Several notable closures became official last week.A few months after Mass Bay acquired Long Trail/Otter Creek, Otter Creek's Middlebury, VT brewpub and beer garden will pour its final pint today. Co announced the shutdown on Fri, following several mos of "trying to revitalize" the location, Long Trail Prexy Charlie Storey told the Addison Independent. "A number of factors led to this decision, including the pub's business trends and the challenging labor market," plus prolonged 18-mo closure during the pandemic. Recall, WhistlePig Whiskey leased part of Otter Creek's sizable production facility following the brewer's deal with Mass Bay. But initial plan was for Otter Creek to continue operating its small brewpub and taproom in Middlebury while Mass Bay determined what to do with co's excess brewing equipment (see June 22 issue). Otter Creek beers "will continue to be brewed and distributed out of [Mass Bay's] brewery in Windsor, VT" with a strong presence in market, Charlie emphasized. Tho gotta note, many Otter Creek production workers were laid off after the deal, CBN understands. Taproom employees now seemingly in a similar position.

Among latest foodtech oddities to emerge lately is hard protein entry from Bay Area precision fermentation player The Every Company. Entry called Build by Pulp Culture+ hits a lot of hot buttons via ingredient bill that includes 5 g of co's Every Protein animal-free protein along with probiotics, adaptogens like Four Sigmatic mushrooms and superfruits. A 4-pk goes for $16.99 on Pulp Culture website. "The launch further validates the alternative protein leader's capacity to commercialize animal-free ingredients and closely follows a major scaling milestone achieved in partnership with BioBrew from Zx Ventures," Anheuser-Busch InBev's global investment & innovation group, per announcement earlier this month. Every and BioBrew operationalized their partnership last year, then this past Aug advanced to large-scale fermentation. Part

Paris-based Danone's new ceo delivered strong Q3, reporting 9.5% sales gain to $7.35 bil, which Reuters noted handily beat analysts' expectations of 6.9%. That's up from 7.7% sales gain in Q2. A solid price/mix bump of +10.9% in qtr helped offset 1.4% volume decline. In North America, co reported sales were up 11.2%, driven by 10.2% increase in price/mix while getting a 1% volume gain. That geographic segment got a lift from continued rollout of revenue growth management (RGM) initiatives, "leading to resilient volume/mix, at +1.0%." Recall, that's key prong of Coca-Cola strategy, and it may be no coincidence that longtime Coke exec Shane Grant runs biz.

Check out the Agenda for the upcoming 2022 Beer Insights Seminar. The meeting will feature an opening reception on Sunday, Nov. 13th, with an all-day meeting & closing reception on Monday, Nov. 14th in midtown NY. You'll benefit from presentations and discussions with top industry execs and plenty of time for networking. Space is limited — Sign up today!

Several anecdotal reports that Oct very soft (following big Sep price increase) buttressed by NBWA's Beer Purchaser's Index, just out today. Oct BPI stands at 37, one of lowest INSIGHTS has seen. Remember a reading greater than 50 means the industry or segment is expanding, below 50 means contracting. So October "data marks a pessimistic start to the fourth quarter of 2022," wrote NBWA's Lester Jones, including higher "at risk" inventory at 56. Only imports still expanding with Oct reading of 59, while seltzer fell to an abysmal 18 and craft way down at 23…. Big breaking news overnight. "Federal regulators descended upon the Union City offices of the country's largest liquor wholesaler on Wednesday, spending most of the day at the Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits building," wrote SF Chronicle. Both IRS and TTB "were engaged in an official activity at Southern Glazer's yesterday," said IRS public information officer Jennifer Chiou. Unconfirmed reports said dozens of agents descended on co, asked personnel to leave the building, took computers and records. But what were they after? And was action limited to CA? No further word at presstime. Stay tuned.

The US alc bev biz has a habit of focusing on potential. Fairly small slices of the pie can stir up excitement and trepidation that often reflects what could be more than what is. This drives suppliers when they seek distrib attention and retailer shelf space. And it underpins the "productive paranoia" NBWA prexy/ceo Craig Purser revisited at this mo's convention, showing the 11-bil-lb asteroid NASA diverted with a fridge-sized spacecraft. Just lately, some big questions being asked about relatively small parts of the biz.

In just 4 yrs, Boston Beer net revs and volume more than doubled thru 2021 to $2.06 bil and 8.5 mil bbls. And 2022 viewed as temporary setback as co aims to double biz again over the next 7-14 years while riding the beyond beer wave, chairman Jim Koch and ceo Dave Burwick proclaimed at regional distrib meeting earlier this week.