Craft's tendrils continue to creep into new communities, each citing its own beer "boom" recently. Nashville's beer scene has "drastically moved forward" just in "the three years that" Matt Leff has lived there, during which time he's launched Rhizome Productions, a craft beer-supportive event and tour company. The Nashville area is now home to at least 13 breweries with at least another 4 on the way, according to a Tennessean report. Largest state craft Yazoo Brewing just got through its biggest sales month in 10 yrs; 2-yr-old Jackalope is finishing up doubling its capacity and preparing to offer cans this fall. New breweries entering the scene plan to fill-in specialty niches, one focused on German-style lagers, another on Belgian ales. The state's brewers guild is only 2 yrs old, but has already successfully championed state excise tax reform and new legislation setting guidelines for brewers' participation in festivals. While a Jackalope founder called the city's scene "booming," the paper cites a beer-lover's belief that "there's room for everybody."

Duluth, Minn's mayor, Don Ness, is calling his city the "Craft Beer Capital of Minnesota," challenging Twin Cities mayors for the self-proclaimed crown, according to a number of recent Duluth News Tribune articles about the city's "beer boom." An MPR reporter seems to agree with the mayor, noting that "new breweries improved Minneapolis, but they transformed Duluth." Mayor Ness explained that his city's beer-success centers around "finding something authentic when the world gives you conformity. It's about connecting with something real and appreciating the talents and craftsmanship of your neighbors." Interestingly, Duluth's beer renaissance hasn't centered around any single, large-scale brewery, instead a result of a handful of smaller suppliers.

Columbia, South Carolina is touting its own "boom" after being "late to the party." The city's first brewery opened July 1 with 700 visitors on its first day, wrote The State, and a second is on its way. Craft-focused shops and supportive bizzes are coming to town too, all "because of the law," said co-founder of River Rat Brewing, the second brewery opening in town. South Carolina legislators passed a "pint law" this session, which increases the amount of beer breweries can pour for visitors (though not quite as much as in-state brewers initially hoped). Springfield, Mo just welcomed another brewery too, following the success of 2-yr-old Mother's Brewing, one of the fastest-growing small US brewers. White River, the new kid in town, is focusing on beers named after local landmarks, like Table Rock Red. Mother's shipped almost 6K bbls in 2012, its first full calendar year in operation.

Washington DC's beer love has made for 3 production breweries, a handful of brewpubs in planning and an ever-growing list of craft-serving accounts, according to a long Washington Post report. The paper notes the city's unique rules allowing bar-owners to sell "any beer, from anywhere," regardless of the brand's distribution footprint. Publicans have sent refrigerated trucks across country to grab highly sought-after brands back to DC to thirsty enthusiasts. Now it's "easier to find great beer right now that it has ever been" in the city, the paper's food and drink critic notes, explaining how bars and restaurants of all shapes, sizes, styles and price-tags have opened up to craft. But famed ChurchKey beer director Greg Engert explained that "I love the ubiquity of craft beer, but I worry about the diligence" of bar-owners keeping draft lines clean.

Two yrs after Neb legislature closed loophole in state law to bar brewer branches, "three state lawmakers have introduced a legislative study to see what the state can do to help craft breweries in the state," AP reports. Study and potential hearing will "examine whether self-distribution could help start-up breweries grow, and how they're taxed relative to larger brewers." That ain't all. Two other topics of the study: a "possible truth-in-labeling requirement intended to keep major companies from portraying their beer as locally made product" (a twist on craft vs crafty?) and a "check-off program" that may be used to promote local craft brews, AP adds. As example of hardship on small brewers, article cites start-up Scratchtown Brewing in Ord, Neb which uses distrib 65 miles away to handle accounts in Ord. While some lawmakers interested in helping small breweries, at least until they need wholesaler for broader distribution, chairman of key committee acknowledged "it's just hard to have two different rules for craft guys and for the big guys."

Interesting analysis, courtesy of Sierra. Craft big bottles (22 and 24 oz) are 7% of total US craft $$$ in IRI foodstores yr-to-date thru 6/16. But check it out. Big bottles are more than 2.5x that in some of the most craft centric markets. For example, big bottles are 19 share of craft $$ in San Diego, 18.5 share in Portland. Almost 1 in 5 $$. In Seattle/Tacoma, big bottles are at 16 share of segment. And surprisingly, big bottles are 12.9 share in LA, ahead of 10.6 share in SF.

Sierra Nevada's annual meeting with its sales force starts today and it will unveil next yr's ambitious plans plus lots of new news. CBN got a sneak preview of a few highlights. As Sierra gets ready to open its 2d brewery in Mills River, North Carolina (near Asheville), Sierra expects a big yr in 2014, including growth of as much as 10%, mktg and sales director Joe Whitney told CBN. Sierra's biggest incremental volume lever next yr will be the advent of variety packs. But one of its biggest ideas for 2014 is a collaboration that involves giving back to the craft community. In fact, you could say Sierra will launch the mother of all beer collaborations.

Beer Camp Across America, Collaborative 12-Pack, Release Festivals In conjunction with the grand opening of its NC brewery on July 27th next year, Sierra has come up with what can only be called an extraordinary and unprecedented collaboration. This collaboration seeks to celebrate the entire craft beer movement. "We want to highlight the success of craft beer, not just our own next step," said Sierra founder Ken Grossman in a statement. Joe calls it a "craft community Kumbaya" and "something that has never been done."

This collaboration is called Beer Camp Across America and begins with a 12 pack, one beer each made in collaboration with some of America's most highly regarded brewers, established as well as up-and-comers. Here's the list: Allagash, Ballast Point, Bell's, Cigar City, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, Ninkasi, Oskar Blues, Russian River, Three Floyds, Victory and a beer made in collaboration with the the local brewing community in Asheville thru the auspices of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, the local guild of craft brewers there.

But it gets better. In conjunction with the release of this 12-pack, Sierra Nevada will hold 8 separate beer release festivals, a "multi-weekend, west- to-east tour of regional festivals" that "will culminate with the Mills River doors opening." The tour starts in Chico and ends in North Carolina; not all the cities are finalized, but some craft-centric communities are likely. Each of the collaborative brewers will be present at the release festivals (and will pour some of their own beers in addition to the collaboration) as well as up to a couple of dozen local brewers at each. These are also fund raisers, which will contribute proceeds to state brewer guilds and for hop and malt research. "It's a small but important nudge to keep our industry's momentum strong," said Ken. The brewers will ride from festival to festival on a tour bus.

Variety Packs as Volume Driver; Sierra's Approach As Joe explains, IPAs, Seasonals, pale ales and variety packs represent 57% of total craft volume and importantly 72% of growth. Sierra is a big player in 3 of these 4 but has heretofore not played at all in variety packs. That's even tho retailers and its sales force have called for a Sierra variety pack for yrs. The variety packs begin next yr Jan 1. Sierra will have 4 seasonal variety packs, each with 4 beers and each will focus on one type of beer (IPA, summer styles or holiday styles for example) and each will feature 2 beers only available in that 12 pack, which Sierra views as key point of difference.

Sierra Up 3.5% in 1st Half; Other 2013 Plans Sierra has many other plans for next yr, including new tap handles and glassware for its signature Pale Ale ("we've got to invest in our flagship") and Torpedo, an expanded Harvest Series, Summerfest in cans all summer long, and much more. Sierra only up 3.5% in 1st half 2013, with Sierra Pale up 2.6% and Torpedo up 19%, according to Joe. But results held back by softness in Seasonals -7%. Recall, highly regarded Ruthless Rye didn't cycle well this yr. Sierra expects pick up in 2d half as Asheville comes on line (for brewing only) in 4th qtr and Sierra introduces a new fall seasonal (for just 6 weeks this yr), Flipside Red Eye IPA. Next yr, that will be available for the full fall season.

New Hire: Jeff White, Director of Systems Integration In other news, Sierra hired Jeff White as director of systems integration. Recall, Jeff most recently sr strategy director at Tenth and Blake and also had long experience at Boston, including as chief operating officer. Jeff will be responsible for sales order processing, new Sierra program to reduce days of inventory on hand and get consumers fresher beer as well as legal and IT.

By Diogenes

I agree with my colleague Nestor that the U.S. beer industry is deeply divided these days but I do not agree that this means there is no such thing as the U.S. beer industry. The U.S. beer industry has always been divided, and there have been times when these divisions contributed to catastrophic events.

Prohibition, for instance. My reading of history tells me that the industry was split between regional breweries and national shipping breweries when the Prohibitionist forces were laying the groundwork for their unlikely campaign to ban alcoholic beverages against the will of most Americans.

The brewers, each in their own secure world, could not believe that such a disaster could befall them. World War I erupted, and they were smeared as Americans of German descent, with loyalty to the hated Kaiser. The rest is history.

When Prohibition was repealed largely because of the crime, corruption and hypocrisy it spawned, the brewers plunged right back into infighting. The United States Brewers Association, created in 1862 when Congress levied an excise tax to finance the Civil War, re-elected Chairman Jacob Ruppert of the New York City's Ruppert Brewery, a regional brewery. The U.S.B.A. and the American Brewers Association, formed during Prohibition to represent near beer brewers, worked to develop the government's code governing the post-Prohibition brewing industry.

Pabst, a national brewer, withdrew from the U.S.B.A. in a dispute over the federal code. In 1936, Anheuser-Busch, another national brewery, also withdrew, and Vice President August Busch Jr. noted that only 132 brewers belonged to the U.S.B.A. Busch gathered 45 other breweries and started the rival Brewing Industry, Inc. Efforts to merge these competing organizations failed.

In 1937, the U.S.B.A. formed a new organization, the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, to work for a positive public image for beer in America. Brand Beer anyone?

Of course, during World War II, the Brewers Association of America was created to represent small brewers in the competition for scarce commodities like tin. Miller Brewing Co. withdrew from the U.S.B.A in the early '80s, and that organization disbanded in 1986, giving rise to the Beer Institute, which was dominated by Anheuser-Busch and Miller but now purports to represent all brewers and importers.

There are similar divisions today, between large brewers and small brewers, between distributors, a relatively new force in the industry, and brewers.

Just six years ago, Anheuser-Busch was doing ads ribbing SABMiller about its foreign ownership. That ended when AB was bought by Belgian-based, Brazilian-run InBev. In the past two years, the Brewers Association, representing craft brewers, and the Beer Institute were united in fighting off the National Beer Wholesalers Association's CARE Act, a bill that they believed would have undercut the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Today, the BI is "actively opposing" the BA's BREW Act, a bill that would reduce federal beer excise taxes for brewers under 6 million barrels in volume. The BI is supporting the BEER Act, a bill that would reduce taxes for all brewers. The NBWA is officially neutral on the BA bill, but not a fan of defining a small brewer as 6 million barrels or less. This could affect efforts to gain exemptions from state franchise laws for small brewers.

The BI opposition came after the BA wrote an op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch titled, "Craft v. Crafty." The piece took ABInBev and MillerCoors to task for not identifying their companies as the brewers of Shock Top and Blue Moon, both beers competing against craft brewers. This ruffled feathers at the BI, which complained that the small brewers were "denigrating" the beers of large brewers.

So, yes, there are divisions in the U.S. brewing industry, and the media delights in "beer wars." That is nothing new. But it does make the industry vulnerable. Let's not allow the pushing and shoving to prevent us from coming together to face some very real threats-state and federal excise tax increases, equivalency and efforts to curb our ability to market our beers.

In 2012, brewery registration for GABF did not hit capacity in 2 days. Available slots filled up in 6 days, including a weekend.

Good news for battered Mustang Brewing in Oklahoma this week. After its brewhouse at its OK City facility was destroyed by a tornado earlier this year, the co announced that it'll be rebuilding a plant twice the size of the old one. It'll be expanding its current "headquarters" in the city to make space for a tap room, store and event space, and plan to time opening around Nov 1, the effective-date of new legislation in Okla that allows on-premise samples. Recall, Hanson Bros' Mmmhops Pale Ale is brewed in partnership with Mustang. The brewery also announced plans to begin selling beer in and around Little Rock, Ark.

We've seen small brewers work with local restaurants on beers limited to single locations. We've seen large national craft players work with large national chains on beers only available at those chains. There seems to be plenty of room for co-branding in the middle. Tale Chaser IPA, brewed by Sly Fox of Pottstown, PA, is only available at "The Pub" areas of four Pennsy Wegmans supermarkets, per their press release. Sly Fox produced a beer on tap at Wegman's Pubs last winter, "such a rousing success," Wegmans' director of in-store dining said, "that we knew we wanted to create a summer special as well." The chain's already ordered more of the beer. Elsewhere, Virginia's Starr Hill Brewing has teamed up with Hard Times Cafe on a lager to be available on draft at HTC's 17 DC-region outlets. If all goes well, bottles may become available in other locations too, according to Washington Biz Journal reports. Hard Times' chili and wings spots include locations at both the Verizon Center and Nationals Park in DC. The "Craft Lager" will be just the latest beer Hard Times has had made just for its chain of stores: it worked with Old Dominion on its Hard Times Select Lager before another supplier took over until the brand was discontinued early last year, Hard Times partner Doug Welsh told the paper.

Interest in craft beer has made what is old, new again. America's reignited interest in beer culture and craft companies' interest in revisiting historical beer styles, locations and even brands have created an environment ripe for relaunches and reinvention of long lost or almost-lost regional legacy brands. A new wrinkle: DC Brau announced Heurich's Lager as its newest brand this week, a re-do of the lead brand of the last brewery to operate in Washington DC before DC Brau set up shop in 2011. Christian Heurich Brewing Co closed in 1956 to make space for the Kennedy Center, according to the release. This August, DC Brau will launch the pre-prohibition style pilsner at a ticketed event at Christian Heurich's Dupont Circle mansion-cum-museum. DC Brau pumped out about 5000 bbls last yr, current capacity is about 12K bbls, according to a Washington Post report this week, and the co will launch sales in Md this month. The brand connects a growing craft trend toward flavor moderation with that now-classic craft play to honor local history and points of interest.

Plenty of other beer marketers see the opportunity in this growing love for anything "home", re-launching old regional brands and re-building old regional breweries. Joseph Wolf Brewing Co is among them. The brand didn't make it through Prohibition after a 40-yr run in Stillwater, Minn. Now Wolf's great-granddaughters have relaunched the brand, contracting 2 styles out of Dubrue in Duluth, a Berliner Weisse and a Golden Strong Belgian ale, according to the Star Ledger. The Wolf family no longer owns the old brewery in Stillwater, but the sisters are in talks with current ownership in hopes to be able to brew at the site once again. In nearby Wisc, Berghoff brand owners recently reinvented the brand with a clear craft bent. Owners of the brand decided to invest in a total overhaul of its recipes, creating a portfolio that both honors Berghoff's history and satisfies craft-loving palates. It's brewing a hopped-up red ale and a number of Germanic-style brands at Stevens Point in Wisc to sell there and in Ill, Mich and Ind.

Former Long Trail prexy Brian Walsh named ceo of Pittsburgh Brewing Co earlier this week, as first reported in our INSIGHTS Express. Even tho, Pittsburgh makes mostly traditional lager products, Brian was already all over this local trend, noting that Americans "want to support businesses and consumer products made in their local area." Pittsburgh "is poised to benefit from this trend." Elsewhere, old brewing buildings have been occupied by new brewers banking on the sites' historical and local cachet.

While craft beer shipments outperformed total beer market in Massachusetts in 1st qtr, that's not saying much since mkt was off 5.3%, 50,000 bbls. Craft managed gain of 1%, 1,700 bbls Jan-Mar in Mass. Growth came from big group of small craft players as gains and losses were evenly split among 10 largest craft brewers in state. Boston Beer was off 1%, 300 bbls, while Sierra Nevada (-23%, 1800 bbls, reducing inventory as it expanded cold space at distribs), Wachusett (-4%, 200 bbls), Narragannsett (-7%, 300 bbls) and Long Trail (-15%, 600 bbls) were also down Jan-Mar. Harpoon and NAB, 2d and 3d largest craft in Mass were up 2.5% and 1.8% respectively. Lagunitas more than doubled to #10, gaining 1,500 bbls thru Mar. Berkshire (+12%) and Mercury Brewing (+7%) were other gainers among largest craft. Meanwhile, large group of smaller craft brewers (over 150+) gained 4.6%, 1,950 bbls in Mass during qtr. Craft segment accounted for 16.7 share of Mass shipments thru 1st qtr, a gain of 1.1 share.