During debate over a new bill in February, an Oklahoma state senator surprised another with a starkly different understanding of how the rest of the country deals with the issue at hand. Why, she asked, does the bill explicitly restrict alcohol manufacturers from operating wholesalers or retailers? During a quick Internet search the night before,... View Article
Like trademarks themselves, disputes over trademarks must be unique. They’re each highly dependent on the individual set of facts at hand. So unless significant marks for large brands are at stake, these stories can have little impact on anyone outside the companies involved. About a year ago, the federal suit Lagunitas filed against Sierra Nevada... View Article
In the days surrounding the California Craft Brewers Summit in September, a handful of developments rocked the state’s beer world. Lagunitas Brewing Co. announced its joint venture with Heineken, and MillerCoors announced it would buy a majority stake in Saint Archer Brewing Co. just days before people in the business of making, distributing, selling and... View Article
Three relatively small beer segments represented less than 7 percent of total volume in 2005, but expanded to almost 14 percent by 2014. In that time, craft steadily tripled to near 19 million barrels (31 gallons each), according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Cider held at just a couple-hundred thousand barrels while it wasn’t even being... View Article
Peak summer. Heavy heat, bright sun, and the lawn still has to be mowed. The moment just screams “beer!” somehow. Lots of other common summer moments do, too: firing up the grill for a Memorial Day barbecue, taking the boat out on the lake, teeing off, tanning poolside, stretching mid-seventh inning. Over years of the... View Article
This column first appeared in the July 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe. Between last September (2014) and this past April, half a dozen breweries, producing between 60,000 and 200,000 barrels in 2014, announced that they’d received investments from private equity firms. The pace of these deals hasn’t slowed. As... View Article
Recent TV ads and other marketing for a couple of the biggest beer brands in the United States—Miller Lite and Budweiser—refocus viewers’ attention to the beer. Extreme close-ups taken inside tanks, hands rubbing hops, barley fields, liquid pouring and more. With these new spots, the companies that operate the country’s largest breweries seem to be... View Article
As taste is subjective, so too is the value of a beer to beer drinkers. None of us have identical taste experiences even if the liquid we’re tasting is technically identical. Personal preferences often guide our evaluation of the intrinsic properties of a beer—those detectable by a blind taster or beer judge. Of course, beer... View Article
Choosing a beer story to spend time with is getting as tough as choosing a beer, it seems. Fascination with beer isn’t new: Beer stories, often juicy, full of colorful characters and best served with a pint to match, have captured attention for generations because they often deliver. When I tell people I write about... View Article
