Opened | 1994 |
---|---|
Key people | Alan Newman |
Annual production volume | 154,236 US beer barrels (180,992 hl) [1] |
Owned by | Florida Ice & Farm Co. |
Website | magichat.net |
Magic Hat Brewing Company is a wholly owned brand of Florida Ice & Farm Co., which is headquartered in Costa Rica. It began production as an independent craft brewer in South Burlington, Vermont in 1994, and the brand is distributed across the United States. Their flagship beer, the apricot-tinged #9, is widely regarded as a significant early force in introducing many Americans to craft beer, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. [2]
Magic Hat Brewing Company was formed in 1994 in Burlington, Vermont by serial entrepreneur Alan Newman and Bob Johnson, the company's original brewmaster. [2] It expanded and moved to an industrial park in neighboring South Burlington in 1997. By 2005 it had 64 employees. [3] In 2008 the company purchased Pyramid Breweries, makers of the Pyramid and MacTarnahan's brands, expanding to 129 employees. [4]
In 2010, Alan Newman sold Magic Hat and all of its assets to North American Breweries, [2] [5] a subsidiary of KPS Capital Partners, a private equity firm with a business model described by Newman as "stripping out expense and flipping." [2] The new owners did exactly that: in December 2012, North American Breweries was purchased by Florida Ice & Farm Company (FIFCO), a Costa Rican food and beverages company. [6]
FIFCO soon began producing some Magic Hat beer at their Genesee Brewing Company plant in Rochester, New York. The Vermont brewery continued to operate until June 2020, when FIFCO announced that it intended to consolidate the rest of Magic Hat's brewing operations to the Rochester location. [7] Another Burlington based brewery, Zero Gravity, assumed the lease on Magic Hat's physical plant, along with the brewing and retail assets within the space. [8] 43 of Magic Hat's 46 Vermont employees were laid off, although Zero Gravity was in talks to rehire some of them. [2] Zero Gravity moved into the space and began producing beer there in July 2020. [9]
Magic Hat brews five year-round beers: #9 "Not Quite Pale Ale", Taken for Granite, Mother Lager, Citrus Box, Ob-La-Di, What's on Stage, Nirav, Elder Betty and Single Chair. It also produces up to four seasonal beers, seasonal variety packs and several limited release products. [10]
Pyramid Breweries, Inc., is a brewing company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It produces beer under the Pyramid brand at two breweries and several brewpubs in Washington, Oregon, and California. It was founded in 1984 as Hart Brewing, and is currently owned by North American Breweries, a subsidiary of the Costa Rican company Florida Ice & Farm Co.
Anchor Brewing Company was a brewery on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1896, the brewery has undergone several changes in location and ownership throughout its history. After years of declining sales due to competition with larger breweries, Anchor was purchased by Frederick Louis “Fritz” Maytag III in 1965, preventing its closure. The brewery operated at its current location since 1979 and was one of the last remaining producers of steam beer, a variety of beer trademarked by the company.
Harpoon Brewery is an employee owned American brewery, with locations in Boston, Massachusetts, and Windsor, Vermont.
New Belgium Brewing Company is a nationally distributed brewery in the United States. The brand produces Fat Tire Amber Ale, Voodoo Ranger IPA, Mural Agua Fresca Cerveza, and La Folie Sour Brown Ale, among other regular and seasonal beer varieties. Founded by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch in 1991 in Fort Collins, Colorado, the company expanded to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2016 and Denver, Colorado, in 2018.
Genesee Brewing Company is an American brewery located along the Genesee River in Rochester, New York. From 2000 to 2009, the company was known as the High Falls Brewing Company. In 2009, High Falls was acquired by the capital investment firm KPS Capital. Together with newly acquired Labatt USA, KPS merged the two companies as North American Breweries. Along with this change, High Falls Brewery changed its name back to the original "Genesee Brewing Company" operating under the North American Breweries name. In October 2012, North American Breweries was purchased by FIFCO
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The U.S. state of Vermont is home to several breweries, microbreweries, nanobreweries, and brewpubs that produce a wide variety of beer.
Portland Brewing Company was a brewery in Portland, Oregon. A pioneer in Portland's early craft brewing scene, it was known as MacTarnahan's Brewing Company from 2004 to 2013 before resuming its original name. It was closed by the Costa Rican company that owned it, Florida Ice & Farm Co., in early 2021.
FIFCO USA is an American brewing company based in Rochester, New York.
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Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. is a private beer company that began production in 1853 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by German immigrant Christian Moerlein. Before closing its doors in 1919 as result of prohibition, Christian Moerlein was among the ten largest American breweries by volume. In 1981, the brand was revived by the Hudepohl Brewing Company as a "better beer" a precursor to the craft beer category and is considered a pioneer craft beer of the craft beer movement. In 1999, Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. sold out to a group of investors, a sale that included the Christian Moerlein craft beer brand.
This article discusses beer in Central America.
Florida Ice and Farm Company S.A. is a Costa Rican food and beverages company headquartered in the province of Heredia, Costa Rica. It has a catalog of over 2000 products, sold in over 15 countries.
Gardener's Supply Company is an employee-owned company providing environmentally friendly gardening products and information through its website, catalogs, and retail stores.
Foolproof Brewing Company is a brewery based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Costa Rica has a very strong beer industry centered on mass-produced Lagers. Imperial beer, produced by Florida Ice & Farm Co. is known and associated with Costa Rica all around the world.
Alan Newman is an American serial entrepreneur based in the U.S. state of Vermont, who co-founded Gardener's Supply Company, Seventh Generation Inc., Magic Hat Brewing Company, and Alchemy & Science, Boston Beer Company's “incubator business.”
Magic Rock Brewing is an English brewery established in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 2011 by Richard Burhouse, aided by head brewer Stuart Ross. The company states that it is inspired by both local brewing traditions and the US craft beer scene.