Brewbound Podcast

The pack mentality isn’t going away anytime soon in craft brewing. The Oregon Beverage Collective (OBC) – the tie up of Crux Fermentation Project, Cascade Lakes Brewing, Silver Moon Brewing, Goodlife Brewing and Tumalo Cider – launched a couple of weeks ago as one of the latest additions to this crowd. OBC president Andy Rhine joined the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast to share how those five brands are looking to build strength in numbers Rhine explained that OBC’s formation wasn’t out of necessity even in a Pacific Northwest market facing challenges through distributor consolidation. Instead, the collective’s foundation was built via long-time relationships among brewery owners in Bend. And it was those relationships that led to Rhine acquiring Crux in a separate deal from founders Larry Sidor and Paul Evers. Even with a portfolio of five brands and efforts to consolidate production, sales and marketing, Rhine said maintaining each brand’s “unique identity” will be key to the future of the collective. The conversation also covered Rhine’s view of OBC’s future and whether more members will be added to its ranks. Before the interview, Justin and Zoe break down the latest headlines, including the fallout from Dry January, the Brewers Association’s 2025 financial results, Tilray’s licensing deal with Carlsberg, the Left Hand Collective’s newest member and the Supreme Court’s ruling on reciprocal tariffs. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

As the distribution tier continues to shrink, what must brewers and bev-alc brands do to protect their routes to market? ArentFox Schiff partner Nichole Shustack and senior associate Isabelle Cunningham joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss how suppliers can navigate the turbulence that comes with wholesaler consolidation. Instability across the middle tier shows no signs of letting up. Breakthru Beverage Group announced a restructuring this week that will result in about 500 jobs cut. Last fall, Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) abandoned its California business after several major spirits suppliers terminated it. Earlier in 2025, the craft distribution business in Southern California got a seismic shock when Hand Family Companies acquired Stone Distributing and Classic Beverage to form Sunset Distributing. An aftershock from that deal reverberated when Sunset acquired boutique craft house Scout Distributing in June 2025. These deals and countless others like them can represent a loosening of otherwise tight contracts between suppliers and distributors. “When you’re notified of a transaction, you should look at that as an opportunity,” Shustack said. “It’s an opportunity to evaluate the market. It’s an opportunity to maybe get a new contract in place. It’s an opportunity to maybe get some additional marketing commitments. “You have leverage and there’s not a lot of time in a supplier-wholesaler relationship where you have leverage,” she continued. “This is one of the few times that you do. You want to make sure that you’re thinking about it early.” Shustack and Cunningham also share updates on the uncertain future of the intoxicating hemp industry, which is slated for prohibition in November 2026. Congress is weighing several bills to delay the ban or establish a regulatory framework. The former seems more likely than the latter – especially with midterm elections on the horizon, Cunningham said. “I think eventually someday we’ll end up with a regulatory framework for it just because of the demand and the money,” she said. “Coming into a midterm election year, I do not see anyone taking this up in earnest, but I don’t see them letting the ban go into effect, either.” Before the interview, Justin and Zoe discuss a bevy of beer news, including the formation of the Oregon Beverage Alliance, year-end shipments data from the Beer Institute, BrewDog’s looming liquidation, Constellation Brands’ incoming CEO and global layoffs at Heineken. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform. Editor’s Note: While the guests featured in this conversation are attorneys, the discussion does not constitute legal advice. Please consult your own legal counsel as needed.

How did a drink that was concocted for the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games find relevance in the U.S. today? Finnish Long Drink co-founder and CEO Evan Burns explained on the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast how the gin-based ready-to-drink (RTD) brand has connected with modern consumers through sampling, storytelling and authentic celebrity partnerships. Burns shared that first-time Long Drink consumers often get “Long Drink Face” – a range of emotions that start with confusion for what the product is, to surprise after they try it, to ultimately delight. That starts a domino effect with the newfound fan turning their friends and spouses on to the product, Burns said. It also opens them up to the story of the cocktail made from gin, grapefruit juice and water more than half a decade ago for Finland’s Olympic moment. During a conversation with Brewbound senior reporter Zoe Licata, Burns emphasized how the Long Drink has stayed true to its citrus roots and isn’t a product to be spun off into 30 flavors. “It’s about building brands with soul,” he said. Burns also discussed how a celebrity partnership with actor Miles Teller led to other celebrities organically signing on with the brand, how the Long Drink leverages social media and tips for any CPG brands seeking growth. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Monday Night Brewing co-founder and CEO Jeff Heck had an Office Space moment a couple of years ago after returning from a three-month sabbatical in the South of France. “When I came back, I realized the company was generally doing great,” he said, adding he had a moment straight from the movie’s famous meeting-of-the-Bobs scene and asked himself: “What is it that you say you do here?” “If you can leave your job for three months and things are generally fine, it’s worth asking what would you do here,” Heck explained. “I’ve just never wanted to be the old guy who comes in with a newspaper and puts his feet up on the desk because he’s 80 years old and just wants to be at the office. I like working. And I like having something meaningful to do.” That moment spawned the beginning of a succession plan for the CEO role, which transferred to Monday Night co-founder Joel Iverson last month. On the latest Brewbound Podcast, Heck and Iverson shared that their eventual succession plan was a reflection of Monday Night leaders’ overarching cultural philosophy of working to make their jobs irrelevant and identifying the coworkers next in line to take the reins. “That’s true for everyone – from our general managers at each of our six locations to our production team – ‘Hey, if someone gets hit by a bus tomorrow, who is it that’s ready to step into your role?’” Heck said. “And the answer is not always clear, but if there’s not a clear answer, your job is to start working on that. “The reality is that we’ve never had a concrete, explicit plan for what transition looked like,” he continued. “But the core was how do we make sure we’re culturally and missionly aligned across our leadership team so that in the event that Joel, Jonathan and I all went down in a plane crash that there would still be torchbearers for what we want to be as a company and a brewery if we’re long gone.” Getting there took the Atlanta-headquartered craft brewery 12 years, Heck and Iverson shared. In the episode, they discussed how they eventually arrived at a transition plan, the importance of the culture they’re built at the brewery and their vision for the future. Before the interview, Justin, Jess and Zoe discuss the latest bev-alc news, including the re-emergence of hard sodas, the Great American Beer Festival’s move outdoors and surprisingly positive scans to open the year. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Minneapolis has dominated national headlines for weeks as area residents protest the Department of Homeland Security’s heightened crackdown on Minnesota’s large immigrant population. Tensions have intensified as agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have killed two American citizens in shootings that have been recorded by observers. Local businesses such as Insight Brewing have taken a stand against ICE’s occupation of the city. Insight marketing manager Joey Steinbach joins the Brewbound Podcast to discuss how the brewery has stepped up as a community hub by collecting food and other donations to distribute to mutual aid groups, supporting neighbors who participated in last week’s general strike and emphasizing its role as a friendly third space. “That day was so truly inspiring,” Steinbach said of the strike. “We did shut down for regular business. We weren’t serving or selling anything. Any staff that we had there was volunteering their time just to gather donations from the community. “We had so many people come through before and during the protests that day,” he continued. “We had just hundreds of pounds of food come through – diapers, winterwear, people donating hand warmers, donating more coffee.” The impact of ICE’s presence in the Twin Cities hit close to home for Insight at the beginning of the surge, when an employee of one of the brewery’s resident food trucks was detained. That coupled with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti made speaking out imperative, Steinbach said. “It’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “We do have a platform, and we do have a voice. We’re not one of the biggest names in the game by any means, but we’ve got a decent social media reach and, watching everything happening in our direct community – Insight brewing is a northeast Minneapolis brewery – and it’s just so hard.” Insight has walked a tightrope between using its social media accounts to call for an end to the ICE occupation and request donations for its community pantry (in exchange for a complimentary beer), while still promoting its ongoing taproom programming. “It just felt wrong to stay silent about it, despite people thinking that politics and beer don’t really align,” Steinbach said. “If you go back to the origins of taprooms – pubs – it’s a public house, it’s a community space. It’s not just about pushing a product. It’s not just about the bottom dollar. It’s definitely a community space for everyone, especially including our immigrant neighbors.” Before the interview, Zoe and Jess discuss recent news, including takeaways from the Beer, Wine & Spirits Summit and a sneak peek at Budweiser’s upcoming Super Bowl commercial. Listen to the episode here or on your preferred podcast platform:

How can craft brewers expect to win away games if they’re not winning at home? That’s the sports analogy pFriem Family Brewers co-founder and CEO Rudy Kellner used to describe the Hood River, Oregon-based brewery’s strategy when it comes to expanding its distribution footprint. This week’s Brewbound Podcast highlights a stage conversation from Brewbound Live featuring Kellner and Mike LaRosa, COO and partner at Williamsport, Pennsylvania-based New Trail Brewing. Both breweries have secured impressive volume growth within footprints that don’t stretch far beyond their neighboring states. Family-owned pFriem was founded in 2013, just as craft was riding another growth wave. “We had a sense then that at some point in time, there was gonna be really, really good beer everywhere, and that, if you can’t win the home games, it’s gonna be really hard to win the away games,” Kellner said. The ethos, combined with pFriem’s “scrappy, organically built operation” led the brewery to focus on winning in the Pacific Northwest before thinking about expanding. Today, Oregon and Washington account for 95% of the brewery’s business, with satellite markets in Idaho, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas making up the remaining 5%, Kellner said. On the East Coast, New Trail has a similar breakdown, with its home state of Pennsylvania accounting for about 85% of its volume. Combined, Maryland, New Jersey, West Virginia and Delaware make up the remaining 15%, LaRosa said. Since its founding in 2018, New Trail’s definition of local has evolved. “When we started eight years ago, we were thinking local was the 10 counties that surrounded Williamsport,” LaRosa shared. “Then as time went on, we’re like ‘Well, could local be larger? Could it be Philadelphia? Could Philadelphia be local to us? Can Pittsburgh or Erie be local to us?’ So it just grew and grew and grew.” Before the featured conversation, Justin – freshly returned from parental leave – and Jess discuss recent headlines, including the return of Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World, and whether or not nostalgia can bring in new beer drinkers. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

After a lengthy delay that included much fretting among industry insiders, the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were unveiled earlier this month. Any fears that anti-alcohol activists had infiltrated the quinquennial process were eased, as the new guidelines preach moderation over specific daily drink allowances. Beer Marketer’s Insights senior editor Christopher Shepard, who has followed the process closely, joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the DGA, the fraught path to publication and what this could mean for brewers. “The overall guidance didn’t really change,” Shepard said of the DGA’s move to recommend moderation over the former standard daily limit of two drinks for men and one for women. “They just decided to take the specifics away.” Industry trade groups have celebrated the DGA’s embrace of moderation, particularly as it pertains to beer, which has long been touted as an alcoholic beverage that can be consumed in moderation. “One of the reasons it’s been viewed as a win by the industry writ large, and by a coalition of industry trade organizations that came together, is that they came together because there was a very real threat that the Dietary Guidelines were going to tilt towards or embrace a ‘no safe level’ [of alcohol consumption] rhetoric,” Shepard said. “That threat was, in fact, real.” The prior recommendation of two or one daily drinks detailed a drink as 12 oz. of 5% ABV beer, 5 oz. of 12% ABV wine or 1.5 oz. of liquor. Shepard posited that the move away from that method may not sit well with the spirits industry. “There are probably some folks in the distilling world that are not so pleased that that’s gone,” he said. “There are probably some folks in the brewing world that are a little bit happier that that’s no longer on the books.” Before the featured interview, Zoe and Jess discuss recent beer industry headlines, including a proposed deal between the Reyes Beverage Group and Republic National Distributing Company, 2 Towns Ciderhouse’s acquisition of Seattle Cider and the somewhat heartening data Circana published in the past month. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.