Wine and spirits brands are cutting into the growth of the craft beer segment, according to Patrick Livingston, director of client insights for market research firm IRI. Livingston, who led yesterday’s Power Hour presentation hosted by the Brewers Association (BA), said craft beer dollar sales were up just 1.7 percent in IRI’s multi-outlet off-premise U.S. retail universe (excluding convenience stores) through July 8. Livingston added that craft has begun to plateau in off-premise channels, with volume sales leveling off since late March.

Several beer companies throughout North and South Carolina have temporarily halted operations in preparation for Hurricane Florence, which is set to make landfall over the next 24 hours, bringing with it wind gusts exceeding 74 mph and days of storm surges, flooding and double-digit rainfall. States of emergency have been declared in the Carolinas, and the governors in those states have urged more than 1 million residents of coastal towns to evacuate. Georgia, Virginia and Maryland have also issued emergency orders. Palmetto Brewing Co., which was acquired in late 2017 by Catawba Brewing Co., shut down on Wednesday, with its 20 employees being encouraged to evacuate the area.

As the U.S. brewing industry inches closer to a record 7,000 craft beer companies in operation, hundreds of distressed breweries are expected to close in 2019 and many of those failed enterprises will turn to asset auctions as a way to pay off debt. Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson told Brewbound during a live-streamed interview at last week’s California Craft Brewers Association Summit that he anticipates as many as 300 brewery closures by the end of 2018. According to Watson, he expects the gap between openings and closings to shrink over time, and there could be as many as 500 closures in the next couple of years. The increasing number of brewery closures has also meant an uptick in business for auction houses.

Nearly two years after publicly declaring an interest in opening a farmhouse brewery in Connecticut, popular Massachusetts craft beer maker Trillium Brewing Company has purchased a farm in North Stonington, about two hours outside of Boston. In a blog post, JC and Esther Tetreault, the husband-and-wife team that co-founded Trillium in 2013, said they bought the farm in order to fulfill their dream of opening a farm brewery near where they were married in the pastoral region of Connecticut.

Thousands of California beer industry professionals met in Sacramento last week for the California Craft Brewers Association annual three-day Craft Beer Summit, Expo and Beer Festival. As an official media partner of the event, Brewbound hosted 10 hours of live streamed interviews, and sat in on a variety of seminars during the show. Here’s what we learned.

A record 7,000 breweries will be in operation in the United States in 2018, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson shared Thursday during the opening session of the California Craft Brewers Association’s Craft Beer Summit, Expo and Beer Festival in Sacramento. Watson called it a “virtual certainty” that the industry will reach that milestone this year, and more breweries are on the way with more than 9,000 active permits filed with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau at the midway point of 2018.

In the latest distribution roundup, Left Hand Brewing opens Idaho, Funkwerks goes to Nevada, Heavy Seas hits Virginia and more.

The continued growth of All Day IPA has Founders Brewing Company staring down nearly 600,000 barrels of beer in 2018, according to the brewery’s co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens. “We’re clipping along at around 30 percent growth,” Stevens told Brewbound. “I see next year about the same.”

MillerCoors will eliminate 350 salaried positions across the organization by the end of October, the company announced today in a memo. In the letter, CEO Gavin Hattersley characterized the job cuts as MillerCoors “moving quickly and decisively to get our business back on track.” Molson Coors’ U.S. business is offering a voluntary severance program to existing employees as well as eliminating 150 unfilled positions.

Channeling his inner Justin Timberlake, Founders Brewing co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens told hundreds of industry professionals attending last week’s Meeting of the Malts gathering in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that “America forgot how to make beer sexy.” Stevens — who successfully avoided a wardrobe malfunction while participating in a panel discussion about the state of the beer industry alongside Victory Brewing co-founder Bill Covaleski, D.G. Yuengling & Sons chief administrative officer Wendy Yuengling, Yards Brewing founder Tom Kehoe and Cigar City founder Joey Redner — wasn’t calling for a return to the days of provocative advertising, however.

Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch will be the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary titled “The Beer Jesus of America,” which chronicles the construction and opening of the company’s Berlin brewery. Stone spokeswoman Lizzie Younkin confirmed the project, but said the film was made independently of the beer company.

Midway through 2018, Lagunitas Brewing Company is the only top five U.S. craft beer brand gaining dollar share, according to CEO Maria Stipp. Speaking to Brewbound, Stipp shared the company’s results through the first half of 2018, noting that Lagunitas ranks fourth in dollar share (up 4 percent) and sixth in volume (up 5 percent) through July 14, according to data from market research firm Nielsen.

Following the signing of a law allowing Illinois breweries to immediately begin selling beer and cider from outside beer companies in their taprooms, several Chicago restaurant and craft beer bar owners expressed concern that new regulations create additional competition for their businesses. However, a couple of Chicago brewery owners told Brewbound that they don’t anticipate major changes in the way they run their taproom businesses.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: The Nevada Attorney General investigates MillerCoors; Stone seeks an injunction in its Keystone case; Almanac’s co-founder departs the company; and more news from the week.