Our plans for the rest of the week pictured.
At first, I thought having the 4th of July on a Wednesday was stupid. The middle of the week? How am I supposed to go back to work? Ahh…I’m not. The solution seems simple now. The CBB crew collectively realized we need a break, so we’re taking a few days off. Two more posts will go live today, and then we’ll be back next Monday. Since the core four are going their separate ways right now, I thought our readers might enjoy revisiting some of the classic hits that made us who we were in 2018, which if you didn’t know was award-winning.
These fancy booze coolers have way more friends than you ever will (and those friends have cute dogs)
What am I supposed to be looking at in this photo?
I’m hungover. Birthday party last night. Terrible idea for a Wednesday evening. Terrible. Now I have zero desire to do anything for anybody. I need to post something easy. I search my inbox. Nothing. Wait. Something. Chill.Systems’ iceless beverage coolers? Is that something? I click on the photo link. Gold. Oh my. Pure 18K wonderfulness. I now share with you the press photos for Chill.Systems ultimate, ice-free way to keep beverages cold while on the go: The two-part system, comprised of The Chiller and The Chiller’s Pack, launched on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $50,000 in 50 days. Read more here…
Craft Brewing Business wins award: Named one of the top 10 business websites in America (fist pump)
Cheers to us!
We were in Washington, D.C., last week, yuking it up at the National Press Club. We were attending the American Society of Business Publication Editors’ 2018 National Conference and Azbee Awards Banquet. Craft Brewing Business was a finalist for the most coveted web award in the business publication world — Website of the Year, 2018 Azbee Awards of Excellence. We did not win (cue sad trombone), but we were awarded the designation as one of the top 10 business websites in America, which ain’t half bad. Read more here…
How do you determine the price of a craft beer? (price to distributor, price to retailer and price to consumer)
I recently bought a book called Priceless, The Myth of Fair Value. The book is 300+ pages long and provides great information about pricing and the role of human psychology in how purchasing decisions are made. While the book contains a lot of interesting stories, studies and research, it doesn’t do much to help with the fundamental question: How should you price your products? Ideally, to price your beer, you would determine the costs, add a healthy markup, and sell it to your distributor (or retailer) at a fat profit. Unfortunately, the market forces and your competitors have some influence here. Read more here…
How the two women behind St. Clair Brown merged wine and beer into Napa’s newest nano
The twin powers of Elaine St. Clair and Laina Brown bring you both wine and beer.
The alcohol industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace of late, and successful producers are adapting along with it. While beer consumption actually declined in 2017 (though the craft category was up), the bright spots in booze last year were wine and spirits, which stole share from beer and increased in volume. Wine in particular is evolving in an ever more interesting manner from its traditional roots and vines. A growing number of wineries and winemakers are opting to situate themselves in surprisingly urban settings, taking a page from craft beer and capitalizing on urban traffic, pedestrian and bike ways and city wine trails. Read more here…
Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris praises Pete Coors letter, makes no mention of AB InBev’s role in dividing the beer industry
Let us speak with one voice. Mine.
Last week, which seems like a year ago, Pete Coors, chairman of Molson Coors’ board of directors, posted an “open letter” to the Brewers Association (BA) — an odd thing in itself — noting that he was disappointed that the BA continues to promote a division between “craft” and “corporate” beer. Coors pointed to the recent Craft Brewers Conference and BrewEXPO America in Nashville (one of the BA’s big trade events), feeling its message to brewers and consumers was anti corporate beer and that the beer community as a whole should work together against other categories of inebriates — like wine and spirits. Read more here…
How to use exotic ingredients in beer (like fennel pollen in a dry Irish stout)
Mmm…fennel.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices aren’t anything new to beer. Experimentation with each has been happening since the beginning of beer. Initially, herbs and spices were used for bitterness, flavor and aroma before the discovery of hops. Once we learned about the preservative nature of hops, we began using more and more hops until beer was defined as only four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. These four ingredients give us so much depth when you mix in temperature and time, the possibilities really become endless. Read more here…
2018 craft beer branding trends: An aesthetic State of the Union for beer packaging
I particularly like the murdered out design trend.
Craft beer in 2018 is off to a fun start: 6,000+ breweries, major trademark infringement lawsuits, more acquisitions and closings, more mixed culture beer, glitter beer(?) and the continued craze that is hazy-juicy-milkshaky-New Englandy IPAs. Along with a host of new branding trends, there are several major currents that are impacting the industry and driving these aesthetics themselves. Lager, cannabis, Walmart, the word “craft” — we have a lot to discuss. Let’s dive in. Read more here…
Hop intelligence: Craft professionals share advice from farming to contracting
These are for you.
The humble little hop cone continues to captivate the craft beer industry — so much so that there are more than 60 varieties on the market today. Hop-forward IPAs are by far and away the most popular choice compared to other craft style categories, and (unfortunately) demand and variety for hops has been so great that farmers probably overextended their crop in 2017. Like any commodity, hop production is a delicate balancing act — for both brewer and farmer. Read more here…
Three financial mistakes that every brewery makes
Dressing like this would probably be No. 4.
When it comes to financial reports, the income statement gets all the attention. It’s like the cool kid in high school. The balance sheet is rarely given much attention. It’s like that kid sitting all alone at lunch. The thing is the balance sheet holds the key to your financial success. Three financial mistakes that I see all the time involve the balance sheet. The errors are easy to spot and easy to fix, if you know where to look. The danger is that if these errors go unnoticed for too long, they become big, expensive financial surprises. Read more right here…
A tale of Canadian taxes and protectionist policies: Alberta’s craft beer grant program deemed unconstitutional
Oh Canada…
In the next six months, the Alberta Small Brewers Development Program must change or be shut down. Enacted in 2016, the program has been providing a monthly grant to Alberta breweries that produce and sell up to 300,000 hectoliters of product each year — that’s under 250,000 barrels — so basically almost every brewery in Alberta. The grants are actually based on a participant’s monthly cumulative sales (the exact math is right here). It’s apparently helped 46 new craft breweries start up and/or succeed across the western Canadian province, which is a cool thing, but it’s also become a highlight case for Canada’s tax laws and interprovincial protectionist policies, which is not a cool thing. The program is accused of being a shell game that paid Alberta brewers back for the beer tax the province enacted a couple of years ago around the same time, and after trade complaints and a big lawsuit, government officials are beginning to agree. Read the rest right over here…
