Breweries

Long Trail Brewing Co. announced Monday that it had signed a letter of intent to purchase Otter Creek Brewery. Long Trail CEO Brian Walsh said he hoped to close in about a month.

Walsh said he intends to continue both the Otter Creek and Wolaver’s, a line of organic beers put out by Otter Creek, brands. He does not plan to scale back the distribution of Otter Creek, which is sold in 15 states.

“Some of the states they’re in are the mid-Atlantic region where we’re looking to expand,” he said. “That’s a pretty good synergy right there.”

Walsh said Long Trail produces 76,000 barrels a year and estimated Otter Creek at 25,000 barrels. Both have capacity to grow.

Pabst Brewing Co., which owns the Pabst and Schlitz beer brands as well as nearly 40 others, is up for sale again.

The Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a buyer willing to pay around $300 million, according to the New York Post, which cited unnamed sources in a Monday article. The foundation also put the company on the market in 2003 but did not find a buyer.

The action apparently is the result of a deadline imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. Federal tax laws don’t allow charitable foundations to own for-profit companies. The IRS initially gave the foundation until 2005 to sell Pabst. That deadline was extended to 2010 when a buyer couldn’t be found.

After years of fast rapid, sales of the Pabst brand stabilized in the early part of this decade when it gained some notoriety a “hipster beer.” The company has sought to revive Schlitz — one of the other iconic brands such as Old Style and Special Export it owns — in a similar way, but results have be mixed. Despite better results by Schlitz and Pabst overall company sales declined 3.3% in 2008.

Pabst was founded in 1844 in Milwaukee and became one of the country’s largest brewers. In 1975, Pabst beer accounted for 45% of all beer sold in Wisconsin and in 1976 Pabst held 11.2% of the national market. It closed the last of its own breweries in 2001 and since it has contracted brewing of its brands largely to Miller Brewing Co.

Boston Beer Co., brewer of Samuel Adams beers, and Germany’s historic Weihenstephan Brewery have announced they will partner to create a collaboration beer. Such collaborations between breweries of all sizes, and often breweries located in different countries, continue to become more popular but this arguably is the biggest yet.

Weinehstephan, founded by Benedictine monks in 1040, lays claim to being the oldest brewery in the world. Boston Beer, founded in 1984, is America’s largest craft brewery.

“The Weihenstephan Brewery is a mecca for brewers and people around the world who are passionate about beer and brewing. No brewer can stand at the site of this brewery without feeling a sense of reverence for what has been done here,” Boston Beer founder Jim Koch said for a press release. “It is a great honor to work together on this mission to explore the limits of the Reinheitsgebot and to brew a beer that represents the platinum standard in the art of brewing.”

Dr. Josef Schrädler, managing director at Weihenstephan, expressed similar thoughts. “This journey we’ve embarked on with Samuel Adams is unprecedented in the beer world,” he said. “We are making history with Jim and his team of brewers; turning our traditional brewing techniques on their head will result in an innovative beer that is ground breaking, delicious and unique.”

The brewers from Samuel Adams and Weihenstephan have been working on the project for two years, “perfecting an innovative beer style that explores new brewing techniques within the boundaries of beer law.”

Their yet-to-be-named beer will be released in both the United States and Germany next spring in cork-finished bottles. Effervescent and Champagne-like beer it will weigh in at more than 10 percent alcohol by volume.