This spring Craft Brew Alliance (CBA), a publically traded, Portland, Ore.-based beer company announced a series of expansions. The ninth largest US brewery produces four brands: Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Kona Brewing and Omission Beer.
Many companies that make beer in offshore US locations want to grow and bring their local products to consumers on the mainland. And for breweries in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, distributing bottled beers stateside sometimes means relying on the oft-debated practice of contract brewing.
As the relationship between breweries, brewers guilds, beer publications and beer bloggers gets cozier, hard lines are becoming more difficult to define.
Andy Thomas spent 12 years at Heineken International, where he held the reins as president and CEO of Heineken USA from 2005–2007. Then he surprised everyone when he accepted the position of president of the Craft Brewers Alliance.
For us, a craft brewer is like obscenity. No one needs to strictly define it for us. We’ll know a craft brewer when we meet one and try his or her beers.
Hello “Anheuser-Busch InBev;” Pabst mocks Philly’s murals; “beer” loses some of its buzz; Redhook & Widmer Merge; and Ontarians call for an end to beer duopoly.
Grolsch swings to SABMiller, Widmer and Redhook to merge, Canadians’ outdated beer fridges, “Dublin Beer Bandit” at large, and a new beer allegedly reaches 20 percent ABV.
