Mast Landing Brewing to Open 2nd Tasting Room at Freeport Crossing in Maine brewbound.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from brewbound.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It was April 2020, and Justin Baccary, the owner of Station 26 Brewing, was prepared for a bloodbath. Like many other states, Colorado had forced its bars, breweries and restaurants to close in March to try and stem the rising rate of COVID-19 infections, and it was becoming clear to Baccary and others that what had once looked like a three-to-six-month nightmare was turning into an indefinite hell-scape for businesses of all kinds.
The Brewers Association trade group had just released the results of a sobering survey: nearly 12 percent of independent breweries nationwide said they would have to close by the end of the month if social distancing restrictions weren t lifted. Nearly 60 percent said they would be out of business by July. That would have translated to a stunning 4,500 breweries across the country and 250 beer makers in Colorado.
The top 50 craft breweries in the United States in 2021 msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Brewers Association: National craft production falls by 9% but number of breweries hits new high
(BusinessDen file photo)
This story first ran on BizWest.com, a BusinessDen news partner.
The Brewers Association said craft beer production fell 9 percent by volume from the year before as the pandemic ravaged on-premises drinking, but the association believes the industry avoided widespread collapse.
The 2020 report from the Boulder-based trade group said craft and independent brewers produced 23.1 million barrels last year, while craft’s market share in the wider brewing industry fell 1.3 percentage points to 12.3 percent.
New Belgium Brewing Co.’s sale to a subsidiary of Japanese brewing conglomerate Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. slightly obscures those figures. The brewery contributed about 900,000 barrels of beer to the industry’s total in 2019 before it was disqualified from the BA’s count of craft breweries, which likely makes the true production drop last year less steep.
Harrison brewer speaks out against bigotry from the beer hall and beyond
Harrison brewer speaks out against bigotry from the beer hall and beyond Kenny Peden of Brick & Forge Brew Works Brian Sorensen
Kenny Peden is one outspoken fella.
To get a sense of where the Harrison beer brewer stands on controversial issues, just read his Twitter feed. He spends more time on social media pointing out social injustices than touting his beer. (And he makes great beer.)
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Just last week, Peden tweeted an open invitation to join him on the Bentonville square to protest the state’s 2021 anti-transgender legislation. Last summer he joined a march through Zinc, adopted hometown of the Ku Klux Klan, as a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. He has helped organize or publicize other protests in the region, using his Twitter feed to rally people to progressive causes.