The American Craft Beer Quick Hits – August 17, 2015

American Craft Beer|August 17th, 2015|

We blame the industry for this… It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates – things were pretty much done. But clearly all that’s changed.

So here’s some of what’s happened in the world of craft beer while you were off enjoying yourselves.

Breakfast Of Champions? (Minneapolis, MN) – Move over Founders Breakfast Stout you might have some competition. General Mills, the makers of Wheaties, has partnered with Fulton Brewing and come up with a special edition Hefeweizen Ale (a wheat beer- get it?) A Twin Cities area only offering, HefeWheaties will be available 16oz tallboys after August 26^th.

Tom Brady Sux (Indianapolis, IN) – 20,000 cans of Sun King’s Wee Mac Scottish Ale have been discovered to be carrying an unusual message next to the canning date posted on their can – “Tom Brady Sux.” Fox News is reporting that this message was covertly inserted on the bottom of the cans by an employee to protest the “DeflateGate” scandal. Look for Boston Beer to make the next move.

Bend Over To The Great Lakes State (Bend, Oregon) – Deschutes recently announced that they’ll be expanding their footprint in Michigan in September – so you can finally stop whining. The Oregon-based brewery will partner with Alliance Beverage for distribution of its beers along the Western Shoreline, Fabiano Brothers for the Central Michigan area, and Daniel L Jacob & Co for Ann Arbor South.

Words To Drink By (Baltimore, MD) – “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” – Frank Zappa

Colorado’s Craft Beer Crosses The Billion Dollar Mark (Boulder, CO) – Beer is a billion dollar business in Colorado according to a new study done by the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business for the Colorado Brewers Guild. “The economic impact of Colorado’s craft brewing industry has crossed the $1 billion threshold,” reports the Denver Business Journal. There are 309 locally owned Colorado breweries online currently, that now employ 6,021 workers according to the study.