Thought Arizona Beer Week was canceled this year due to COVID-19? Think again.
It is not only happening this year but the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild has extended it throughout February to encourage social distancing.
âCOVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges to the Guild with events â like Strong Beer Festival, Baja Beer Festival, Real Wild & Woody â being their main source of revenue. We are asking for all Arizona breweries and brewers far and wide to raise a glass with us and participate in this collaboration,â said Rob Fullmer, guild executive director.
Arizona Beer âMonthâ includes more than 20 craft breweries throughout the state â including 12 in the East Valley â that are selling a special Rebuild the Guild Benefit Beer.
This year has been a struggle for Arizona s craft brewers. Not only have they witnessed their wholesale profits drop as bars and restaurants shut down and then reopen to low capacity, but they re also watching retail profits stall due to a national aluminum can shortage. While this community is finding new ways to survive the pandemic, the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild has suffered immensely by not being able to hold events and festivals over the past year their main source of revenue. But when the brewing gets tough, the tough brew Rebuild the Guild Hazy IPA. The guild s executive director Rob Fullmer is asking the state s local craft breweries to brew their adaptation of a tried and true guild recipe, sell it to their customers and donate a portion of the proceeds back to the guild.
Arizona Craft Brewers Guild at risk of closing down: Here is how you can help
The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild is at risk of closing down and has launched a fundraiser to help raise funding.
and last updated 2020-12-29 09:26:36-05
PHOENIX â With nearly all of its events canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild said it is at risk of running out of money and, if that happens, could have to close next year. Weâre not projecting any events through the end of this year, obviously, and a good chunk of next year, and if we were to rely on event revenue, we would deplete all of our reserves, and we wouldnât have an opportunity to make it through the next year, said Rob Fullmer, executive director of the Guild, in a recent interview with ABC15 News.
The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild is turning to a new fundraising strategy to salvage the loss of nearly all of its revenue courtesy of COVID-19.
Since Black Friday in late November, the guild and its member breweries have been selling âRecoupon Arizona Beer,â a coupon book that offers discounts and BOGOs at 60 craft breweries around the state including several in Tucson.
Through sales of the $35 coupon books the guild is hoping to ârecoupâ some of the lost revenues from beer festivals canceled because to the pandemic, guild Executive Director Rob Fullmer said. (Hence the name âRecoupon.â)
He estimated that after having to cancel its 2020 statewide beer festivals the guild lost 85% of its projected $600,000 revenues.
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