Dave Infante

1 month ago | vinepair.com | Dave Infante

Way back in the post-vaccine, pre-election sweet spot of October 2023, when Bidenomics were really cooking, I wrote a column about the brightest spot in craft brewing’s otherwise fairly dim outlook: the convenience store. Back then, the segment was down in virtually every other channel, but up in the nation’s gas stations and corner stores, thanks to the convergence of several trends.

1 month ago | vinepair.com | Dave Infante

Apropos of the Trump administration’s ongoing anti-constitutional purge in Washington, D.C., shoutout to the federal bureaucracy, man. For decades, it’s been trendy to shit on this tangle of acronymic entities that gathers data, delivers services, and regulates industry on behalf of the United States’ executive and legislative branches. There are valid critiques to be made of the lowercase-l liberal administrative state, ways it could be improved to function better.

1 month ago | vinepair.com | Dave Infante

“If you see this in your neighborhood, the rent is going up.” The joke has bounced around the internet for years, batted back and forth by an American precariat beleaguered by the Great Recession, the Covid pandemic, and the housing crisis. “This” is usually some culturally relevant affectation of urbane white wealth: a blonde wood-paneled Pilates studio, a deliberately low-brow haircut, a start-up’s slick electric scooters. You get it.

2 months ago | vinepair.com | Dave Infante

The definition of irony is notoriously tough to pin down, as Alanis Morissette can attest, but most people agree it’s either bitter or delicious, depending on which end of the stick you’re on. Savor the flavor on this beer-industry play in three parts and you tell me what you taste:I. A military-themed brewery moves to a military-themed town in search of a thirsty customer base and a base of operations. II.

2 months ago | vinepair.com | Dave Infante

When it comes to corporations catastrophically overspending on craft breweries, it’s really a race for second place. Constellation Brands’ acquisition of Ballast Point Brewing Co. for a billion dollars set a dubious benchmark for the industry a decade ago, and no one has come close since. The frothy days of four-figure-per-barrel valuations have long since receded, and they aren’t coming back.