Brewbound Insiders are reading details about production changes at Ipswich Ale thanks to an expanded partnership with RiverWalk Brewing. 

Insiders are also:

• Seeing the new additions to the exclusive master cicerone list;
• Getting further details on the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission’s investigation of Tree House;
• Diving into beyond beer data with NIQ;
• Checking out what’s New on Shelves from Upland Brewing and Deschutes;
• And looking at the latest JuneShine RTD in today’s Parting Shot.

Insiders also have access to the Brewbound Newsletter Archive, including previous newsletter-exclusive Insider content.

Become a Brewbound Insider today!

Or, be in the know on all food and beverage news from Brewbound, BevNET and NOSH with Insider All Access.

Ipswich Ale Brewery, one of the oldest craft breweries in Massachusetts, will transfer most of its production as part of an expanded partnership with Newburyport, Massachusetts-based RiverWalk Brewing, both breweries announced last week.

Under the new partnership, RiverWalk will produce and package Ipswich’s beer, as well as store finished beer and raw ingredients and manage inventory, RiverWalk founder and brewer Steve Sanderson told Brewbound. 

Production of Ipswich’s beers at RiverWalk is expected to begin by mid-December. 

Insiders can read more commentary from Freeman and Sanderson, changes made since Huntwicke’s acquisition of Ipswich and Newburyport Brewing and other craft-on-craft mergers and partnerships.

The Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) investigation mentioned in a Tree House Brewing Company shareholder’s lawsuit against the company and co-owners Nate Lanier and Damien Goudreau revealed the Charlton-headquartered craft brewery was repurposing Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) request forms “in an attempt to save time and streamline the paperwork,” according to the ABCC investigator’s report, which Brewbound obtained. 

The brewery needed CORI forms from shareholders to apply for licenses at its expansion locations, but two – including Eric Granger, who is suing the company in Massachusetts Superior Court – were “unavailable/unreachable.” 

Conversations between the ABCC, and attorneys for Granger and Tree House revealed “there were some ‘internal issues’ taking place within the ownership structure.”

Insiders can read more about the investigation, which was added after newsletter publication time yesterday, and Granger’s lawsuit.

More signs of the times keep coming in the beer industry, with consolidations, expansions, production shifts and IP sales. Jess, Zoe and Justin reconvene to discuss the latest industry shakeups at Made by the Water, Young Lion, Other Half, RiverWalk, Ipswich and Anchor. 

Plus, the team shares whether they’ll be participating in Drinksgiving/Blackout Wednesday and looks at the latest Circana convenience store scans, with New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA passing Molson Coors’ Blue Moon Belgian White. 

The show wraps with a game of Another Round or Tabbing Out on the influx of new non-alcoholic beer brands from regional breweries and large-scale marketing activations in the wake of Heineken’s big F1 spend at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Listen here and on all popular podcast platforms. 

Total bev-alc sales growth improved slightly with volume performance up across beer, flavored malt beverages (FMB), cider and hard seltzer, while dipping negative on sequential basis in wine and spirits categories during the two-week period that ended November 4, according to an analysis of NIQ data by Goldman Sachs Equity Research.

NIQ uses U.S. xAOC (extended all outlet combined) including c-stores to summarize multi-channel markets and aggregate all national cross-outlet market data, and includes certain retailers (such as Whole Foods) that other providers do not.

Insiders can dive deeper into all the numbers, including trends for ready-to-drink cocktails, FMBs and hard seltzers.

Getting in distributors’ trucks and onto retailer shelves is harder than ever, with increased competition coming from all sectors and categories of bev-alc.

Hear directly from wholesalers on how you can gain mindshare and stand out, during Brewbound’s 2023 Brewbound Live business conference December 6 + 7 in Marina del Rey, California.

Stone Distributing general manager Brian Fried, Breakthru Beverage California director of beer Sinead Carey and Tryon Distributing director of beer Elledge Davis will provide a gut check on the market, along with regional and national trends.

Brewbound Live takes place December 6 + 7 at the Marina del Rey Marriott Hotel (4100 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, CA).

Tickets are available now.

The Brewbound team will be taking the next couple of days off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Unless major news hits, we will return Monday, November 27.

Wishing everyone out there a happy and safe holiday season.