Craft Beer: The 3 Biggest Threats to the Industry - NASDAQ.com
Other Vehicles for Sale Find your next career, or your next star employee, with the Quad-City Times and Monster - the Quad-City area's largest and highest quality job Employment News YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO HOME-BREW Saved A class on how to home-brew your own beer will be offered from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Nahant Marsh Education Center, 4220 Wapello Ave., Davenport. Participants will learn the basic process and how to create a successful set-up and product. The instructor will be Jason Gabriel of Quad-Cities U.Brew, who has 15 years' experience, has brewed more than 310 batches of beer, belongs to several brewing groups and is a brew judge. The class size is limited to 12 and the cost is $40. To register, go to nahantmarsh.org or call 563-323-5196. Copyright 2014 The Quad-City Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fay hits Bermuda, becomes hurricane in open waters | WashingtonExaminer.com
The Riverside staff was previously balancing their time between the beer store and the liquor and wine store. They kept a functioning doorbell at the beer sides front door, and customers normally had to ring it and let someone from the wine side know they had a beer customer. Riverside carries an extensive inventory of craft, specialty, seasonal, high-gravity and run-of-the-mill beers. Matera believes beer has caught up to wine in its craft and following. Beer has the clout that wine has, she said. But with beers elevated clout and ever-expanded offering, there exists and education responsibility, especially in a city like Chattanooga, where beer drinkers have an above-average drink IQ, said Matera. Youve got to know what it is, she said. Beer drinkers are no longer treating beer as just sort of a malt beverage. Theyre treating it like wine drinkers treat wine as a luxury. I cant imagine the struggle of anybody who doesnt know the beer market trying to start from scratch. Speaking of wine, Matera thinks Riverside will be fine when wine hits grocery store shelves. She believes the educated staff at Riverside will set the store apart and keep connoisseur customers returning. When wine hits the grocery stores, its not going to affect us, she said. Youre not going to get that kind of service in a grocery store. The store doesnt have its new beer, wine and liquor store format down pat yet.
Hungary's Fidesz widely dominates municipal voting | WashingtonExaminer.com
Last Modified: Sunday, October 12, 2014 at 4:39 p.m. A Marion County Sheriffs deputy arrested a Citra man late Saturday night on charges of DUI, driving with a revoked drivers license and fleeing and eluding, after the driver led deputies on a chase before submitting to a blood alcohol test that returned a result of .194 more than twice the states legal limit of .08. Authorities received a call about an intoxicated person in a white pick-up truck near East Highway 329 and Northeast Jacksonville Road. A deputy located the defendant, Dayton Buster Slaughter on a local farm. According to the deputys report, the defendant was known to law enforcement because of previous disturbances. Slaughter left the farm and turned south on Jacksonville Road. When the deputy tried to conduct a traffic stop, Slaughter did not comply and the deputy gave pursuit. When the pickup eventually stopped, the deputy noticed two almost empty beer containers inside the car. After arrest, Slaughter failed field sobriety exercises at the Marion County Jail. Jail records show as of Sunday afternoon Slaughter remained inside the jail on a $3,500 bond. Chase ends in DUI arrest for Citra man Staff report Ocala.com October 12, 2014 4:39 PM
A Marion County Sheriff's deputy arrested a Citra man late Saturday night on charges of DUI, driving with a revoked driver's license and fleeing and eluding, after the driver led deputies on a chase before submitting to a blood alcohol test that returned a result of .194 more than twice the state's legal limit of .08.
Authorities received a call about an intoxicated person in a white pick-up truck near East Highway 329 and Northeast Jacksonville Road.
A deputy located the defendant, Dayton Buster Slaughter on a local farm. According to the deputy's report, the defendant was known to law enforcement because of previous disturbances.
Slaughter left the farm and turned south on Jacksonville Road. When the deputy tried to conduct a traffic stop, Slaughter did not comply and the deputy gave pursuit. When the pickup eventually stopped, the deputy noticed two almost empty beer containers inside the car.
After arrest, Slaughter failed field sobriety exercises at the Marion County Jail.
Jail records show as of Sunday afternoon Slaughter remained inside the jail on a $3,500 bond.
Maine couple captures wife-carrying championship - Yahoo News
In Florida, the refillable beer jugs known as growlers are the subject of an unlikely legislative battle. Under current law, breweries can sell beer in quart and gallon-size containers, but they cant fill a half-gallon bottle. Craft brewers want to end the ban. The big beer industry, led by a Budweiser distributor, wants to keep it . Now a lobbying group for Florida distributors who sell brews from MillerCoors and other large (non-Bud) beermakers is making what looks like a peace offering. In a video posted to its website Thursday, the Beer Industry of Florida promised its support for ending the ban: Were mobilizing an industrywide coalition to make this new container size legal, no strings attached, says the narrator of the video. As political issues go, this may seem like small beer. But the growler ban has attracted enough attention that Governor Rick Scott, a Republican whos up for reelection, and Charlie Crist, his Democratic challenger, have taken positions on growler sales. (Theyre both for them .) An earlier attempt to end the ban was scuttled when lawmakers, acting at the behest of big beer interests , weighed down a bill to repeal the growler ban with new restrictions on brewery sales. The shift in support from some distributors may be a sign ofmicrobreweries growing economic clout.Sales of domestic light beers are expected to hit a 10-year low in 2015. Craft sales, on the other hand, are increasing . There were 66 craft breweries in Florida last year, according to the Brewers Association, an industry group . And distributors can earn a higher markup selling craft beer, according to theBeer Industry of Floridasgrowler video. Then again, it may be too soon to read the groups video as evidence of a truce between small brewers and distributors for big beer brands. The video warns against lifting restrictions onbreweries selling directly to the publiccutting distributors out. Direct salescould inflate a beer bubble, distributors warn, that hurts retailers and feeds social ills, including over-consumption, increasing addiction, domestic violence, [and] drinking and driving. If theres a truce in the growler war, its still an uneasy one.
A Beer Growler Battle Is Brewing in Florida - Businessweek
12, 2014. (AP Photo/MTI, Szilard Koszticsak) News,World Hungarian Prime Minister and Chairman of center right Fidesz party Viktor Orban before casting... BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party was the clear winner in Sunday's nationwide municipal elections, its candidates winning the mayor's post in Budapest, the capital, and in 22 of Hungary's 23 largest cities. Speaking to supporters after preliminary results were announced, Orban vowed to "make Hungary great" in the upcoming years and boasted of winning elections for the third time this year, after victories in the national elections and for the European Parliament. The far-right Jobbik, trying to distance itself from earlier anti-Roma and racist statements, finished mostly far behind Fidesz but ahead of the left-wing opposition in most rural areas. Jobbik won in nine smaller cities, up from three in 2010. The splintered left-wing opposition, led by the Socialist Party, was projected to win around five of Budapest's 23 districts, at least two more than four years ago.
Beer And Flies - What's Up With That? - Science News - redOrbit
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Fay was not expected to maintain its hurricane status for long. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (121 kph), just above the threshold for a hurricane. Farther south, a new storm is racing toward the eastern rim of the Caribbean, threatening to become a hurricane. Tropical Storm Gonzalo has winds of 45 mph (72 kph) and is moving toward Puerto Rico. After tracking across the U.S. Caribbean territory of about 3.6 million people, forecasters expect Gonzalo to curve over the open Atlantic and stay away from the U.S. East Coast.
Chase ends in DUI arrest for Citra man | Ocala.com
But recent research shows that the choice of a particular yeast strain or variety explains differences in taste between different beers and wines. In fact, yeasts may even be responsible for much of the terroir , the connection between a particular growing area and wine flavor, which previously often was attributed to differences in the soil, he said. Verstrepen said the impetus for the new study came from a previous research project involving the yeast gene for alcohol acetyl transferase, known as ATF1, which was behind most of the volatile chemicals created during fermentation . When returning to the lab after a weekend, I found that a flask with a smelly yeast culture was infested by fruit flies that had escaped from a neighboring genetics lab, whereas another flask that contained a mutant yeast strain in which the aroma gene was deleted did not contain any flies, he said. In the new study, the team used a mixture of molecular biology, neurobiology and behavioral assessments. They were able to indicate that loss of ATF1 changes the response of the fruit fly brain to a whiff of yeast. As a result, the flies are much less attracted to the mutant yeast cells, which in turn results in reduced dispersal of mutant yeast by the flies. The study team concluded that the two kinds of organisms must have a mutualistic relationship and theorized that similar relationships may be present in other plant-associated microbes, including pathogens. We all know that flowers attract insects by producing aromas.
The old adage states that "nothing goes up forever," but the craft beer industry would prefer to have you think otherwise. Since the late 1970s, microbreweries have been popping up like weeds across the country, with some eventually blooming into national brewers. In fact, the number of breweries in the U.S. has exploded from just 89 in the late 1970s to 2,538 as of 2013, according to the Brewers Association. At the current double-digit growth rate, we may have more than 6,500 breweries in this country by 2025. With this rapid rise in craft beer interest, it has to be asked whether this growth is sustainable, or if we're entering a "craft beer bubble." Admittedly, I'm a big fan of craft beer -- you know, the type of connoisseur that drinks his beer out of the proper glassware and takes notes while trying to decipher the type of hops used or the various flavor notes on my palate. But, I also don't work in the beer industry, so my knowledge of its innerworkings are limited to what I can read in an annual report or a conference call. In order to get a true feel for the threats facing the craft beer industry, I turned to RateBeer founder and CEO Joseph Tucker to provide his insight into the matter. Craft beer's three biggest threats Tucker's website allows users to rate tens of thousands of beers based on a number of criteria such as aroma, taste, and appearance to help weed out hidden gem brewers, while also proving to be an excellent breeding ground for the exchange of beer industry knowledge. In other words, he was the perfect person to pose the following question: "What are the three biggest challenges currently facing the craft beer industry?" Here's what Tucker had to say: No. 1: Getting swallowed by "Big Beer" I don't think Big Beer "figuring it out" with either strategic acquisitions or emulating craft brands will be a significant factor in cooling down the still exploding craft sector. While brands like Blue Moon and Shock Top have enjoyed success, Big Beer continues to be hit where it hurts -- their flagships. We're already seeing greater advantages for the craft sector at the distribution, retail, policy, and lending levels -- and now tougher than ever for Big Beer to push the genie back into the bottle. Craft is here for the long term. It's simply much easier to be in the beer business today than it was 10 years ago. Source: Flickr user Jhong Dizon. Tucker hits a on a key point here with the threat that bigger breweries bring to the craft scene: their deeper pockets. Anheuser-Busch InBev , for example, purchased Goose Island in 2011 and Blue Point Brewing earlier this year in order to capitalize on the rapidly growing craft beer movement. However, deeper pockets won't necessarily mean more market share for larger brewers, even if their money could be used to quickly ramp up distribution that these acquired craft brewers had previously lacked. Beer drinkers have increasingly shown that they're willing to pay a premium price for quality beer. Simply put, if big breweries focus too much of their attention on acquiring or developing craft beer brands, they could risk alienating their core, high-margin products, which would be bad news for these companies over the long run. No. 2: Becoming watered down by naive new brewers [The] ease of getting into the craft beer business is its greatest weakness. The last hit to the market, taken in the late 1990s and lasting until 2005, was mainly due to an over exuberance by newcomers who saw opportunities in what was then called "microbrewing," but didn't have the market knowledge to produce lasting success. Too many got into the business focusing on how to make money instead of on how to make a great product. It was small beer's success that attracted those who hurt the entire market. The consumers couldn't count on a better product and many of those coming in found a crowded market with increased pressure from Big Beer. Many of the bandwagon microbrewers, who were downloading recipes off the Internet, went out of business and eventually banks became more wary of lending to small brewers, policy liberalization died, consumers drifted and eventually the tide turned. We're unfortunately seeing a similar environment now, where many new naive brewers are entering the market not understanding some of the bigger basics -- product differentiation, distribution, quality control, location. And more similarly to the late 1990s, I've heard just as many newcomers talk about passe ideas such as market share and flagships with little inkling about the details of popular styles that today's more beer savvy consumers demand -- you can't have the business right and the product wrong. We're already seeing some increased churn where the overall number of brewers is still rising rapidly but the rate of closures has also increased somewhat. Increased natural churn will be the new normal for a while. Source: Flickr user Hans Splinter. Tucker's point hits on the main lure of craft beer: the intrigue of its exclusivity . It's exciting to be able to taste something that few people have tried, or that can't be had in every grocery store. It's also a thrill to examine the nuances in taste, appearance and aroma, for instance, from what's becoming a large number of breweries. But the problem becomes this: At what point is the industry so watered down with unqualified brewers that it begins to detract from the intrigue of craft brewing? Between 2006 and 2012, the amount of craft beer produced soared 71% to 13 million barrels as craft beer market share by dollar volume increased to 10.2% of the domestic beer market. However, as Tucker alluded to in his answer, more than 300 breweries closed their doors between 1996 and 2000 because of a mixture of undercapitalization and owners chasing returns in an industry they didn't quite understand. Based on craft beers' current growth projections, this shakeout could be on the precipice of repeating itself once again. No. 3: Losing the "craft" appeal Additionally, the bigger craft brewers are becoming much stronger regional and national brewers, and some small brewers have complained that many of the unfair business practices associated with Big Beer are now being taken up by craft brewers filling their shoes. Sam Calagione, the owner of Dogfish Head, sees a "bloodbath" up ahead. A few successful craft brewers are out there aggressively taking tap handles, lobbying for newcomer-hostile policy, and abandoning the "coopetition" and "us Davids against them Goliaths" ethos that helped build the craft sector. It's craft beer eating its own young. Lastly, Tucker makes the interesting point that it's possible for craft breweries to stop having that small-town feel and become too large for their own good -- essentially becoming Big Beer themselves. From a profitability standpoint, that may not be a bad thing, but it could alienate what had been a core customer as well as hurt the momentum of the craft beer movement. Source: Flickr user Steven Guzzardi. Perhaps the two companies that have to balance the struggle of sticking to their roots while also pushing the envelope across the U.S. are Boston Beer , the maker of Samuel Adams, and Craft Brew Alliance , the parent company of several craft brands, including Widmer Brothers, Redhook, and Kona. Boston Beer has done an exceptional job of counteracting the loss of its small feel by having founder Jim Koch personally appearing in many of Sam Adams' commercials. Portraying a down-to-earth CEO making beer for those who want something more than what Big Beer is offering, Sam Adams and Boston Beer continue to find the mark year after year. For Craft Brew Alliance, it's becoming increasingly tough to stick to its roots. Despite being self-labeled as an independent craft beer producer, Craft Brew Alliance's major shareholder, owning nearly one-third of its outstanding shares, is none other than Anheuser-Busch InBev. In other words, the bigger Craft Brew Alliance becomes, the more difficult it could be to retain its craft feel. The sun is shining on craft beer Obviously, craft beer is poised to face some challenges in the coming years if its current growth trajectory remains unchanged. But, in the words of Tucker, "The genie is out of the bottle. Consumers know good products. Governments know craft is better for employment and revenue. And the playing field is no longer hopelessly controlled by established multinational corporations. Good beer will prevail." For the craft beer connoisseurs among you, as well as investors, this would be a welcome and bubbly forecast indeed. Speaking of bubbly outlooks, check out the real winner inside the new Apple iWatch! Apple recently revealed the product of its secret-development "dream team" -- Apple Watch. The secret is out, and some early viewers are claiming its everyday impact could trump the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In fact,ABI Researchpredicts 485 million of this type of device will be sold per year. But one small company makesApple'sgadget possible. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors. To be one of them, and see where the real money is to be made, just click here !
Chattanooga area liquor retailers stock beer and brace for wine sales in grocery stores | Times Free Press
View photo This photo courtesy of Sunday River Communications, Jesse Wall and Christina Arsenault weigh in during the the North American Wife Carrying Championship on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014, in Newry, Maine. Wall carried Christina Arsenault over a 278-yard course that was bedeviled by log hurdles, sand traps and a "widow maker" water hazard at Sunday River ski resort on Saturday to claim the crown in a time of 1 minute, 4.1 seconds. About 50 couples competed. (AP Photo/Courtesy Sunday River Communications, Nick Lambert) NEWRY, Maine (AP) Four times they've been bridesmaids but now two people from Maine are champions of the North American Wife Carrying Championship. Jesse Wall carried Christina Arsenault over a 278-yard course Saturday that was bedeviled by log hurdles, sand traps and a "widow maker" water hazard at Sunday River ski resort to claim the crown in a time of 1 minute, 4.1 seconds. About 50 couples competed with the winners taking home Arsenault's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash: $482.50. Unmarried couples like Wall and Arsenault can compete. The two have finished second twice and third twice. Arsenault says they're able to do so well because she's "wicked small" and he's "wicked strong." Wall and Arsenault are now qualified for the world championship next summer in Finland. Sports & Recreation
Legal Marijuana Could Give a Buzz to Beer, Analyst Says - Bloomberg
Close Customers shop for marijuana in Bellingham, Washington. Beer has no need to fear weed. The legalization of medical marijuana has helped beer sales, contrary to previous research that pointed to a decline, according to a note from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling . Recreational pot use in Colorado and Washington , the two states where its legal, has so far not had a significant impact on beer, he said. The average blue-collar Bud drinker is less likely to be smoking pot, Stirling said. As far as medical marijuana is concerned, it does not appear to be a big threat to the beer industry. The research could relieve one concern for beermakers Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI) and SABMiller Plc (SAB) , which have seen U.S. volume decline over the past five years due to high unemployment and a shift to spirits like bourbon and gin. Twenty-three states have allowed medical marijuana and about a dozen, from Florida to Alaska , are considering legalization in some form. Per-capita beer drinking had a one-time increase of about 0.5 percent in the 10 largest states that have legalized medical marijuana, the Bernstein analyst found. While beer consumption later declined in those states, the rate of decline slowed to become more in line with the national average. More Beer There may be a constrained budget effect for some consumers, but legalized recreational weed is likely to lead to lower prices in the long term, potentially freeing up more cash either for more weed or more beer, Stirling said. Bernsteins research contrasts with an October 2012 study by professors at Montana State University, the University of Oregon and the University of Colorado Denver. It found that alcohol sales declined about 5 percent in states that legalized medical marijuana, suggesting that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes, especially among young adults, the authors said. States that have legalized weed in some form including Colorado also have the highest rates of craft beer production, Stirling said, and some craft brewers have whole-heartedly embraced the weed counter-culture. One brewer, Oskar Blues Brewing Co. of North Carolina, indicates on some of its beer cans where they might be punctured in order to turn the can into a bong for smoking cannabis.
12, 2014. (AP Photo/MTI, Szilard Koszticsak) News,World Hungarian Prime Minister and Chairman of center right Fidesz party Viktor Orban before casting... BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party was the clear winner in Sunday's nationwide municipal elections, its candidates winning the mayor's post in Budapest, the capital, and in 22 of Hungary's 23 largest cities. Speaking to supporters after preliminary results were announced, Orban vowed to "make Hungary great" in the upcoming years and boasted of winning elections for the third time this year, after victories in the national elections and for the European Parliament. The far-right Jobbik, trying to distance itself from earlier anti-Roma and racist statements, finished mostly far behind Fidesz but ahead of the left-wing opposition in most rural areas. Jobbik won in nine smaller cities, up from three in 2010. The splintered left-wing opposition, led by the Socialist Party, was projected to win around five of Budapest's 23 districts, at least two more than four years ago. 
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