Category: Uncategorized

Regardless of what report one reads today concerning beer shipments or sales of beer to retailers, the numbers all reflect negative trends.  Until last week’s reports, which showed some improvement in STRs, the negative numbers continue to accelerate.  Such a downward pattern has not been since the days of the Schlitz decline, with major brands […]

Much has been written about ABI, MC, Heineken, Constellation Brands and others brands, regarding their recent purchases of craft breweries.  This model of large companies purchasing smaller craft breweries was once very rare, but now it almost seems one craft brewer is purchased monthly.  One of the main concerns is the amount of money, or […]

.This post begins the sixth year of Beer Business Unplugged and as usual, I will comment on past posts and the industry in general.  This year’s posts did produce one blog in particular which resulted in an off-the-chart read. The one post that brought in the most responses was, ironically, November 8th’s post, We Live in […]

It is appropriate that on Independence Day, July 4th, the beer industry is reviewing the Brewers Association’s recent announcement of their new craft beer logo (see the attachment). This logo is certifying that the craft brewer’s beer you are drinking meets the BA’s definition of an independent craft brewer. The BA’s current definition, which has […]

Well now, that did not take long, did it?  On May 9th, this post wrote about the future of the beer industry in conjunction with the major retailer, Amazon.  Now, less than two months later, the industry is on alert as Amazon has announced its purchase of Whole Foods for an incredible $13.7 billion dollars! […]

Several years ago this post ran a story on the inception of the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas.  While playing golf one afternoon 30 years ago, I ran into the first Pearl Beer distributor for that market. This gentleman had started his distributorship immediately following the end of the prohibition period. This man told me […]

Was anyone really surprised with the recent NFL announcement that spirits can be advertised, with certain restrictions, on their games?  A better question might be; why did it take so long for the NFL to come to this conclusion? The obvious answer to why the NFL has now decided to allow the advertising of spirts […]

The book, The Beer Monopoly, by Ina Verstl and Ernst Faltermeier, goes into detail regarding how the four largest beer companies, ABI, SABMiller, Heineken, and Carlsberg, landed their current positions. The historical perspective of each company is well detailed, going back to the starting foundations of each organization. What makes this book even more fascinating […]

Over the years of posting stories, there have been a number written about individuals who, for personal reasons, violated either federal, state or contractual law.  Examples of such violations include: selling Old Milwaukee kegs as Schlitz, trans-shipping Coors out of a warehouse to eastern markets, dumping beer in Mexico, changing ABV dates on packages in […]

This Saturday Jim Koch will turn 68, and as we do every year at this time, let’s take a look at Boston Beer in 2017.  Unfortunately, what we see is not a pretty picture. In the recent IRI data, ending April 30, 10 of the top 17 growth craft brands are totally owned, or partially […]