Expert Topic Preserving and Protecting Hops, For Today And the Future
Hop harvest is one of the most highly anticipated annual events on a brewer’s calendar. The ability to review and select hops for the next year is not only a highlight but offers brewers the opportunity to have direct influence over the raw ingredients they use in their beers. Once those hops arrive at your brewery, keeping them in top condition for future use is a priority. Here are some best practices for keeping hops in great shape and some advice if you want to age your hops for other uses.
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News Greene King Gets Final Approval to Build New Brewery in UK
With excess brewing capacity at an all-time high across the globe as beer consumption declines, building a new brewery from the ground up is almost unheard of in the industry. Almost. Greene King has received final approval for its new $49 million brewery in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK and construction will begin by the middle of this year.
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News The Craft Beer Legacy of Jimmy Carter – Legalizing Homebrew
The homebrewing movement no doubt had a key role in the birth of the craft brewing industry. In the early years of craft brewing, most of those who started a craft brewery were homebrewers. Jimmy Carter, who recently passed away at the age of 100, is responsible for making homebrewing legal in the U.S.
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News Surgeon General Proposes Mandatory Cancer Risk Warning Labels on Alcohol
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has proposed that alcohol beverage containers should carry a warning label that alcohol is a leading cause of cancer. Murthy says in a report issued today that alcohol contributing to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths each year.
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News BA Rolls Out New Marketing Campaign to Promote Members During Dry January
The Brewers Association has rolled out a new consumer-facing marketing campaign in an attempt to drive business to its members breweries after the holidays and during “dry January.” The campaign reveals two evolving trends for the BA; marketing directly to the consumer in an effort to drive more business to its members, and promoting the fact that member breweries offer more than just traditional beer
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Expert Topic Brewing with Non-alcoholic Specific Yeast
As Dry January has firmly entered the consciousness, many brewers are looking to get involved in the category. It’s not easy and there are risks involved, but some companies are working to make it a bit easier for breweries of all sizes to at least experiment with recipes.
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News Harpoon and Smuttynose to Merge – More Deals May Follow
Two pioneering and iconic New England beer brands are merging. Thirty-year old Smuttynose of Hampton, NH will merge operations and ownership with 38-year-old Harpoon Brewery of Boston, MA. The new company more than hinted that they may be looking for more brands to acquire.
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News Jim Koch Announces New Succession Plan for Boston Beer
Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company has famously said many times that his succession plan was “not to die.” Now is has a backup plan. Although he said he has no plans to retire imminently, he has announced that his longtime wife Cynthia Fisher will inherit his controlling stock in the brewery.
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Expert Topic Managing Your Brewery’s Digital Life
Tim Faith has worn a lot of hats at a lot of breweries and beverage producers. He’s run the barrel program at New Holland, been an Innovation Brewer at Goose Island, run technical services for Mark Anthony, and eventually served as the brewmaster for Octopi when it scaled its brewing and co-packing operations from 216,000 barrels a year to more than 800,000. In his work, Faith has seen breweries both small and massive wrestle with all measures of software and technology issues. He’s watched multi-million barrel breweries operate almost entirely on paper and others using personal Gmail accounts to deal in proprietary information. He has some advice for managing digital operations within your brewery.
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News Castle Island Brewing Company to Purchase Cambridge Brewing Brand
Cambridge Brewing recently announced that it was closing its doors after 35 years in business, but it now appears that the Cambridge brand will live on. The pioneering brewery has sold its intellectual property to Castle Island Brewing Company in nearby Boston.
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News TTB Establishes ‘American Single Malt Whisky’ Standard of Identity
In a final ruling, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has amended the distilled spirits standards of identity regulations to include “American single malt whisky” as a type of whisky that is produced in the United States and meets certain other criteria.
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Expert Topic Picking the Software That is Right for you and your Brewery
As the current downward trends impact the beer industry, there is a case to be made for adopting technology to improve business efficiency. The right technology in a brewery can also reduce labor costs and improve customer satisfaction.
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News SPB Hospitality Sells Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch Locations
SPB Hospitality has sold Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, ChopHouse & Brewery, Ragtime Tavern and Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery to Kelly Companies of Southern California. The transaction of this sale includes 16 restaurants, with flagship and airport locations included.
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News FTC Sues Southern Glazier’s for Price Discrimination
The Federal Trade Commission sued Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the largest distributor of beer, wine and spirits in the country for price discrimination, alleging that Southern favored large chain buyers such as Costco, Total Wine & More and Kroger over smaller independent retailers.
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News BA Estimates a Decline of 2% or More in 2024 Craft Beer Production
The Brewers Association (BA) is estimating that 2024 will be a second year of declining sales for independently owned craft breweries. In the BA’s midyear survey, craft saw an estimated decline in production of -2% and the association estimates that the full-year number may be weaker than the midyear estimate.
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Expert Topic Effective Uses of Software at Your Brewery
At the Rhinegeist Brewery in Ohio, software plays a critical role in the brewing process. The brewery uses automation software for their fully automated brew house, ensuring consistent beer quality and efficient production. It also employs Grist for analytics, which helps manage data points and flag issues in the brewery, aiding in change management.
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News ‘Bubble Bill’ Introduced in US Senate to Lower Taxes on Carbonated Fruit Ciders
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York has introduced the Bubble Tax Modernization Act to the Senate (S.5442) to amend the Internal Revenue Code to remove the differentiation between mead and low alcohol wine for purposes of the tax imposed on wines. The bill will help cider makers avoid paying a much higher tax if their cider reaches a certain carbonation level.
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News TTB Exempts 24 Brewing Ingredients from Formula and Approval Requirements
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is expanding its list of exemptions from the formula requirements for brewery products made with certain ingredients by exempting 24 additional ingredients. The exemption of was in responds to two petitions filed by the Brewers Association (BA) requesting further exemptions from formula requirements.
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News BA Names Bart Watson as President and CEO
Posted by Tom McCormick | Leave a Comment
The wait is over. In a much-anticipated decision, the Brewers Association has named Bart Watson as the next President and Chief Executive Officer of the association. Tapping the next leader from the inside of the association to replace Bob Pease is a bit of surprise given that the search was national in scope – but the having a talented, articulate industry veteran who knows the culture of the BA and of the industry will serve the association and its membership well.
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