Beer News

Homebrewers Banned from Pouring at St. Louis’ Heritage Beer Festival

The Heritage Beer Festival in St. Louis, Mo., has been one of the most popular venues for homebrewers to showcase their talent since 2008. Homebrewers would pour along with commercial breweries, and attendees would get to experience all the region had to offer.

This year, however, the homebrewers received an unexpected bit of news just days before the festival was set to begin: They would not be allowed to pour their homebrew at Heritage Fest, due to the realization that it is—and apparently has been—a violation of a city statute.

The legal conflict stems from the fact that Heritage attendees pay an admission fee, so they’re technically “buying” the beer they drink.  Homebrewers don’t have a license to sell their beer. Therefore, their act of pouring at Heritage is against the law.

For now, the homebrewers are left without a festival. However, they are planning a free-admission fest in hopes they’ll still be able to share their beer with the community and raise money for local charities. They’re also in touch with local legislators about revising the law to allow them into next year’s Heritage Fest.

There’s good reason to be optimistic about getting the law changed: Other homebrewers have encountered similar situations in Wisconsin and Oregon, and brewers in both states emerged victorious in their respective legislative campaigns. Homebrewers in Illinois are seeking a similar victory after pouring was barred from the Peoria International Beer Festival.

The KGB Begins Operations in Kentucky

As Kentucky’s craft brewing boom continues, a number of breweries and brewpubs in the state have united to form the Kentucky Guild of Brewers. According to an official release from the KGB, the nonprofit organization’s objectives are “to act as a singular voice and advocate for the Kentucky brewing industry in all pertinent matters of legislation and governmental administration; to evenly promote all member breweries through the organization of events and publication of media; and to amalgamate the knowledge and economic sway of member breweries.”

The group’s founding members come from nine different breweries and brewpubs—Bluegrass Brewing, Against the Grain, Cumberland Brewery, Kentucky Ale, Country Boy Brewing, West 6th Brewing, Beer Engine, Apocalypse Brewing and Lore Brewing. The organization is governed by a board of directors, nominated and elected by member breweries; Adam Watson, of Against the Grain, will serve as the board’s first president.

Watson has stated that initially, the group will serve more of a promotional purpose, and eventually they will be able to effectively address any legal and administrative issues that hinder in-state brewers.

Buy the Next Round, from Halfway Around the World

A new smartphone app promises that absentee friends no longer have an excuse for not buying their friends a round of beers. BuddyBeers, an app available on Android and iOS devices, claims to “empower generosity” by enabling users to buy rounds for one another at participating bars, from anywhere in the world.

Necessity is the father of invention, and in this case, there was an urgent need for Travis Todd to buy a beer for his little brother’s 21st birthday. The only problem: Todd was in Germany, and his little brother was in Florida. Thus, Todd was struck with the inspiration for BuddyBeers. He got together with fellow Berlin-based developers Benedikt Bingler and Min-Sung Sean Kim, and the team developed and fine-tuned the app.

With several dozen participating venues throughout the United States, Europe, Central America, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, BuddyBeers is gaining some serious traction. The app is free for everyone, and pub owners who wish to participate can set up their venue via the app’s website. Drinks cost the same as they would if you were at the pub, and can be paid for via PayPal or “Buddy Bucks,” the site’s proprietary virtual currency.

Breckenridge Mulls Options After Growth Plans Squashed

Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery is growing by leaps and bounds. Their 2012 production is expected to nearly double from the 31,000 barrels brewed just two years ago, and the brewery has had its sights set on expansion for the past several months. The only problem is that Colorado state law prohibits breweries that also operate brewpubs from producing more than 60,000 barrels per year.

Denver-based Breckenridge (who merged with fellow Colorado brewery Wynkoop in 2011) operates a total of nine restaurants—four of which are brewpubs. Naturally, an expansion under the current Colorado laws didn’t make sense, so they attempted to convince the state legislature to raise the production limit to 300,000 barrels annually. Their proposal evolved into House Bill 1347, and after a promising first vote in April, it appeared they might succeed.

Unfortunately, once word got out about HB 1347, the bill received vehement opposition from distributors, grocery stores and even some fellow Colorado craft breweries that felt the bill offered brewpub operators too many competitive advantages. Lawmakers then deemed the bill too contentious to be voted on that close to the end of the legislative session, and HB 1347 died without getting a second vote, leading Breckenridge to threaten taking their expansion—and the 50-75 jobs it would provide—to another state.

Then, on June 29th, Colorado’s Legislature approved a complicated measure that could allow Breckenridge to take advantage of an “alternating proprietorship.” However, not content with the cumbersome details of this measure, Breckenridge will take the matter back to the Legislature again next year, and will be better prepared to handle the opposition.

Anheuser-Busch InBev Purchases Grupo Modelo, Adds Corona to Portfolio

On June 29th, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced they had reached an agreement with Mexico’s Grupo Modelo that will give them full ownership of the company. ABI, who already owned roughly 50 percent of Modelo, will shell out $20.1 billion (at $9.15 per share) for the remaining stake.

The addition of Modelo’s brands—which include Corona and Negra Modelo, among others—to ABI’s portfolio will further solidify ABI’s rank as the largest provider of beer worldwide. It’s estimated that the combined conglomerates would produce over 340 million barrels of beer annually, with operations in 24 countries employing more than 150,000 workers. With this purchase, ABI is also poised to control nearly 54 percent of the entire US beer market.

ABI CEO Carlos Brito states via press release, “Grupo Modelo has been one of our most important partners for more than 20 years and we are very pleased to evolve our long and successful relationship into this combination.”

As part of ABI’s purchase plan, Modelo will sell their 50-percent stake in Crown Imports, their US importer, back to Constellation Brands, which will then own 100 percent of Crown. Crown will continue to manage importing, marketing, pricing and distribution to wholesalers, while ABI will supply the product. Grupo Modelo’s brand identity and corporate headquarters in Mexico City will also remain as-is for the foreseeable future. ■