Kona Brewing Company has officially announced it will begin distributing its portfolio of craft beers to Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio in January and February of 2013. With the expanded distribution, Kona beers will now be available in 35 states.

Sierra national convenience manager Steve Jannuzzo shared his view from the trenches at the Brewbound conference in San Diego.

“Our current capacity is 80,000 with the new brewery, but I would estimate that we brew about 50,000-60,000 barrels next year if all goes well,” co-founder Jim Scussel told CBD. “We would love to sell all 80,000 in Arizona but if we can’t …

Sales chief Earl Kight updated us on their distributor partners in new markets.

Recall that top-30 craft brewer CraftWorks is comprised of Old Chicago, Rock Bottom, and Gordon Biersch, the latter two which brew their own beer in-house (though some carry outside brands as well). The group is around 200 units, with a 40/60 beverage-food breakdown….

This Advisor Thinks So ….

Cleveland-based specialty chain Heinen’s is different….

Remember all that hoopla over private label craft? Well, it’s slowed down, as that segment seems to have. Private label craft actually experienced negative sales trends over the summer…

Lots of excitement at Two Roads…

Some regarded the speech as excessive. Others asked why I hadn’t yet run anything on the tome right after Tony Magee delivered it at Monday’s Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS seminar. Those very different responses speak to the heart of the speech, which dissected growing divides inside the beer industry.

Tenth and Blake’s Tom Cardella took the stage at yesterday’s Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS seminar to share how the organization is trying to grow the entire above-premium category through projects like Apollo.

Last week we reported on the Cicerone Certification Program debuting “BeerSavvy,” a training product for first-level Beer Server certification. Program founder Ray Daniels told us a little more about the franchise’s overall growth in 2012, and that we might see similar training offerings for the Certified Cicerone level exam next year.

Total CBA depletion growth trends came in at +6% for Q3, up from +3% in Q2…

In June, Dogfish Head sent a termination letter to its 9-plus year Chicagoland distributor, Louis Glunz Distributing, offering 4.4 times the wholesaler’s most recent 12-month gross profit margin multiple as fair market value in exchange for a release of Glunz’ rights to the brand…

Continuing yesterday’s New Belgium feature, part two focuses on NBB in 2013: Branding, pricing, and challenges from the guys in Fort Collins.