Summary: Craft Brew News - 2/6/2020<br>(Courtesy of Brewbound – <a href="http://www.brewbound.com" rel="noopener">www.brewbound.com</a>)<br><br>Pennsylvania’s Stoudt’s Brewing Company to Close<br><br>Stoudts Brewing Company will cease operations at the end of the winter, as founder Carol Stoudt retires after 33 years, according to a press release.<br><br>Founder Carol Stoudt said in the release “This was a difficult decision to make,”. “But we’re not moving enough volume to justify the expense of keeping the brewery open. However, we’re not closing the doors to any business opportunities that could help the Stoudts brand live on.”<br><br>Stoudt founded the brewery in 1987 and was the first female brewmaster after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, according to the release.<br><br>The Stoudts complex in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, also houses a restaurant, event space, bakery, market and antiques store, which will remain open after brewing operations cease. The company said it will begin scaling down production immediately and wrap up at the start of spring, as it prepares to sell the brewery.<br><br>Stoudts produced 2,400 barrels of beer in 2018, the most recent year in which production data is available from the Brewers Association.<br><br>California ABC Suspends San Francisco-Based Seven Stills’ License<br><br>The California Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control has suspended San Francisco-based Seven Stills Brewery and Distillery’s operating license for 90 days for violating the state’s tied house laws, according to a report from SFGate.com.<br><br>The purpose of tied-house laws is to maintain separation between the three tiers of alcoholic distribution — producers (like breweries), wholesalers and retailers like bars and stores — and to level the playing field for smaller craft breweries competing in the market. The laws prohibit companies, particularly large ones, from offering gifts of value, or straight-up monetary payments to retailers, in exchange for selling their beer.<br><br>The suspension will begin in March, which the company opted for in lieu of a fine, which could have topped $600,000, based on $10,000 for each of its 60 infractions.<br><br>In anticipation of the financial hit that will come from suspending operations, Seven Stills has closed its taproom in the Mission District and its Egbert production facility.<br><br>The company’s new taproom in the city’s Mission Bay district will remain open during the suspension, but its brewing facility is not functional and the company does not have the financing to finish it, according to SFGate.<br><br>Colorado Pilot Program Repurposes CO2 From Fermentation for Use in Cannabis Growth<br><br>With the help of technology from Austin, Texas-based Earthly Labs, the Denver Beer Company is launching a program to share the excess carbon dioxide produced during fermentation with the Clinic, a cannabis company, to stimulate marijuana plant growth.<br><br>The exchange is part of the Carbon Dioxide Reuse Pilot Project, a pilot program announced by Gov. Jared Polis last week and spearheaded by the Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).<br><br>Denver Beer Company estimates it can capture 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, which would normally be released into the atmosphere from tanks through vents. Instead, the Clinic can use the gas to grow plants in a shorter time and with better yields. The Clinic had been purchasing carbon dioxide from power plants and trucking it across the state, according to the release.<br><br>Brewers’ uses for carbon dioxide run the gamut from carbonation for packaging to cleaning out pipes to serving beer in their taprooms. The gas costs anywhere from 26 cents to $2 per pound, George said. If a brewery captures 100,000 pounds for reuse, it can save $24,000 to $200,000 annually on gas costs.<br><br>Super Bowl LIV (54) Ushers in First Major Beer Occasion of...
