Your weekly roundup

Catching up with some national and regional news from the past week in craft beer:

• Craft production nationwide continues to grow at a slower pace than in recent years, according to new numbers from the Brewers Association.

The trade group's midyear report shows a 5 percent growth rate during the first six months of 2017. That follows last year's final figure of 6 percent, which was the first time it had dropped below 10 percent since 2009.

In a more competitive market, larger brewers who distribute regionally and nationally account for most of the slowdown, while many smaller breweries continue to thrive through taproom sales and local distribution.

There were 5,562 operating breweries across the country as of June 30, the association says, up from 5,301 at the end of last year – with another 2,700 being planned.

• The craft beer ranks took another potential hit with Thursday's announcement that craft pioneer Anchor Brewing is being bought by Japan's Sapporo.  

Anchor, which was founded in 1896 and revived under new ownership in the mid-1960s, is considered the first modern microbrewery for its rise to prominence in the 1980s with a variety of then-unfamiliar beer styles. It was ranked as the nation's 22nd largest craft brewer last year by the Brewers Association, which now must decide whether it continues to fit that definition.

The association says craft breweries must be less than 25 percent owned by another brewer that isn't itself craft. Lagunitas was dropped from the rolls after its acquisition by Heineken – the world's second-largest brewing conglomerate – but Firestone Walker still is considered craft following its purchase by Belgium's more modestly sized Duvel Moortgat.

• Two longtime Northwest breweries who lost their craft designations several years ago are seeing their sales continue to slump.

Second-quarter numbers from what's called the Craft Brew Alliance – but is 32 percent owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev – show that Widmer sales were down 13 percent while Redhook declined 24 percent, perpetuating recent trends.