Millennials buying more macro beer, Drizly says →
According to Drizly, while the industry has been reporting a slowdown in craft beer growth and a slowdown of beer overall, the millennial Drizly consumer has been actively shifting their spend from craft beer to macro beer. Despite the fact that 90 percent of SKUs available on Drizly are craft beer, macro beers represent more than half its beer sales and continues to rise.
Instagram drives off-premise beer sales, retailers say →
Retailers share their business strategies using instagram, discuss the platform’s pros and cons, and give advice to use social media effectively. Craig Wathen of City Beer Store in San Francisco says that, within 30 minutes of a post, he sees customers enter the store searching for a product with their phones in hand. A downside, he says, is that posting can take longer than anticipated to do it correctly, and that the use of accurate hashtags is vital.
Heritage Brewing to embark on $8.9 million expansion →
Heritage Brewing Company said it will spend $8.9 million to build a 35,000 sq. ft. production facility and brewpub in Manassas, Virginia. The new facility is slated to break ground before the end of the year and is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2018. The new facility will be capable of producing about 30,000 barrels of beer when it opens. The company is also planning to expand its presence in Virginia with the opening of two brewpubs over the next 16 months. Heritage, which currently ships beer to Maryland, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C., also plans to expand its distribution along the east coast by the end of next year.
Judge tosses Oklahoma's Retail Liquor Association's challenge to wine in grocery stores →
U.S. District Court Judge Robin Cauthron has dismissed the Retail Liquor Association of Oklahoma’s legal challenge to SQ 792, a new law that will allow grocery and convenience stores to sell wine and beer in 2018. The law will also allow these stores to operate an unlimited number of locations. Liquor store owners are limited to just two locations, so they argued that the law is unconstitutional and against the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equality for all.