To commemorate its anniversary, Urban South has teamed up with several of its favorite craft breweries nationwide to launch eight new beers for fans to savor. These breweries include Baa Baa Brewhouse, Great Notion, Martin House Brewing, Mortalis Brewing, RAR Brewing, Tripping Animals, Unbranded Brewing, and Weldwerks Brewing.
Last year, the brewing industry surfed the choppy waves of carbon dioxide shortages, a tight labor market, and spiking expenses, as inflation impacted everything from cans to grains to freight. “Nearly everything costs more than it did before the pandemic,” says Bart Watson, the chief economist at the Brewers Association. “Brewers haven’t been able to fully pass those costs onto customers, meaning lower margins.”
The craft-brewing industry has slowly but definitively shifted in favor of smaller, hyper-local operations for whom success does not equate to taking over the world or the beer aisle.
US craft brewers have had to contend with supply chain disruption, competition from other beverage categories, and a continued unsteady on-trade recovery in 2022. But the innovation and flexibility of brewers will help them take on the challenges in 2023, says the Brewers Association, as it sums up the year.
As 2022 winds down, there is a pessimistic outlook among beer distributors, reports the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA). The group’s Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI), a forward-looking indicator that measures expected beer demand, sports a low reading of 38 in November, and the “at-risk” inventory index is relatively higher at 49.
Mexico is a beer-loving country, but it was relatively late to the craft beer scene, until now. Cerveza Mexico 2022 recently wrapped up in Mexico City. The three-day celebration of craft beer which drew over 16,000 attendees to the World Trade Center in late October culminated with the announcement of the winners of the Cerveza Cup 2022, a prize which recognizes the best in Mexican craft beer.
The Bronx Brewery recently announced its third location opened up in NYC on November 18. This third locale is at The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, 20 Hudson Yards, Level Two. The new 1,400-sq-foot space is only the third operating brewery in Manhattan. Damian Brown, president and co-founder of The Bronx Brewery, made the announcement.
Beverage giant Asahi has seen a resurgence of consumer interest in beer in Japan but believes that some challenges are upcoming for other segments including low-alcohol and non-alcoholic products.
Pernod Ricard USA will invest $22m in creating its first-ever RTD canning line, located at its Fort Smith plant in Arkansas: boosting its ability to bring RTDs to market swiftly.