Craft Brew News 11/8/19

Federal Judge: MillerCoors Withheld Marketing Materials in Stone Brewing Lawsuit

A federal magistrate judge last Thursday filed a report and recommendation order largely siding with Stone Brewing’s claims that MillerCoors did not provide all available marketing materials for its Keystone brand during the lawsuit’s discovery phase.

Although U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Lopez declined to impose sanctions requested by Stone against MillerCoors, she did grant a partial award of monetary sanctions to the San Diego-headquartered craft brewery.

Stone Brewing filed the lawsuit against MillerCoors in February 2018 in response to new Keystone Light packaging and advertising that featured the words “Key” and “Stone” separated in prominent, capitalized letters. MillerCoors has maintained in its defense that it has used “Stone” and “Stones” in reference to Keystone products dating back to the brand’s debut in 1989.

In light of this finding, Lopez recommended that Stone receive a partial payout of its $420,476.63 in legal fees, and Stone be allowed to update its expert reports to include the additional evidence.

Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act Reaches Record 315 Co-Sponsors

A bill to extend federal excise tax (FET) relief has garnered a record number of co-sponsors following a day of action coordinated by the Beer Institute (BI), Brewers Association (BA) and other alcoholic beverage trade groups.

The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) reached 315 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives and 73 in the U.S. Senate;

In addition to the BA and BI, the bill’s other supporters include the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, American Craft Spirits Association, Wine Institute, Wine America, the U.S. Association of Cider Makers and the American Mead Makers Association.

BA president and CEO Bob Pease said in the release “The widespread bipartisan support the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act has received to date is amazing and America’s craft beer industry is grateful to our many champions in Congress,”. “This legislation has played an integral role in providing financial certainty to more than 7,700 small and independent brewers coast to coast since its enaction in 2017.”

Brewers who produce fewer than two million barrels annually pay $3.50 per barrel for their first 60,000 barrels and $7 per barrel after that.

Of the bill’s 315 co-sponsors, 159 are Democrats and 156 are Republicans, nearly a 50/50 split between the parties. These 315 co-sponsors make up 72% of the House’s 435 members.

Russian River Brews Sonoma Pride to Support Firefighters

Russian River is brewing a Sonoma Pride IPL after a wildfire forced the evacuation of the popular Windsor, California, craft brewery last week.

Russian River co-founder Natalie Cilurzo told Brewbound that Sonoma Pride will be available next month at both the Windsor and Santa Rosa breweries and proceeds will support a yet-to-be-determined charity that supports firefighters. The beer will be on draft and in bottles with commemorative labels, which will also adorn T-shirts.

The Kincade Fire started on October 23 near Geyserville, about 15 miles from Russian River’s Windsor location.

Russian River was closed after the towns of Windsor and Healdsburg were evacuated on October 26. The brewery was closed for eight days while evacuation orders were in place, and gas to the property was shut off. The brewery finally reopened on October 31, although staff was unable to brew or operate its kitchen until gas was restored.

The Kincade Fire was 80% contained as of Monday, after burning nearly 78,000 acres and claiming 374 buildings, according to NPR.

In a video on Facebook, Russian River co-founder Vinnie Cilurzo announced that he and his team brewed a new version of Sonoma Pride.
In 2017, the Cilurzos worked with 50 other breweries to raise more than $1.1 million for wildfire relief efforts in Sonoma and Napa counties.

(Allo Gilinsky The Craft Beer Concierge – Russian River Tour Guide)

Four Loko’s 12% ABV Hard Seltzer Hits Retailers; Anheuser-Busch to Launch Bud Light Seltzer in Q1


Phusion Projects officially rolled out its first Four Loko branded hard seltzer to retailers today, after going viral on social media over the summer.

Four Loko Hard Seltzer’s first flavor, black cherry, checks in at 12% alcohol by volume (ABV) and is sold in 23.5 oz. single-serve cans. More flavors will launch next spring, a spokeswoman said. Phusion Projects touted the product as “the hardest hard seltzer in the universe,” according to the company’s website and the caption of the Instagram post announcing its debut.

On the other end of the spectrum, Craft Brew Alliance’s pH Experiment launched Pacer, a 2% ABV hard seltzer, over the summer.

The hard seltzer category has generated $1.2 billion in sales year-to-date through October 5, according to market research firm Nielsen. The category crossed the $1 billion threshold in August. Hard seltzer sales could be triple that size over the next three years, according to a report from Rabobank beverage analyst Jim Watson.

A-B announced today that Bud Light Seltzer will launch in the first quarter of 2020 in four flavors: Black Cherry, Lemon Lime, Strawberry and Mango. Each flavor checks in at 5% ABV and contains 100 calories, 2 grams of carbs and fewer than 1 gram of sugar. The product was teased during the world’s largest beer manufacturer’s third-quarter earnings call on October 25.

Bud Light Seltzer will come in variety 12-packs, single flavor 12-packs and 25 oz. single-serve cans.

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