Longmont’s Canarchy rebranded as Monster Brewing Co.

LONGMONT — Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective, the Longmont-headquartered alcoholic beverage portfolio company that includes popular brands such as Oskar Blues, Florida-based Cigar City Brewing and Texas-based Deep Ellum Brewing Co., will change its name to Monster Brewing Co., a nod to parent company Monster Beverage Corp. (Nasdaq: MNST).

Monster, which bought Canarchy in early 2022 for $330 million in cash, said this week that its relatively newly released, Monster-branded malt-beverage offerings The Beast Unleashed and Nasty Beast Hard Tea, are the portfolio’s top sellers, outpacing Canarchy’s craft mainstays such as Dale’s Pale Ale. 

The Monster Brewing Co. rebrand “will better align the business with Monster Beverage Corporation’s brand equity, particularly as these products are expected to continue to play an increasingly important role in Canarchy’s future activities,” Monster said.

Monster “entered the alcohol beverage sector with the acquisition of Canarchy in February 2022, providing us with a fully staffed organizational infrastructure, full distribution in place and manufacturing capabilities,” Monster co-CEO Hilton Schlosberg said in a prepared statement. “During the past two years, we integrated Canarchy’s infrastructure to develop, introduce and market new products that are becoming leading brands in the flavored malt beverage space.”

According to Monster’s other co-CEO Rodney Sacks, the brewing arm of the company will “continue to function independently under the management of its president, Tony Short, and his team. We are pleased that the strategy of combining the strengths of both organizations is proving successful, as we continue to develop and roll out innovative new products in the flavored malt beverages space and beyond.”

Canarchy, whose craft portfolio also includes Oskar Blues’ hard-seltzer brand Wild Basin, Utah’s Wasatch Brewery, Michigan-based Perrin Brewing Co. and Utah-based Squatters Craft Beer, was founded in 2015 by Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis, with the financial backing of Boston-based private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners LLC.

When Monster bought Canarchy about two years ago, the Brewer’s Association, based in Boulder just down the road from Canarchy’s Longmont headquarters, said, “Based on our current information, Canarchy meets the Brewers Association’s craft brewer definition under the ownership of Monster Energy as presently constituted. In this instance, Monster is not a beverage alcohol industry member, so this new ownership structure does not affect Canarchy’s independence in regard to the beverage alcohol industry.”

It’s unclear whether the craft designation still applies with the release of The Beast Unleashed and Nasty Beast Hard Tea. This story will be updated if BA sheds any new light on the portfolio breweries’ craft status.

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