Its time for the weekly brewing update for 3/25/11.

Here we go for brewing industry news for March 25th, 2011.  This week had few stories that amounted to much but there was a couple things that did catch my attention.
First off, this week I read an article on Yahoo! finance about how Molson Coors has continued their global strategy in expanding the Coors Light brand. Molson Coors announced this week that they will be introducing Coors Light to the beer drinkers in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is the largest beer market throughout the Caribbean, in which the light beer category is estimated to make up over half of the country's overall beer volume. Many feel that this is a great opportunity on the part of Molson Coors by bringing one of the world's most refreshing beers to beer drinkers in that country. It's perfectly timed with the market's growing enthusiasm for American beer and the unique drinking experience provided through the cold activation technology. The Coors brand is already widely popular in the Dominican communities across the U.S. so the folks at Molson are optimistic as to its success in the Dominican Republic. Retailers across the Dominican Republic will be carrying Coors Light bottles and cans featuring the cold activated mountains label that turns blue when the Coors Light has been chilled to the perfect temperature for ice cold refreshment. These innovations and packaging enhancements that have become a hallmark for Molson Coors in recent years and has helped them become one of the fastest growing international beer brands worldwide.

My next story this week comes from atmabus at SeekingAlpha.com who wrote about how Boston Beer company keeps chugging along. Boston Beer Company, who's roots date back to the 1860's, is the largest American beer company and has only been around for about 25 years. Although the only have about 1% of the market, the makers of Sam Adams are the largest remaining American brewer. This is because the other larger brewers have all been purchased by companies from outside the U.S. Budweiser sold to InBev from Belgium, Miller sold out to SAB from South Africa, and Coors sold to Molson from Canada. All the players have commoditized the industry while Boston Beer has taken the opposite approach and chose to remain very localized, differentiated, independent, and driven by passion for quality rather than quantity. Founder Jim Koch takes annual trips to Germany to acquire the premium raw materials the company uses for their one of a kind taste and full flavor. Sam Adams has certainly revolutionized the industry with it's success. When Koch started there were no U.S. craft breweries. Now there is over 1600 and they represent roughly 10% of the beer market in this country. Certainly an impressive number considering the companies short history. I couldn't agree with the author of the article more when he says it is very refreshing to see a successful American start-up stay true to its roots despite such rapid growth and popularity.

Continuing on the topic of craft brewers leads me into another article I read from Tom Rotunno at cnbc.com titled The Beer Industry's Bright Spot. This article is discussing how the craft brewers are continuing to show steady growth despite slumping sales overall in the beer market. According to the latest figures released by the Brewers Association, US craft brewers reported an increase of 11 percent by volume and 12 percent in retail sales in 2010.  This growth, which represents more than one million barrels, or the equivalent of more than 14 million new craft beer cases, comes at a time when total US beer sales were down a little over one percent or roughly two million barrels.  This trend has caught the attention of the larger brewers like Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors, who has seen the growing popularity of their Blue Moon brand in recent years. Sales of Blue Moon rose almost 25% in 2010 which is Molson's closest beer that goes in line with the craft brewers market. Fortunately, Boston Beer will be able to stay in the craft brewing industry a little longer as the Brewers Association increased the threshold for being a craft brewer from 2 million barrels to an astonishing 6 million barrels per year. The reason this helped Boston Beer was because they are projected to pass the 2 million barrel mark before this year is over. The increase on the threshold will let them keep the branding as a craft brewer in an industry segment they were responsible for starting.

Well that's pretty much all the news for this week, except for the fact that all my stocks are up this week from last week. Certainly some very good news as I have been seeing some drastically low stick prices across all three of my companies I chose to invest in. I don't know what speculation has caused the recent rise in prices but I am certainly very glad to see it make a positive turn again. Anyhow, until next week........."stay thirsty my friends"!!