries with valuable feedback from an "outside perspective" with individual recommendations for sustainable measures in the business, allowing them to improve step by step. After all, #sustainability is a continuous process in which it is important to consistently take one step at a time. The added value is confirmed by the previous #winners. And: there is really no reason not to take part. Participation in the Future Award is free of charge and the effort required to complete the questionnaire is manageable.

I don’t really make a moral judgment on Tilray Brands' follow-the-leader approach to product "innovation." I'm much more interested in simply watching the relative newcomer to the US beer business feel around for the upper limit on over-extending its recently-acquired brands in real time. The company's line-extending tendencies (extendencies?) are especially transparent on one of the other breweries it scooped up from ABI, 10 Barrel Brewing Co., and its sub-brand called Pub Beer. Its expansion under Tilray’s ownership as been revealing. More: https://lnkd.in/gVCFiCFy

Here's a preview of my latest project - a landing page for a craft beer brewery. The page includes information about their brews, events, merchandise, and a brief overview of who they are and their brewing process. Cheers to the good vibes and great beer! 🍻 🎉

Our relationship with lager began during the late 1890s, when Percy Allsopp was appointed Chairman of Samuel Allsopp & Sons, in an attempt to turn-around the fortunes of the company. During this time, Percy travelled the globe to find the best ingredients for his visionary new beer and pioneered lager brewing in the UK. 40 years later, at the 1936 consensus, the brewery was 50% of the capacity of the entire UK lager brewing sector, brewing Pilsner and Bavarian-style beers. Yet Allsopp’s lager wasn’t particularly successful at the time. We were half a century too early to the party, which wasn’t helped by the fact that Allsopp’s Pilsner was launched before refrigeration became widely available. Fast-forward to 2024 and lager is everywhere in the UK. We’ve still got unfinished business with our Allsopp’s Pilsner, but it’s now our fastest-growing beer, which is quite a turn-around! Have you tasted it yet? #Allsopps #AskForAllsopps #Beer #Lager #Pilsner #Brewing

🍻 Veltins: Record sales despite declining beer market! 📈 For 200 years, the brewery C. & A. Veltins has been a cornerstone of German beer culture. However, in recent years, the beer market has undergone significant changes. A declining beer consumption and a trend towards non-alcoholic beverages pose major challenges to the brewing industry. Veltins has successfully turned this trend into an opportunity and achieved remarkable growth. #Veltins #BeerMarket #RecordSales #GermanBeer #Brewery #Growth #Envases #5LitreKeg https://lnkd.in/eB3wa7C6

The Business of Beer Coming from the home of Guinness, a brand that is synonymous with Ireland, we Irish have an appreciation of beer being part of a national identity: think Heineken and Carlsberg as being associated with their home countries, also. But the brewing industry is much more complex than that, with major corporations holding a multitude of national and international brands. So where does a national brewery such as Bofferding fit? How does it compare with the many local and regional brewers in Germany, for example? Where does it sit vis a vis the craft beers and micro-breweries? What are the challenges - quality raw materials, water purity and distribution to name but a few? Join us for a presentation on this by Mathias Lentz, Director of Brasserie Nationale on 10th July, 2024 at 18.00 (Registration) to hear these topics addressed. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A which in turn will precede a tour of the brewery and beer tasting. Canapes will also be available. Registration Prior registration necessary by clicking on this link https://lnkd.in/ee9wFSbs   Or by sending a mail to info@ilcc.lu

Butcombe Brewery drives performance for The Liberation Group 🍻🙌 Butcombe Brewing produced a standout performance for its owner Liberation Group in the company's latest results. The Bristol-born brewery and pubs business, which Liberation bought in 2015, and which now operates more than 60 pubs, delivered strong sales and volume growth with sales up 23 per cent on the previous year. The company said this growth reflects the continued appeal of its brands, the quality of beers and a positive reaction to new product development in the keg ale market. Goram IPA Zero, the group’s multi award-winning alcohol-free IPA, performed particularly strongly in January with record volumes up 95 per cent on the same period ilast year in its managed estate as customers turned to ‘Dry January’ and ‘zebra drinking’, whereby customers alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages throughout the night, in greater numbers. The tenanted division had an excellent year with sales up 4.3 per cent on the same period last year. Continue reading... https://lnkd.in/eGj_xkzp BUTCOMBE BREWERY LIMITED #brewery #brewing #finance #pub #businessnews #businessintelligence

The purchase and planned revival of Anchor Brewing, a branding blast from decades past, had us clinking beers and singing cheers at FINE. It also got us thinking... 🍻🤔 Anchor Brewing might be rising again, but what led America’s first craft brewery to sink in the first place? We break it down on the blog.  #branding #anchorbrewing #hospitality #brandstrategy

The knives are out for Madrí Excepcional 🍺 🗡 Created for the UK market in late 2020 the Molson Coors Beverage Company-developed brand has absolutely crushed it to become one of the UK's top-selling world beers in barely three years. The success of the brand (and the controversy surrounding its origins) has trigged Spanish brewer Hijos de Rivera, S.A.U. (owner of Estrella Galicia, a genuine and great galician beer) to respond with this piece in the Telegraph following a thinly-veiled attack ad launched late last year. The 'One Direction' of the UK beer world, Madrí which is brewed in the UK, is Spanish in absolutely nothing but name and was fabricated by MolsonCoors to capture a slice of the world beer market which it has duly done. Well done them. And while we like to think 'authenticity' is something consumers care about, the success of the brand reinforces the rules of the game in brewing, namely that a) brand matters, and b) sales and distribution muscle matters even more. So while Estrella Galicia and other authentic World Lagers can complain with the perceived 'dishonesty' of the brand, until they're able to make material progress on both of those fronts the situation is unlikely to change... https://lnkd.in/ejgCM3qm