Brewscape: The Latest Craft Beer Brand News

Craft Brewery Consolidation Continues

The trend of small and regional craft breweries partnering across the country continued into the fall.

Two of the bigger deals involved Ninkasi parent company Great Frontier Holdings acquiring Ecliptic Brewing, and Smuttynose Brewing Co. parent company Finestkind Brewing acquiring Five Boroughs Brewing Co. in Brooklyn.

In early November, Great Frontier Holdings – the craft beverage platform formed by the merger of Ninkasi Brewing and Wings & Arrow earlier this year – purchased the assets of Portland, Oregon-based Ecliptic Brewing.

Citing a “really challenging” “past two years,” Ecliptic founder John Harris announced the sale on the brewery’s social media pages.

“We have encountered so many issues that other small businesses have faced: a pandemic, rising cost of goods, supply chain issues and the overall economic climate,” he wrote. “It has gotten to the point where we are no longer able to continue operations, and the company has sold.

“The sale will allow me to pay back our debts and align the brand with a bigger entity to allow it to continue,” Harris continued.

Great Frontier is acquiring Ecliptic’s intellectual property for distribution and bringing Harris on board, CEO Josh Landan said.

“It’s a big deal for us to join forces and for John to come into our business,” he said. “He’s gonna be here with us working on the brands and on the board and he’ll be involved. It’s not like, ‘Hey, great, this is awesome,’ and then ‘see you later.’

“It’s nowhere near anything like that,” he continued. “He’s obviously one of the most legendary brewers in the PacNorthwest, if not the most. Him working with our director of brewing operations Daniel Sharp – that’s going to be an awesome combo working on these Ecliptic beers moving forward for us.”

Production of Ecliptic’s beers will move 115 miles south to Ninkasi’s facility in Eugene, Oregon. Ecliptic’s taproom closed November 18.

Also in early November, Finestkind made the Five Boroughs deal, which closed on October 23.

“Smuttynose is a craft beer pioneer, and we share their commitment to high-quality craft beers,” Five Boroughs co-founder and CEO Blake Tomnitz said in a release. “Under their leadership, we’re confident in the brand’s continued growth, reaching even more craft beer consumers across the tri-state area and beyond.”

Five Boroughs co-founder and CFO Kian Oveissi added: “We are incredibly proud of the foundation laid by the entire team here at Five Boroughs over the last six years. Each team member, past and present, has contributed to the success of the company and collectively propelled us to where we are today. I am fully confident that Finestkind will be great stewards, leveraging resources and economies of scale, to ensure the continued growth and future of what the team here has built.”

In the coming months, Five Boroughs’ production will be shifted to Smuttynose’s facility in Hampton, New Hampshire. However, Five Boroughs will maintain its taproom in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn as an innovation-focused hub for small-batch beers.

In addition to Smuttynose, Finestkind’s portfolio of brands includes spirits-based, ready-to-drink Island District Cocktails. The company is also exploring expansion into non-alcoholic offerings, and is open to further expansion as a geographically diverse beverage platform.

“We do have a large appetite for more M&A – we have additional capacity that is not utilized,” Finestkind CEO Steve Kierstead told Brewbound. “In the short term, the focus is to really make sure that we’re doing right by Five Boroughs and focusing on the brand Five Boroughs and learning the brand and long term growing the brand, but we do have a big appetite for building a platform.”

Blake’s Hard Cider and Austin Eastciders Merge

Blake’s Hard Cider and Austin Eastciders have merged under the Blake’s Beverage Company umbrella, bringing together the top-selling cider brands in Texas and Michigan and creating the second-largest cider company in the U.S, the company announced today.

Michigan-based Blake’s, Texas-based Austin Eastciders and Oregon-based Avid Cider Company, which Blake’s acquired last year, will collectively fall under the Blake’s Beverage Company while continuing to operate as distinct brands, Blake’s Hard Cider founder and CEO Andrew Blake told Brewbound.

The merger was “a cashless” deal that saw each company’s stock rolled up into the new entity, Blake said. The transaction closed October 31.

Chase Kushak, former Founders Brewing chief operating officer, will lead Blake’s Beverage Company as president. Kushak was hired in June in preparation for the acquisition and integration of the teams, Blake said.

Blake’s Beverage Company will operate across New York, Michigan, Oregon and Texas with an expected output of around 200,000 barrels in 2023.

The merger is the latest move by Blake’s in its ambition to compete with market leader Angry Orchard, which is owned by the Boston Beer Company. It follows a $9 million investment last year to build a production facility in Wolcott, New York, with 1 million cases of capacity, as well as the acquisition of Avid.

Those moves were aimed at solving the supply side of Blake’s business, insulating it from the volatile year-over-year apple supply with a “supply chain foundation” across the primary apple-growing regions in the U.S. and infrastructure to scale the business, Blake said.

“When we put together that infrastructure, it just so happened we really shored up our supply chain of apples and had a robust production infrastructure,” Blake said. “And we realized we were in a place where we could bring in more volume to that platform to help scale not only our brands, in Blake’s and Avid, but also brands like Austin.”

Blake believes the combined Blake’s Beverage Company portfolio is set up to appeal to flavor-seeking Generation Z and millennial consumers, while also competing with Angry Orchard.

“The hope with what we’ve put together with Blake’s Beverage Company is a company that can bring competition back to the cider category for AO [Angry Orchard], and hopefully they’ll respond with innovation and investment in the category,” he added. “If that happens, you could see cider doing some really amazing things from a market share perspective and total alcohol, and I think over the next 12 to 18 months retailers, distributors and the general market will start to start to see some of that play out.”

Shiner Enters the Non-Alc Market with Rode0 Golden Brew; More NA Beer in 2024

The Gambrinus Company is attempting to carve out its own slice of the growing non-alcoholic (NA) beer pie with a line of NA Shiner offerings.

The NA series Shiner Rode0 is launching in time for Dry January, beginning with Rode0 Golden Brew, a less than 0.5% ABV American lager. The year-round beer, available nationally now, has “crisp and malty notes that are perfectly balanced by delicate esters and a gentle hop profile,” promising to still have “the taste and aroma Shiner is known for,” without the alcohol, according to a press release.

Shiner will follow the launch with two other NA offerings and a Rode0 variety pack in 2024. The second release will be a red amber, launching in February, followed by a third yet-to-be announced style in summer 2024, according to a Shiner spokesperson. The variety pack is also expected to launch over the summer.

NA beer dollar sales are up +29.4% year-to-date (YTD) in Circana-tracked off-premise channels, through November 5, with the segment claiming 0.78% share of beer dollar sales in the period. NA volume (case sales) is also up double-digits (+18.9% YTD).

Other veteran craft brands announced plans to capitalize on the growth of the NA market, including Sierra Nevada. The Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery begins shipping two NA beers – Trail Pass IPA and Trail Pass Golden – in November, with shelves expected to be stocked with 12 oz. can 6-packs of both offerings in time for January 1. The company also expanded its Hop Splash hop water brand with a new year-round offering, Hop Splash Citrus, in November.

Boston Beer Company also plans to prioritize its NA business through Samuel Adams, with the goal of hitting 1.5 million cases of Just the Haze nationally by the end of 2025, Samuel Adams brand director Lauren Price told wholesalers in October.

NA beer has the potential to claim as much as 20% of the beer market, Athletic Brewing co-founder and CEO Bill Shufelt recently said during an interview on BevNET’s Taste Radio Podcast. Athletic has driven much of that growth so far, with the non-alcoholic beer maker growing to be the 13th largest craft brewer in the country in 2022.

However, new players in the space may have a harder time finding growth, Whole Foods principal buyer for beer Mary Guiver warned at the Beer Institute’s annual meeting in October. Guiver noted that NA beer is now Whole Foods’ “No. 3 category behind craft and import,” but the retailer is already approaching its limit for shelf space dedicated to the segment, and is prioritizing maintaining space and growth for top brands.

Rhinegeist, New Belgium Appoint New CEOs

A new wave of craft leaders are taking the helm of top craft breweries such as Rhinegeist Brewery and New Belgium.

Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist named Adam Bankovich as CEO and promoted several other leaders internally in mid-October.

Bankovich, who had served as interim CEO since late April, was promoted to CEO effective October 13. He joined Rhinegeist as chief commercial officer in October 2022, after nine years at San Diego’s Stone Brewing, last serving as VP of sales. He maintained the CCO role while interim CEO.

Rhinegeist co-founder Bryant Goulding told Brewbound that the company received 250 applications for the CEO position but Bankovich proved he was the right fit for the role, quickly acclimating himself to every team and department and showing an understanding of the company’s strategy, culture and goals during his time at the helm.

“I watched [Adam] come into a time where we had some serious challenges … and stabilize and create a really clear set of expectations for layers of leadership, and then allow them the autonomy to grow,” Goulding said. “And the feedback that we got, even before he was an interim CEO, was that that clarity was really helpful and it really put a lot of that noise out. And there was a clear signal of what we needed to do to focus our efforts to succeed.

“The massive gains that we’ve just had on cognitive load and focus on what we need to do and what’s really valuable, how do you determine value – there’s so much under the hood that we’ve found valuable in really a short amount of time,” he continued. “[And] it wasn’t Bob and I doing this, Adam has really stewarded this sort of understanding that has turned into financial improvement.”

In addition to Bankovich’s promotion to CEO, Rhinegeist made three additional leadership promotions:

• Cole Hackbarth was promoted to VP of brewery operations;

• Marc Venegoni was promoted to VP of sales;

• And Tracey Ireland was promoted to VP of marketing.

Meanwhile, New Belgium Brewing Company promoted chief marketing officer Shaun Belongie as its next CEO of New Belgium, effective in early November.

Belongie took the spot left vacant by Steve Fechheimer earlier this year.

Fechheimer’s planned departure was announced in June, with his last day on July 21. He spent more than six years at the Fort Collins, Colorado-based craft brewery, overseeing the company’s acquisition by Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages.

New Belgium is now the name for Lion’s full U.S. business, including the Colorado brewery itself, Michigan-based Bell’s Brewery and Kansas-based Distinguished Vineyards, a company spokesperson told Brewbound.

Belongie has served as New Belgium CMO for the past five years, helping the company build its Voodoo Ranger brand, including tripling brand sales from three to nine million cases over three years, and launching Voodoo Ranger Juice Force, the biggest innovation by dollar sales in craft beer history, according to the release.

“To some degree this appointment is really a vote of confidence from Lion, our parent company, that we have this great leadership team in place,” Belongie said. “And that leadership team has really talked about this idea of where we need to go. It’s taking where we are today – which is obviously pushing the bounds of what craft beer was – and then thinking about what that new future is going to look like.”

In his new role, Belongie will also be responsible for helping lead Bell’s Brewery, alongside Bell’s EVP Carrie Yunker.

As CEO, Belongie’s focus will be on “continuing to drive the momentum behind the things that are working,” a large chunk of that being New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger brand. However, there is also “some positive momentum on the Bell’s side,” Belongie said.

“Voodoo Ranger is the obvious thing that’s working, but there’s a lot in the Bell’s portfolio that’s really started to work now as we’ve doubled down behind these iconic brands that really drive the Bell’s portfolio,” he said.

Oskar Blues’ Austin Brewery and Taproom Closes; Ninkasi Shutters Better Living Room

The Oskar Blues brewery and taproom in Austin, Texas, has closed.

Monster-owned CANarchy confirmed the Austin brewery’s closure to Brewbound, issuing the following statement:

“After more than seven years of producing and serving our beers from the Oskar Blues Brewery and taproom in Austin, Texas, we’ve made the very difficult decision to wind down operations at the facility. Austin’s current production will be shifted to other CANarchy facilities, and all our products will remain available for sale at retail in the state of Texas.

“We have enjoyed being part of the Austin craft beer and music community and we thank everyone who has supported our business along the way. We will always consider this chapter and our time in Austin an important part of the Oskar Blues and CANarchy legacy. At this time, our top priority is communicating with and supporting our internal team through this transition and therefore, we have no further comment.”

The 50,000 sq. ft. Oskar Blues Austin brewery and taproom opened in August 2016, about a year after plans were first announced.

Oskar Blues continues to operate breweries and taprooms in Longmont, Colorado, and Brevard, North Carolina. The Oskar Blues brand and the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective were sold to energy drink maker Monster in January 2022 in a $330 million cash deal.

Meanwhile, Ninkasi Brewing has shuttered its Better Living Room taproom in Eugene, Oregon.

The company cited increasing costs leading to challenges in making “the BLR experience profitable while maintaining our commitment to local sourcing, high standards and employee benefits.”

“As we prepare to endure the anticipated challenges of the winter months, the Better Living Room can no longer continue to weather these storms without putting the rest of the Ninkasi Brewing Company employees in jeopardy,” the company wrote. “Multiple other local breweries, restaurants and small businesses have had to make similarly difficult decisions in the last couple weeks and months. The larger craft beer industry is continuing to experience headwinds like we have not experienced …”

Two Roads and Guy Fieri Team Up for Flavortown Spiked FMB

A frequent haunt of late for Guy Fieri’s red convertible isn’t a diner, a drive-in, or a dive, but rather Stratford, Connecticut-based Two Roads Brewing.

The Food Network star and the regional craft brewery have teamed up to launch Flavortown Spiked Fruit Punch, a 6% ABV flavored malt beverage (FMB) that will hit retailers later this month. It “likens back to a Hawaiian Punch for all intents and purposes,” Two Roads co-founder, president and CEO Brad Hittle told Brewbound.

Flavortown Spiked Fruit Punch will launch in 12 oz. can 6-packs in November, with 19.2 oz. single-serve cans to follow in January. A variety 8-pack with more punch and tea flavors will roll out in time for spring resets.

The collaboration began a year ago when Two Roads was exploring its portfolio strategy and innovation conversations kept circling back to flavor. Who better to lead the charge than the mayor of Flavortown himself?

Fieri – the spiky-haired, gregarious TV chef who hosts Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games, among other shows – has become synonymous with his Flavortown catchphrase and vast flavor-centric business empire, with 17 restaurant concepts worldwide.

Flavortown Spiked isn’t Fieri’s first foray into beverage-alcohol. In 2022, he starred as the mayor of the futuristic Land of Loud Flavors in a Super Bowl commercial for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda.

The Two Roads’ partnership goes deeper than Fieri appearing in ads. Fieri has had input at every step of the process, from flavor development to ingredient procurement. The Flavortown Spiked line uses real fruit juice and “really high-quality teas,” an investment Hittle said was necessary to go to market.

Fieri has also been generous with his time. He’s been on phone calls and Zoom meetings with the brewery’s distributor network and key national accounts. During the brewery’s annual distributor meeting earlier this fall, Fieri called in and chatted to the group more than twice as long as his allotted 15 minutes.

“Sometimes you get into these celebrity things and there’s an automatic level of trepidation,” Hittle said. “Because you’re dealing with celebrities, you don’t know how much they’re really going to get behind it. And none of these will work if the celebrity doesn’t really activate it. If the celebrity’s just lending their name and face, you’re bound for failure, because the distributors and retailers and consumers aren’t going to get it.”

Two Roads will lean into Fieri’s star power to support the Flavortown Spiked launch, with a scheduled feature as the exclusive FMB of Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate broadcast during the Super Bowl. Fieri will also make in-person visits to on-premise retailers in his travels for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Hittle said.

“He is the real deal. He’s just a wonderful, warm, real person,” Hittle said. “He’s doing this because he’s excited about it, and he’s going to get behind it, which he’s already demonstrated. So we’re totally jacked up because we teamed up with somebody who’s perfect for this.”