Total Wine & More has named retail veteran Ryan Ross its new CEO, concluding a four-month search.

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back on a year’s worth of the Brewbound Podcast and all the acquisitions, distribution shakeups and innovation plans we chatted about, as well as all the wonderful guests that joined us.

After five years in operation, Spirited Away, the first non-alcoholic (NA) bottle shop in the U.S., has a new owner.

Five months after placing a winning bid for Alamo Beer Company, Australia-based private equity firm SKJ Capital has finalized its acquisition of the San Antonio-based craft brewery, SKJ announced today.

Stateside Brands, the company responsible for popularizing vodka-based iced tea, is now adding vodka to another beverage: the sports drink.

As alcohol sales have remained strained for years on end, the emergence of mainstream, legal hemp-based beverages has been a major boon for adult beverage retailers. Jon Halper, owner and CEO of retail chain Top Ten Liquors, is one of them.

Many bars and restaurants close their doors December 25, but the Christmas holiday still historically provides a boost for bev-alc sales in the on-premise, according to CGA, the on-premise arm of market research firm NIQ.

A few major beer category brands are clearly on the nice list this year. In his latest weekly report (data ending December 14), Circana EVP of BevAl Scott Scanlon noted that Constellation Bands’ Modelo returned to growth thanks to “perhaps a bit of holiday magic delivering early.”

The Clean Alcohol Collective (CAC), co-founded by Meredith Mills-Merritt, founder of ready-to-drink (RTD) brand The Original Southside, and Conor Begley, co-founder of Father’s Brewing, launched this month as a coalition of alcohol brands offering greater ingredient transparency and shared formulation standards.

Tobacco crops used to stretch to the horizon in the farmland of Kentucky, but now, many of those fields grow hemp plants. It might not last.

The on-premise has provided some bright spots for bev-alc in 2025, with consumers still willing to spend their dollars at bars and restaurants despite curtailing purchasing more drastically in the off-premise.

It’s nice to see Troy Aikman working the phones to get those EIGHT sales moving back in the right direction.

The nomination window is open for the 2026 Keg Champion awards, hosted by the Steel Keg Association (SKA), a non-profit group that promotes the use of stainless steel kegs.

The next evolution in adult non-alc (ANA) will require brands to push flavor to greater heights, invest in retail strategy, and find new occasions.