Redhook Ale Stock Soars Nearly 60% in Brewer’s 1st Day of Trading

The stock of Seattle-based Redhook Ale Brewery Inc. soared nearly 60% in its first day of trading Thursday as individuals and institutions hopped at the chance to invest in a pioneer of the microbrew craze.

Redhook became one of the hottest initial public offerings of the year as it jumped $10 to close at $27 from its offering price of $17 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq system.

“Right now this is the only way to participate in the specialty beer segment,” said analyst Jean-Michel Valette of Hambrecht & Quist. “It’s a pure play and . . . this segment is one of the very few bright spots in the entire beverage business.”

While overall U.S. beer sales have remained relatively flat since the early 1980s, sales of craft-brewed, or specialty, beers such as Redhook have been surging.

Sales of craft beers rose last year to 2.6 million barrels from 1.7 million in 1993 and are continuing to climb, said Benj Steinman, editor and president of Beer Marketer’s Insight in West Nyack, N.Y.

That’s just a drop in the bucket for the U.S. beer industry, with its annual sales of 192 million 31-gallon barrels, but the major breweries have taken notice as the small beer makers eat into their market share.

Anheuser-Busch Cos., the nation’s biggest brewer, bought a 25% stake in Redhook last year and picked up an additional 618,883 shares in the latest offering to maintain its ownership level.