4 great beer stories took place last week

Last week was particularly exciting in the world of beer, even though these reports did not make headlines in the mainstream. All the big beer stories of the week were financial in nature, which might seem suspicious to the average beer drinker. But behind the financial movements are intriguing intrigues involving buyouts from breweries and angry Germans. Let us dive!

Spanish beer company takes majority stake in Avery Brewing

Avery, one of the world's most beloved men of the American craft beer, sold last week a 40% stake to the Spanish brewery Mahou San Miguel. Mahou already had a 30% stake in Avery, so she now controls a majority stake in the Boulder brewery in Colorado. Mahou has partnered with Founders – a brewery in Grand Rapids, Mich., In which Mahou also holds a minority stake – to reinforce his investment in Avery.

What does it mean? As the beer market becomes more competitive and traditional breweries struggle to keep pace, I think we will see more and more brewery business buying and buying, not just Anheuser -Busch InBev or MillerCoors. Room B …

The parent company of Ninkasi Brewing announces its intention to acquire other craft breweries

Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, Oregon, also announced last week its new owner: Legacy Breweries Inc. The newly created company, Legacy Breweries, aims to buy other craft breweries in order to create a collective offering to its members benefits in terms of purchasing power of ingredients and access. shared production equipment. Legacy Breweries CEO Don Bryant, a former CEO of the hop company, was candid in an interview with Brewbound about the company's plans: Legacy hopes to buy two more breweries the size of Ninkasi Eastern Regions, then fill them with 10-15 smaller breweries in these areas. It seems that these big breweries could potentially become centers for the smaller breweries, perhaps brewing some of their beers and helping them to increase their production.

It is an ambitious plan, but not quite unprecedented. In 2015, Oskar Blues and other breweries founded CANarchy, a group now comprised of Perrin Brewing, Cigar City Brewing, Squatters Craft Beers and Wasatch Brewery, Deep Ellum Brewing Company and Three Weavers Brewing Company. The breweries share resources and have even published mixed packages of their beers. Whether it's through Legacy or other similar companies, I think we'll see more of that kind of partnership in the future.

Stone Brewing sells its facilities in Berlin

This news has no impact on American drinkers unless you plan to travel to Berlin, but it's worth reading for the drama alone. California-based Stone Brewing of Escondido, which is currently suing MillerCoors for the term "stone," announced last week that it would sell its Berlin facilities to the Scottish beer company BrewDog. Stone reportedly spent about $ 30 million on the construction of the brewery and "destination restaurant" in 2014.

But here's the real plot: in a blog post he wrote "against professional advice" – a good start – Stone's CEO, Greg Koch, said that basically, Germany was just not ready for the impressive Stone. "When we saw a large part of Germany stuck in a similar status quo with cheap beer, we were convinced to be able to help," he writes, with a widespread attitude in the world of beer . criticized as condescending in a country that has brewed an incredible beer for hundreds of years. "The beer is brewed by extraordinary brewers all over the world. [Germany]. Unfortunately, according to statistics, most Germans still ignore these wonderful beers and buy cheap products. "

I think there are probably many German beer drinkers this week who tell Koch not to let the door knock him on the way out.

Market share of beer drops below 50%

Beer has long been America's favorite liquor. But the new Beer Institute figures reported by Brewbound show that beer now accounts for less than half of the total volume of alcohol consumed in the United States, losing ground against wine and alcohol. In comparison, in 2000, beer accounted for 58% of alcohol consumption in the United States.

This is obviously not good news for beer, although the good news is that craft beer had a good year in 2018 and that beer consumption spending continues to grow, albeit modestly. The Beer Institute predicts that beer volume will continue to decline in 2019, forcing breweries to take new steps to stay afloat. Expect to see more acquisitions and partnerships, like those mentioned above, over the next year.