In case you missed it (like we did) Texans will be able to buy beer and wine a little earlier on Sundays starting in September.
In May, the Texas legislature approved House Bill 1518, which allows for sales of beer and wine to start at 10 a.m. on the Lord's Day. Under current law, beer and wine cannot be purchased until noon in stores.
Though tubing season may be winding down by then, the change will make last-minute trips to stock up on drinks much easier.
Shiner Beer, based in Texas, reminded fans of the change in a tweet on Sunday.
"On May 28, the Texas House approved House Bill 1518 by a vote of 115-24. We can only assume the 24 naysayers have fully stocked fridges," the beer company's tweet says.
Just as a reminder, in-store liquor sales are still prohibited on Sundays.
June 29, 2021 at 08:16PM
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New under-the-radar Texas law gives beer, wine purchases an earlier start on Sundays - Chron
MATERA, Italy, June 29 (Reuters) - Taking time out of high-level diplomacy, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas bet his British counterpart Dominic Raab a crate of beer over the result of Tuesday's Euro 2020 Round of 16 game between the two nations.
"My United Kingdom colleague and I agree on almost anything in international affairs, but not on who will win at Wembley tonight. So, how about a little wager," Maas wrote in English on his Twitter feed.
"GER didn't lose its last 7 matches at Wembley. Keep it that way," he said after swapping national soccer shirts with Raab.
The British minister accepted the challenge: "We’ve got a case of @bigsmokebrew riding on this. Come on England!" he wrote on Twitter, referring to an English beer manufacturer.
The two men were in the southern Italian city of Matera for a one-day summit of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 major economies. The meeting is due to end just as the game kicks off at 1600 GMT in London, but it was not clear if Raab and Maas would see it together before heading home.
(Refiles to correct misspelling of Maas's name in second para)
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Ken Ferris
But some fans will go to ridiculous lengths to build a beer snake, as Pederson overheard while playing in the outfield.
"I heard someone trying to... He said, 'I want to buy your cups for twenty dollars,'" Pederson recounted. "I was like, why don't you just go buy a couple beers? But no, he wanted to buy empty cups. I was like, man, you guys are nuts, but it's funny.
It's all a part of an atmosphere that's unrivaled, and to Pederson, part of an energy that fuels the players.
"It gives you an energy vibe off their energy, whether it's a day game, night game that's sold out," Pederson said. "The fans are screaming and the beer snake, all that good stuff."
So there you have it, cup snakes give the players energy when they play.
Unfortunately some overzealous fans threw a cup snake on the field, which Pederson didn't love, and their ban might be reinstated.
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — That’s a lot of beer: A recent study found that the beer industry had an overall economic impact of $9.9 billion in Michigan in 2020.
The beer industry supported more than 66,000 jobs at breweries, distributors, retailers and more, the study from Beer Saves America found.
“Michigan’s independent, locally owned beer distributors are proud to work hand-in-glove with brewers big and small right here in Michigan, across the country and around the world to help them grow and thrive on a level playing field,” Spencer Nevins, president of the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers association, said in a statement. “This new data makes clear that Michigan is not just the Great Lakes State but also the Great Beer State, and Michigan’s beer distributors are proud to play a role in the beer industry’s continued success.”
A report by the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Beer Institute showed that Michigan beer distributors employ 4,866 people in well-paying jobs with good benefits.
“Michigan’s beer distributors have deep roots in the communities they serve,” Nevins said. “That was on display throughout 2020 as our members partnered with local distilleries to produce and deliver hand sanitizer to frontline medical workers and nursing homes when there was a worldwide shortage because of the COVID-19 pandemic and supported local restaurants and their employees.”
The beer industry also supports other industries, like agriculture, transportation and manufacturing.
June 29, 2021 at 05:31AM
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Beer: Michigan’s $9.9 billion business - WOODTV.com
WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. – A man was shot and killed in West Melbourne while trying to de-escalate an argument between two others, police said.
The fatal shooting happened late Friday near Columbia Lane and U.S. 192 in an area where teens and young adults are known to hang out, according to Sgt. Graig Erenstoft.
Family members identified the victim as 19-year-old Andre Hutchinas, a football player and recent Melbourne High School graduate.
West Melbourne police said Gregory Barr II was arrested on second-degree murder charges in connection with the shooting.
According to police, Barr was in an argument with someone else about beer being spilled on him. Barr then put a knife to the person’s throat, and Hutchinas tried to intervene, police said.
Barr attempted to stab or slash Hutchinas with the knife, but he was able to avoid the strike and punched Barr in self-defense, according to a police report.
Barr then pulled out a gun and shot Hutchinas in the neck, police said. Hutchinas was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to investigators.
Erenstoft said it’s disheartening to see someone so young killed over something so trivial.
“It’s obviously tragic. Obviously our hearts go out, our condolences go out to the family but it’s senseless. There’s no reason for it,” he said.
A crowd surrounded Barr, but he threatened them with his gun and told them to get away, police said.
Barr was taken to police headquarters, where he waived his Miranda rights and admitted to shooting the victim, according to the police report.
Video from the West Melbourne Police Department showed partygoers rushing to the patrol car as the first officer arrived on scene to point him to the victim and the suspect.
The officer ran toward a large campfire and yelled for someone to “put the gun down.”
Barr approached the officer with his hands up and followed commands to get on the ground, according to the footage.
As Barr was being taken into custody, partygoers begged the officer to get help for Hutchinas.
“Relax. I’m dealing with one thing at a time,” the officer replied.
The video shows Barr still had a gun in his waistband.
Hutchinas’ mother, Lasondra Pollock, remembered her son as a “gentle giant” who was always making others smile with his jokes and gave the best hugs.
“I mean, his smile would light up the room. He always, he just wanted to have a good time, you know, just innocent fun,” Pollock said.
His goal was to become an entrepreneur.
David Lewis, the president of Palm Bay Rockets football time, said Hutchinas was like a son to him. The two bonded both on and off the field and had grown close over the years.
“He’s just a great kid. This is really hard for me but all in all, I don’t think if he was here he would he would have changed anything. I think he would have done the same thing again,” Lewis said.
Both Lewis and Pollock said it was in Hutchinas’ nature to help others.
“He was loved. You won’t find anybody that’s gonna say anything negative except the kid that shot him,” Lewis said.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover his funeral expenses.
June 29, 2021 at 06:37AM
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Fight over spilled beer leads to fatal shooting in West Melbourne, police say - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Through some convergence of a sponsorship opportunity, a group of star tight ends hanging out, a Top Golf outing, and a mammoth drive by Travis Kelce, you should be getting some free beer sometime this fall.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has earned free beer for the team’s fans (who are obviously 21 years of age or older) for National Tight Ends Day, which is clearly the holiday we needed, on October 24. All of this is courtesy of Bud Light.
If you’re still a little confused, don’t worry. We are, too. All we know is that an official press release hit our AA inbox detailing the celebration of National Tight Ends Day with free beer for Kansas City fans due to Kelce’s performance in a recent challenge at a Top Golf location. George Kittle explains the context a bit more here:
Yeah, even that’s a bit of a mystery, but we reached out to Bud Light who confirmed Kelce’s winning shot went over 250 yards (they could not track distances beyond that). For that reason, Kelce won free beer for Chiefs fans, although a Bud Light representative spoke to us saying that details were yet to be worked out or announced in terms of exactly how you claim your free alcohol.
Here’s what we do know: if there was any single NFL player likely to earn you, dear fans, some free beer, I’m pretty sure most of us would have said “Travis Kelce?” in response. His athletic ability, proven production, charisma, and charm are pretty much made for an outing like this.
Kittle, who plays for the San Francisco 49ers, and Kelce recently completed the first ever Tight End University in Nashville this offseason along with Greg Olsen to help come together and share tips for others at the position. Other players who joined them include ZachErtz, Kyle Pitts, Mark Andrews, Noah Fann, Hunter Henry and dozens of others. The Chiefs were also represented by Blake Bell at the event.
More details from Bud Light likely to come as this fall creeps closer. Remember, as with anything in life, make sure to participate in a responsible manner.
June 29, 2021 at 03:08AM
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Travis Kelce wins free beer for KC Chiefs fans (in October) - Arrowhead Addict
Over the past 20 years, the largest consumer packaged goods companies have seen their sales erode while smaller companies selling artisanal and locally sourced products have grown. These changes, many believe, occurred as millennials came of age and used their buying power to disrupt established brands with significantly different preferences from those of their forebears.
Those who buy into this demand-side explanation can point to countless surveys in which millennials—born after 1980—profess a desire to support companies that align with their values, offer more sustainably produced or nutritious foods, or take part in social causes.
But Tilburg University’s Bart J. Bronnenberg, Chicago Booth’s Jean-Pierre Dubé, and University of Texas at Dallas’s Joonhwi Joo analyze the recent surge in sales of craft beers and reject the demand-side explanation in favor of an alternative supply-side one. Millennials often have a wider selection of craft beers to choose from than past generations did, as artisanal products have disrupted a century-old market structure dominated by a small number of big players, and they developed preferences on the basis of that experience, the researchers argue. It’s important to understand the mechanisms, the researchers note, because the same dynamics could erode the dominance of major brands in other categories, or alter how they maintain control.
To test between these demand- and supply-side hypotheses, the researchers used the Nielsen Datasets at Booth’s Kilts Center for Marketing to build a database that tracks beer purchases made by more than 100,000 US households from 2004 to 2018. In 2004, craft brews made up 5 percent of the beer sold in the US take-home market and generated 5.3 percent of revenue. By 2018, they more than doubled their volume share to 12 percent and quadrupled their revenue share to 20 percent. Millennials accounted for only 1 percent of the craft beer purchased by volume in 2004, simply because so few of them were old enough to purchase alcohol legally. But by 2018, they bought 20 percent of the craft beer sold.
From 2004 to 2018, as the millennial share of the craft-beer market soared, every other generation’s share fell. By 2018, sales data showed that millennials were buying 34 percent of craft beer, compared with 20 percent for baby boomers (born 1946–64) and 13 percent for the Greatest Generation (born before 1928). Half of millennials said they drank craft beer, compared with 36 percent of the country overall.
How millennials became the craft-beer industry’s best customers
Research finds that the rise in availability of craft beer as millennials reached drinking age influenced their spending habits.
Availability of craft beer when people in each generation turned 21 Median measure (higher = more availability)
Generations’ household spending on craft beer Average annual share of all craft beer spending over 2004–18
Bronnenberg et al., 2021
Do these sales patterns reflect what beer customers demanded, or the kinds of beers that were available historically? Older generations had fewer choices when they began consuming beer and developing their tastes and habits—maybe only a handful of pale lagers, mostly from dominant brewers such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller.
To test for the effect of historic availability, the researchers looked at differences in the diffusion of craft-beer availability across US cities, two drivers of which were population growth on the one hand and local alcohol manufacturing and distribution restrictions on the other. By knowing population growth in various cities and the timeline for when different states deregulated home brewing and brew pubs, the researchers were able to test the two explanations. The availability of craft beer, they conclude, is what most affected each generation’s tendency to buck the brand-name beers. After accounting for the effect of which beers were available historically for consumers to buy in their local areas, the researchers saw no intrinsic difference between generations beyond the effect of differences in availability.
The takeoff in craft brewing is not a coincidence. Deregulation and low-cost digital advertising made it easier for new craft-beer players to enter the market, especially since the late 1990s. As a result, millennials have had access to craft alternatives since they turned 21, whereas older generations first encountered those long after they had established a preference for national brands.
“People form habits slowly, and it takes time to form a strong habit. But once you have it, it’s ingrained and you’re unlikely to switch,” Dubé says.
“We are seeing a similar trend in other product categories,” he adds. In many segments of consumer packaged goods, the market shares of big, established brands are falling as smaller companies grow, fragmenting categories that were dominated by a small number of established brands for most of the 20th century.
“What craft beer shows us is that shopping habits are formed not because one generation is intrinsically different from another,” says Dubé. “Their habits are caused by firms’ strategic decisions to supply variety.”
June 28, 2021 at 08:57PM
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Why craft beer's rise is a warning flag for all sorts of big brands - Chicago Booth Review
The “Summer of Can” trio of spots are slated to first trickle out online tomorrow with the campaign in full swing by July 1, Egan confirms, while additional testing is underway to decide whether or not to air the ads on TV. The campaign will run until Labor Day with plans for Heineken to extend its summery influence via dating app partnerships, Snapchat filters and more in the coming weeks and months.
And the perfect companion for Heineken drinkers’ summer gallivanting? “The one summer accessory that has been completely neglected for the past year and a half: the cooler,” says Egan, who adds that Heineken enlisted outside help to built its beer-toting robot. “As good as we are at making beer, we’re not so good at robots,” he laughs.
The B.O.T. was developed with Minneapolis-based creative shop Fast Horse, which has previously undertaken work for multiple beer brands and has even ventured into the realm of coolers before; the same agency was behind Heineken-owned Dos Equis’ social distancing-inspired “Seis-Foot Cooler” giveaway last year.
It is able to carry 12 cans of beer and plenty of ice, and is capable of traveling on ADA-compliant hard surfaces such as concrete, tile and wood. To win one of the limited edition B.O.T.s, which are available in “extremely limited quantity,” consumers must head to the robot’s dedicated landing page, www.heinekenbot.com, between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on July 1.
New York, June 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Beer Mug Market 2021-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05892969/?utm_source=GNW
Our report on the beer mug market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.
The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the growing number of pubs, bars, hotels, and home bars and access to online distribution channels and growing online sales of drinkware products. In addition, the growing number of pubs, bars, hotels, and home bars is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well.
The beer mug market analysis includes the distribution channel segment and geographic landscape.
The beer mug market is segmented as below:
By Distribution Channel
• Offline
• Online
By Geographical Landscape
• APAC
• Europe
• North America
• South America
• MEA
This study identifies the rising popularity of craft beer as one of the prime reasons driving the beer mug market growth during the next few years.
The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our report on beer mug market covers the following areas:
• Beer mug market sizing
• Beer mug market forecast
• Beer mug market industry analysis
This robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading beer mug market vendors that include Arc Holdings, Bormioli Rocco Spa, Femora India Pvt. Ltd., Hamilton Housewares Pvt. Ltd., Libbey Inc., Ocean Glass Public Co. Ltd., Stolzle-Oberglas GmbH, Turkiye Sise ve Cam Fabrikalari AS, Union Glass Co. Ltd., and Vetreria di Borgonovo Spa. Also, the beer mug market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage all forthcoming growth opportunities.
The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors.
The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters such as profit, pricing, competition, and promotions. It presents various market facets by identifying the key industry influencers. The data presented is comprehensive, reliable, and a result of extensive research - both primary and secondary. Technavio’s market research reports provide a complete competitive landscape and an in-depth vendor selection methodology and analysis using qualitative and quantitative research to forecast the accurate market growth.
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05892969/?utm_source=GNW
About Reportlinker
ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.
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June 28, 2021 at 06:52PM
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The Global Beer Mug Market is expected to grow by $ 13.51 million during 2021-2025, progressing - GlobeNewswire
Ashland-based Wine & Beer Supply provides the bottles and cans for many local breweries and wineries. (BizSense file)
As breweries and wineries reopen and patrons raise glasses once again, a local company that supplies booze-holding cans, bottles and glassware has struck a deal to merge with a Garden State counterpart.
Ashland-based Wine & Beer Supply joined forces with Gino Pinto Inc., a decades-old supplier of winemaking equipment out of New Jersey.
Both firms will keep their respective names, with Gino Pinto’s Michael Pinto joining Wine & Beer Supply’s Casey Werderman and Dave Robertson as operating partners of the business.
Casey Werderman and Dave Robertson of Wine & Beer Supply.
Werderman said the two sides began discussing a deal before the pandemic.
“Both of us wanted to expand our reach into additional territories,” Werderman said. “For us, we were thinking, ‘Hey, do we want to greenfield a location in the Northeast?’ Because it’s important to our growth. But this was a much better way to go about doing it.”
Since its founding in 2015, Wine & Beer Supply has been providing cans, bottles and other glassware to breweries and wineries, as well as services like mobile packaging and warehousing. Last year it moved into a new headquarters at the Northlake Commerce Center, and over the years it has raised millions in investor capital.
The New Jersey-based firm Gino Pinto supplies wineries with bulk grapes and fruit juice from all over the globe, a service Wine & Beer Supply did not offer previously.
Gino Pinto, meanwhile, has been offering winemaking equipment, grapes, fruit juice, barrels and more since 1968. It serves both commercial wineries and home winemakers.
Werderman said the deal allows Gino Pinto and Wine & Beer Supply to fill in some gaps in service for one another.
“Our whole model is centered around consolidating the supply chain. Interestingly, there isn’t a whole lot of overlap between our organizations. The only overlap is around bottles. That’s it,” Werderman said.
Michael Pinto
“(Pinto) doesn’t do anything on the beer side. But he does a whole bunch of bulk grapes and bulk juice … and a bunch of winemaking equipment, which we don’t do any of.”
The deal closed June 1 and terms were not disclosed. Attorney Meredith Yoder of Parker, Pollard, Wilton & Peaden was Wine & Beer Supply’s counsel in the merger.
The two firms now operate more than 100,000 square feet of warehouse space in Ashland and Hammonton, New Jersey — Gino Pinto’s hometown about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia.
Werderman said the firm has aggressive growth plans, which include additional locations relatively soon.
However, he said pandemic-induced supply chain issues such as can shortages continue.
“We’ve been fortunate to have strong manufacturing partners that we work with. It’s just really challenging,” he said. “People are coming back into the taprooms and that’s exciting. There is a shift back to kegs which is good to kind of offset some of the can shortages that are out there.”
Werderman said he thinks the craft beverage industry was able to weather the storm of the pandemic well.
“That’s the cool thing for me, looking at the industry as a whole and seeing that it’s resilient in some pretty strong ways,” Werderman said.
The two companies merged but will keep their respective names.
While the can shortages are a stressor for the industry, Werderman said he thinks a positive byproduct of online ordering for breweries and wineries is a new database of customers.
“Breweries and wineries have been able to generate more data in the last year than they have ever,” he said. “All of that critical information was just nonexistent. It has, in some ways, allowed them to come out of this even stronger.”
June 28, 2021 at 02:24PM
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Wine & Beer Supply toasts to merger with New Jersey counterpart - RichmondBizSense
In late March, executives at the biggest brewer in the world were working on a project they had code-named EU-phoria.
The U.K. was scheduled to reopen outdoor dining in a few weeks, followed by much of Europe. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA’s data scientists were projecting beer sales would surge as people reunited with friends and family after monthslong lockdowns.
In Bangalore, India, Maninder Singh Grewal was feeling hopeful, too. The 38-year-old was AB InBev’s global director of analytics. When the pandemic hit, his team of about 70 had pivoted from making projections for beer sales and supply to projecting where and when Covid-19 restrictions would ease or tighten around the world.
Predicting the next Covid-19 wave proved difficult. But the team had some success at forecasting the extent and timing of a wave’s peak once it had begun. Mr. Grewal and his team had identified dates when the pandemic could spike again in India—holidays when people traditionally gathered in large groups. One by one, those dates had passed with no surge.
Vaccinations were gaining steam in many developed countries, and Mr. Grewal’s team was shifting its focus toward the post-pandemic world, and how the company could bounce back.
Then on Thursday, April 1, he received a text message from a colleague. It looks like we are right this time, it said. What do you mean? he replied.
Few companies are as global as AB InBev, the brewer of Budweiser and one out of every four beers sold world-wide. It has operations in nearly 50 countries and breweries around the world, including in Europe, the U.S., Africa, Brazil and China. The international footprint poses a massive challenge, forcing the company to manage through waves of the pandemic and uneven vaccine rollouts across the world.
With the pandemic receding in some places and surging elsewhere, multinational firms continue to confront a test unlike any they have ever seen.
AB InBev is facing rising costs of raw materials across some of its biggest markets and says it plans to raise prices in line with inflation.
AB InBev executives say that navigating through the pandemic, the company has learned to pivot more quickly and to move at different speeds all at once. It put skills such as procurement and marketing to use in new ways—sourcing oxygen machines and promoting vaccinations.
In India, the brewer has been using its Budweiser accounts on Twitter and Instagram to repost pleas from people searching for blood or oxygen for gravely ill loved ones. Amid a shortage of hospital beds, the company has struck agreements with private hospitals to provide beds in intensive-care units for AB InBev employees if any become sick enough to need one.
In Europe, where many countries reopened outdoor dining in May, the company has quickly ramped up production. And it has extended payment terms so that cash-strapped bars could get kegs on tap before their patrons returned.
The company procured equipment to set up a public field hospital in Mexico City and worked with Colombia’s health ministry on an ad campaign encouraging people to get vaccinated. In Argentina, the brewer set up a public vaccination site administering up to 1,500 vaccines a day. Latin America, which is enduring another devastating surge, represents about 40% of the company’s revenue.
In the U.S., where it bought Anheuser-Busch in 2008, the company forecast each state’s vaccination rate to prepare for the full reopening of bars, stadiums and other venues. That meant restarting draft lines, putting trucks in place, and making sales calls at bars and restaurants at just the right moment—before they stocked up. The brewer is contending with a volatile supply chain but said it has managed to meet demand so far this year in the U.S.
Much of this has relied on the company’s analytics teams, said Michel Doukeris, who leads AB InBev’s U.S. operations. On July 1, he will become CEO of the company, a business with 164,000 employees and $47 billion in annual revenue.
“The challenge starts with you having the right forecast. That’s why data and analytics are very important,” he said in an interview. If the company adjusted its production after bars and restaurants had already reopened, the brewer would never be able to catch up, he said.
To build that forecasting capability, the company hired Mr. Grewal, who grew up in a small town in central India. A chemical engineer turned data scientist, he joined AB InBev in 2017 to form a global forecasting team with assistance from a company adviser at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The idea was to use forecasting techniques to project beer sales volumes by country in the company’s top 20 markets. It later expanded its forecasting into marketing, finance, strategy and logistics planning. Mr. Grewal became global director of analytics in 2018.
When the pandemic shut offices around the world in March 2020, he began working from home in Bangalore, two laptops balanced on an ironing board in the corner of his toddler’s bedroom. Now he and his team had a new task: predicting the course of the pandemic. They tracked hospitalization rates, mobility data, Google trends and other data.
As the global crisis continued, he fell into a new rhythm: In the mornings, he cared for his then-4-year-old son Shaurya and infant son, Veer, who was born soon after the family went into lockdown. At noon, he sat down in front of his two laptops—one for Zoom meetings and the other for running computer code. He checked in with colleagues, put his older son down for a nap in the midafternoon and spent some time reviewing code. In the evening hours, he briefed company leaders in New York and St. Louis on his team’s projections.
Maninder Singh Grewal, AB InBev’s global director of analytics.
Photo: AB InBev
By February, things were starting to look up. Mr. Grewal and his family had moved to a larger home in the same condominium complex, where he now had a spare room with a wooden desk big enough for his two laptops and a TV that doubled as a monitor. That month, he had a videoconference with the head of analytics for AB InBev’s European business unit.
Mr. Grewal’s team was projecting that much of Europe would resume outdoor dining in late April or early May—right at the beginning of the summer season. To do that, the team looked to Australia. The company doesn’t do business there, but used publicly available data to inform its European models. Restaurant bookings in Australia soared when the hospitality sector reopened.
The response would be similarly ebullient in Europe, Mr. Grewal told his colleagues in Europe. The brewer, he said, should plan on selling a lot of beer.
That meant brewing enough to meet projected demand. It also meant turning keg-production lines back on in breweries, extending payment terms for wholesalers, bars and restaurants that needed to stock up, and offering advice to pubs on reopening. By the beginning of April, “Project EU-phoria” was being put into action.
Kegs at the facility in Wales. The company extended payment terms for pubs and offered advice on reopening.
The European team focused on working with pubs and bars—some of which had been dark for six months—to get back up and running. How many taps should they open? How big should the kegs be? Which brands should they order?
AB InBev’s breweries were busy filling 50-liter kegs with the top-selling beers in the U.K. and Europe: Stella Artois, Budweiser, and, for pubs in Belgium, that country’s favorite brand, Jupiler. For the moment, bar owners could turn on four out of 10 taps and restock with just their top-selling beer brands, AB InBev suggested, and later, with cash coming in, they could expand their menus with specialty beers, hard liquor and soft drinks.
Once outdoor dining had resumed, the company’s European breweries were prepared to sprint, said Jason Warner, president of AB InBev’s European business unit.
His summer marketing plans were also well under way. If Belgium wins the European soccer championship, which ends July 11, Jupiler, the team’s sponsor, plans to give everyone in the country a free beer.
A cafe in Brussels. Across much of Europe, outdoor dining reopened in May.
Photo: Olivier Matthys/Associated Press
“We’re…just trying to bring the energy and the good times and give people something to be happy about,” said Mr. Warner, who is based in Brussels. “We’ve all been through quite a lot with Covid.”
The company began a U.K. television campaign on April 6 for Stella Artois, promising to tip bar staff 1 British pound for every pint of Stella served.
On the same day, Mr. Grewal opened his team’s biweekly report and saw dire projections for India. The analysts’ algorithm projected that the country’s new surge would be much worse than its first wave the year before. A couple of days later, academic articles and social-media posts began reporting a troubling new wave of illnesses.
India had the fiercest Covid-19 surge in the world. The country’s daily tally of new infections soared past 400,000 and its Covid-19 death rate climbed to more than 4,500 a day.
“Humanity is being pushed to the brink” of what it can endure, Kartikeya Sharma, AB InBev’s president for India and Southeast Asia, said in an interview in late April. “We’re all trying to survive together.”
His father had died of Covid-19 four weeks earlier. Now Mr. Sharma, who has 3,000 employees in India, was keeping his breweries open with reduced staffing and daily temperature and oxygen-level checks. In regions where the Covid-19 rate was particularly high, there were daily antibody tests for workers entering the company’s brewing facilities.
The company’s Indian brewing operations shut down for more than a month last year, aside from a small number of people allowed in the breweries to keep the yeast going and beer fresh, when India halted manufacturing across the country in one of the world’s most stringent, and economically devastating, lockdowns. By contrast this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he wants to preserve both lives and livelihoods. Some Indian states enacting curfews this spring designated alcohol an essential good and allowed liquor shops to open for a few hours each day.
AB InBev India brewery teams distributed over 8,000 kits to villages, including rice, wheat flour, oil, spices, lentils, salt and sugar, along with sanitizers and soaps.
Photo: AB InBev
Mr. Sharma, who also is based in Bangalore, turned Budweiser’s social media accounts into an amplifier for people seeking help, reposting images of handwritten doctor’s prescriptions and other requests for blood plasma, ventilators and medications such as remdesivir, an antiviral drug.
“Need ICU Bed for my mother #Nellore Searching bed since yesterday,” said one message retweeted by Budweiser India, listing vital statistics for a 52-year-old woman with diabetes, shortness of breath and an oxygen level of 70%.
In late April, about 100 of Mr. Sharma’s employees in India were in quarantine with Covid-19, and close to 15 were in the hospital, though none in critical condition. Mr. Sharma had lined up ICU beds in case any of them needed to be transferred.
He also had a team procuring oxygen concentrators from suppliers outside the country for state governments that needed them in India. By late May, it procured more than 300. The company also paid for the expansion of a city hospital in Karnakata to add isolation wards, ICU facilities and oxygen lines.
Across much of Europe, outdoor dining reopened in May, though slightly later than planned, in some places.
In the U.K., the return hasn’t been as ebullient as Mr. Grewal’s team predicted. Venues were allowed to resume serving food and drinks outdoors on April 12 and indoors on May 17. Unseasonably cold, wet weather in May put a damper on outdoor dining, and draft beer sales dipped 24% below 2019 levels, according to an AB InBev analysis of Oxford Partnership Market Watch data.
Overall, draft beer sales for the industry in June have remained below 2019 levels, though AB InBev’s brands are performing better than they did in 2019, the brewer said. Some 85% of British pubs, restaurants and bars have now reopened their doors, the company added.
According to the British Beer & Pub Association, an industry group, some pubs are struggling to recover under the current restrictions, which limit pubs, bars and restaurants to table service. The U.K recently extended those restrictions through July 19.
In Australia, meanwhile, officials Friday said Sydney and surrounding areas would go into lockdown for two weeks in efforts to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Mr. Grewal, whose role recently expanded to include supply chain and logistics, will soon see if his projections of European euphoria were right.
The catastrophic surge in India shifted his team’s priorities. Now, even as he and his data team help the company plan for post-pandemic life, they are also mapping out worst-case scenarios—third waves, fourth waves, and vaccine-resistant variants.
“We had started thinking that this is behind us—if people can just continue for a little longer what they’ve been doing, it can all be behind us.” Mr. Grewal said. “Now, we’re not ruling anything out.”
Brienne Allan started working in the craft beer field a decade ago, as a bartender. Once the brewery got its license, a manager asked her to transition to the beer-making side of things. That’s when, she says, the owner walked up to her.
“He said women don’t belong in the brewery,” Allan said. “Everybody laughed, and no one stood up for me. I’ve spent every moment trying to prove them wrong ever since.”
Allan’s career as a brewer has since blossomed. She’s been brewing beers — specializing in lagers — for almost 10 years, and she’s served as a production manager at Notch Brewing in Salem, Mass., for about five. But even working at a company she says is supportive, the harassment she faces as a woman, she said, still creeps up.
Allan, 31, who is in the middle of working with Notch to build out a new taproom, said she’s experienced feeling patronized at work, usually by men who don’t work at Notch and are surprised to see a woman participating in the grunt work. According to many in the industry, the craft beer industry is overwhelmingly white, male, cisgender, and straight.
In May, on a particularly rough day in the taproom, where contract workers were “being idiots” and didn’t realize Allan was a manager, she says, she turned to her Instagram account out of frustration and asked whether other women receive sexist comments on the job.
“Do male brewers ever get asked, ‘How’d you learn to be a brewmaster?’ in a condescending way?” she wrote on her Instagram Stories. Allan said she was being spoken to “like a dog.”
What came next she didn’t expect: Hundreds of anecdotes came pouring in from other women in craft beer. Women detailed harassment, toxic masculinity, and even allegations of assault at some of the most reputable breweries across the world.
With a simple ask on social media, Allan had sparked something of a #MeToo movement within the craft beer industry, which supporters say has been long overdue. Allan said she's received more than 1,000 messages since, detailing alleged sexual assault and racism within the craft beer industry. Some women even announced pending lawsuits and potential legal action against former employers.
"Considering the volume and severity of the testimonials from women across the industry, the number of concerns raised and discussed among our leadership has been significant," said Bob Pease, president and chief executive of the Brewers Association, the most prominent trade organization within the industry. "We are unable to enforce changes at the brewery level, but we recognize that as an industry we need to do more to build a more inclusive and respectful brewing community."
In response to some of the allegations that came out of Allan’s Instagram post, the founder of Tired Hands Brewing Co. in Ardmore, Montgomery County, stepped down, and the owners of Evil Genius in Philadelphia issued an apology.
Despite women being at the helm of beer brewing for hundreds of years, many in the industry say that white men hold all the power in breweries today. And the hospitality industry — which encompasses brewing — has some of the highest rates of harassment of any industry in the United States.
For many of the women who do rise to the top, there’s a sense that they don’t belong. But they’re still fighting to change the industry — and this latest outpouring is perhaps, they say, an inflection point.
"Specifically in this day and age, we all are hyper-focused and aware of mistreatment in all aspects of living," Allan said. "I understand why this is such a big deal for everybody right now. But we've all been dealing with this throughout the entire history of us not being seen as equal."
Chanell Williams, 31, works at Fair Isle Brewing, and does home brewing and beer blogging on the side in Seattle. She remembers being the only Black employee at the first brewery she worked at in 2017. So she created her social media presence — Hops Galore — that same year as a way to connect with other marginalized people across the industry.
"For the first time in years, I didn't feel alone and saw others who looked like me enjoying craft," she said. "I was connected with BIPOC who were making much-needed waves in the industry."
Williams said she still constantly feels the need to prove herself when she walks into a brewery.
"I have heard 'Women don't drink beer' or 'Black people don't drink beer,'" she said. "As a woman of color in an influencer position on social media, we have to fight harder to be taken seriously."
There wasn't always this stereotype in beer brewing. It was originally considered women's work and dates back hundreds of thousands of years.
“Archaeologists and historians who have studied fermentation tend to agree that brewers in primitive hunter-gatherer societies were most often women,” said Georgina Solis, who is a board member of the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women in the beer industry.
Some historians say the medieval church’s disdain for brewsters contributed to phasing out women. Others say economic and labor reasons were to blame, as beer making became automated during the mid-20th century.
"Post-World War II marketing, especially though the '70s and '80s, played beer up as a men's-only beverage, with women only present as the decoration," said Ashlee McLaughlin, 34, the chef and social media manager for Tilton Brothers Brewing in Hampton, N.H.
“Women were the stewards of beer from its inception,” she said, “and yet now, it seems men feel a sense of ownership over the industry and beverage.”
Over time, women in the industry have become a niche part of the market, according to Solis. But interest is growing.
Megan Stone, a media coordinator at Societe Brewing Co. in San Diego, has been in craft beer for six years. Stone, 29, said she didn’t realize how much gatekeeping there was until she moved to Temecula, Calif., in 2016.
“My abilities were questioned, my male coworker tried to convince me this industry wasn’t for me. ... My appearance was scrutinized when I didn’t wear makeup,” Stone said. “I felt like I needed to work twice as hard to prove my worth.”
But, Stone said, she’s finding her stride. She’s worked for big names, including Dogfish Head, Mikkeller and Modern Times — the latter two as an assistant brewer. Both Mikkeller and Modern Times have recently faced backlash for alleged sexism. Now, in addition to the full-time brewery work she does, Stone runs a craft beer brand called Is Beer a Carb, where she’s elevated the voices of marginalized communities who love craft beer.
With the recent outpouring of allegations online, public pressure has mounted for industry leaders to do something. Several high-profile founders have stepped down or been terminated.
The public reckoning prompted the Brewers Association to announce a coalition alongside other trade groups to help promote inclusivity within the industry, including a three-part webinar series on preventing sexual harassment (the first segment had 700 attendees, according to Pease).
Allan says that a key component is for beer drinkers to prioritize which companies they’re supporting — and for big organizations to revoke the memberships of breweries exhibiting poor behavior.
“All these breweries say they’re ‘shocked,’ but if you were a woman running the company, you wouldn’t be shocked,” Allan said. “You’d get it taken care of.”
June 27, 2021 at 03:53PM
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Women in the craft beer industry say they’re treated as if they don’t belong. Now, they’re speaking up. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
Attention shoppers, you'll soon be able to sip on adult beverages as well as smoothies and freshly roasted coffee when Publix moves into the former Lucky's Market in Neptune Beach.
Publix bought the leases to five of the Lucky's Market stores in Florida — including Neptune Beach — last year when the specialty grocer declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed and sold off most of its stores nationwide.
When Publix completes renovating the former Neptune Beach Lucky's it will feature POURS, a space where customers can sip wine, drink a cold draft beer, indulge in a smoothie or savor a good cup of coffee while shopping.
The Neptune Beach location will be the latest Publix to have a POURS, Chris Norberg, community relations manager for Publix's Jacksonville Division, told the Times-Union.
Until now, POURS has been an amenity offered in Publix GreenWise specialty organic and natural groceries, including its store at Nocatee Town Center in Ponte Vedra Beach.
"We currently have eight Publix GreenWise Markets in our seven state service area that feature this amenity," Norberg said. Although not planned as a GreenWise store, the Neptune Beach location still will have the amenity.
Norberg said the Neptune Beach POURS "will provide a beverage area and an enhanced social experience with indoor and outdoor seating with a mezzanine."
"Customers will be able to order tap beers, wine, fresh coffee, smoothies, and many other refreshments that are able to be enjoyed in the comfort of their brand new Publix," Norberg said.
The opening date of the Neptune Beach store hasn't been determined yet, he said.
Located at 580 Atlantic Blvd., the new store is just a block from an existing full-size, Publix at 630 Atlantic Blvd. That proximity has fueled speculation that Publix might use the old Lucky's store for one of its GreenWise stores. However, Publix hasn't commented on that possibility.
Publix bought the lease to the Neptune Beach Lucky's as well as stores in Clermont, Naples, Orlando and Ormond Beach for a total of about $11.5 million, federal bankruptcy court records show.
Lucky's, headquartered in Niwot, Colo., filed for bankruptcy in January 2020, four years after Cincinnati-based Kroger invested in the company. In 2019, Kroger announced that it was divesting itself of 32 of the 39 Lucky’s nationwide and laying off those employees.
June 27, 2021 at 04:02PM
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Shoppers can sip beer, wine or smoothies when Publix opens at former Neptune Beach Lucky's - The Florida Times-Union
The past year has certainly been a time of change, and this summer is providing another seismic shift in the local beer world.
After 13 years of serving as head brewer at the Northampton Brewery, Boog Pacher is pulling up his New England roots and transplanting them in Vancouver, Canada.
His wife, Danielle Ignace, got a job offer that was too good to refuse, and so westward they will go.
“It’s basically like she got picked No. 1 in the draft,” Boog said with a smile about his wife’s career.
While that is great news for the couple, the collateral damage is that we lose a brilliant brewer, hilarious mind and all-around great guy. Given that the Northampton Brewery is my local, I got to know Boog fairly well over the years and have had many great chats with him about beer, politics, music, baseball and sports in general.
And with sports, he also taught me how to love soccer. For that, I will be forever grateful. He made the game make sense to me and now I’m a fan. (Although I am a Liverpool fan and he is an Arsenal rooter. He didn’t convince me to go to the Dark Side.)
But more than that, he also taught me a lot about beer. I obviously had a decent amount of knowledge before I ever met him, but I would always pick up bits and bobs in casual chats with him, and those little nuggets turned out to be quite an impressive collection over the years. His expertise has been wonderful for me to have around.
And while I’ll miss all that, most of all I’ll miss just having a beer with him – usually one of his own glorious creations.
While Boog tweaked the original lineup at the brewery over the years, it was the string of new brews he created that showcased his artistry. His Blue Boots IPA has been the flagship beer there for years now. And while I love that beer, I like some of his others even more (some of which only show up occasionally): Lobsterback, Contract Killer, and Summer (or Spring) Fling.
My favorite, however, is Mean Green Double IPA. Double IPAs can be tricky, and frankly I don’t love most of them. But Boog got it right.
He also contributed to the community in a massive way, such as making all the hot chocolate for the annual Hot Chocolate Run (to benefit Safe Passages) and doing “Donald’s Dash” in conjunction with “Monte’s March” to raise money for the Food Bank. (His given name is Donald, and he is also a triathlete.)
Fortunately, the brewery will still be in great hands, as assistant brewer Steve Bilodeau – another great guy and brewer – will take the reins. He has been Boog’s wing man since he took over, so the transition should be smooth. I’m also not worried about Steve’s creativity with brewing as he is responsible for one of my other favorites, Greyhound IPA – not to mention that he had input on most other new creations over the past 13 years.
And a little icing on the cake is that Steve will be assisted by Meghan Leahy, who will become the first woman brewer at the Northampton Brewery. I love that owner Janet Egelston-Cichy is giving Meghan the opportunity. I spoke briefly with Meghan a few weeks back, and her enthusiasm alone indicates she is a good choice.
So it’s farewell to Boog and Danielle, with a big barrel of gratitude for all the great beer and memories. Slainte!
June 27, 2021 at 05:18PM
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Beer Nut: Bidding farewell to Northampton brewer - MassLive.com
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