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Short’s Brewing is celebrating two decades in Bellaire, Michigan this year. The craft brewery makes a range of beers, from its flagship Local’s Light, to Bloody Beer, a Bloody Mary-inspired beer, and produced nearly 44,000 barrels of beer in 2023, according to the Brewers Association. 

In the latest edition of Brewbound’s A Round With, a weekly Insider-exclusive feature, Brewbound caught up with Short’s founder Joe Short and CEO Scott Newman-Bale. 

Here’s a snippet of the Q&A:

You’re celebrating your 20th anniversary – can you point to one of your proudest moments in those two decades? 

Joe & Scott: 1. Opening the pub. Just making it to the starting line was a challenge. 2. The first anniversary party where we closed a Michigan highway and filled it with thousands of people. It went well, but [there] was a lot of preparation. 3. Shipping the first truck of packaged product. Again, there were so many challenges that were overcome including having to label all bottles by hand.

What is the biggest challenge your business is facing right now?

Joe & Scott: Opportunity for growth is extremely limited. While we are fortunate to have had growth in recent years, it is infinitely harder to achieve and the market is changing so quickly that making the right product is also hard.

You’ve seemed to up your social media game, including starring in some of the company’s TikTok videos. What makes a strong social media presence important? 

Joe & Scott: Social media is a great tool to share the Short's experience with a larger audience (approx 190K people), especially when it comes to product releases, events, community impact and generating awareness for our individual locations. We're a highly creative company with a fun team (great ideas come from everywhere!), so we put a lot of energy into creating content and engaging with our audiences online. 

It is a powerful form of customer service because it's made it incredibly easy for folks to reach out directly to interact and share concerns or compliments when they would never go to a website to fill out a form. 

Insiders can read the full Q&A here.

At-the-brewery pint prices have not kept pace with inflation, according to a recent report from Brewers Association staff economist Matt Gacioch.

The nationwide average price of a pint of beer was $6.05 in January 2021, according to data from point-of-sale provider Arryved cited by Gacioch. That average price “rose steadily” over three years to $6.85 in December 2023.

Although this increase amounted to +13.2%, when adjusted for inflation according to December 2023 rates, “the price of pints sold onsite did, in fact, drop since early 2021,” Gacioch wrote. Gacioch calculated average pint prices for the focus period by month using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) consumer price index (CPI) both overall (CPI-U) and for food away from home, which includes alcoholic beverages.

He wrote: “These declines in real terms demonstrate that pint prices are not keeping pace with inflation, even more pronounced in the food away from home category. Yet, the price in real terms has remained mostly consistent since the end of 2022, indicating price adjustments are getting closer to the overall inflation rate.”

Using the CPI-U, the average price per pint in January 2021 would have been slightly more than $7.10 and nearly $7.30 using the CPI for food away from home. Both rates dropped fairly linearly until January 2023, when they began to flatten. 

The rate of increase tracked in Arryved pint price data has mostly lagged behind the CPI-U and the CPI for beer away from home between January 2022 and December 2023. CPI-U led Arryved average pint price increases by at least 2 percentage points between January and October 2022.

Gacioch wrote: “Essentially, what we see here is that brewery owners implemented as much in the way of price increases as they felt comfortable doing in the high inflationary period of 2022 but have slowed the increases as disinflation has occurred in the overall economy. The lagging of pint price increases again demonstrates that onsite beer prices have not kept up with overall inflation.”

Insiders can read more about price increases in key states.

Colorado’s Renegade Brewing has new life.

The Denver craft brewery is under new ownership – CPA and home brewer Dan Colbourne and former Uhl Brewing owner Aaron Uhl, Westword reported this week. The duo plan to reopen the brewery this fall, with the news coming less than three months after Renegade closed its doors.

Renegade announced plans to shutter in April, with its final day on May 3. Ownership at the time did not detail the cause of the closure, but called it “a surprise” and “sudden,” and noted that “the business is evaluating options to reopen at a later date.” 

Renegade is expected to reopen in August, at first serving guest beers while the company works on a new brewhouse that is scheduled to be in operation in October, according to Westword. Guest beers will include offerings from breweries such Coda Brewing, Wild Provisions, WestFax Brewing, Call to Arms Brewing, River North Brewery, Upslope Brewing and Bruz Beers. 

Uhl’s Brewing closed in August 2023 after opening in March 2020, less than a week before country-wide on-premise shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Renegade produced 2,856 barrels of beer in 2023, according to estimated data from the Brewers Association’s (BA) New Brewer Magazine’s May/June issue.

Long-time Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bob Pease will retire on June 30, 2025, after 32 years at the trade organization representing small and independent craft brewers, Pease and the BA announced last week. 

Pease joins the Brewbound Podcast to detail how long he’s been in talks to retire, why now is the right time and what advice he would give to his successor. He also discusses the legacy he’s leaving behind, the most important moves of his tenure and whether there’s a next chapter beyond the ski slopes.

Plus, the Brewbound team discusses other recent changes at the BA, Pease’s potential successor and the results of the BA’s latest Harris Poll of beer drinkers. 

Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform. 

Twelve of these cans found their way to my door (and fridge, it’s Justin) recently from Des Moines’ Exile Brewing. 

A year after launching its first name, image and likeness (NIL) offering – Swarm golden ale (4.2%) – with 20% of revenue going to the Swarm Collective, a 501(c)3 non-profit that supports University of Iowa athletes, the brewery is going beyond beer. 

Exile has launched Swarm Vodka Soda, a 5% ABV blackberry lemon canned cocktail made with Swarm Vodka from Foundry Distillery in West Des Moines. 

Sold in 4-pack cans and priced at around $9.99, the vodka soda will be in-market through the summer.

In a press release, the company said it has donated $200,000 to the Swarm Collective so far, and believes the number can grow to $1 million over the next five years. In the 52-week period ending June 15, Exile Swarm golden ale generated $734,036 in off-premise sales in NIQ-tracked off-premise retailers (the brand does not have year-over-year comps yet. 

On the other side of the NIL rivalry in Iowa, Doll Distributing is expected to order 10,000 cases of Ames Lager from West O Beer for the start of the Iowa State Cyclones home football slate, according to We Will Collective executive director Brent Blum on a recent edition of the Cyclone Fanatic podcast. We Will is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports Cyclones athletes.

It’s time to book your room for Brewbound Live! Our two-day event for beer and beverage-alcohol professionals heads to Marina del Rey, California, on December 11 + 12. Register now to stay just steps from the action and save on your stay at the Marina del Rey Marriott Hotel (4100 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, CA).

The Brewbound Live room block always sells out, so we encourage you to register today to secure your place among brewers, retailers, investors, distributors, beer leaders, and industry partners. Once registered, you will receive an email with the link to the discounted room block. Plus, right now you can take advantage of early registration pricing and save $100 per registration. Plan ahead to save and take advantage of both the room block and early registration discounts.

Attendees can look forward to expert presentations from brewery leaders, retailers, beverage-alcohol suppliers, wholesalers, and data providers, business conversations during scheduled networking breaks, the Brewbound Live Pitch Slam, samples of the latest innovations in the industry and the Brewbound Live Official Party, all set against the backdrop of sunny Southern California.

Register for Brewbound Live Winter 2024.