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Craft brewers’ production volume fell a collective 5.1% in 2025, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) annual Industry Production Report, published today.
Anyone looking for an answer to when craft’s current era of compounding hurdles and declines will come to an end received a reality check Wednesday during Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bart Watson’s state of the industry address, held at the start of Day 2 of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Indianapolis.
Around 10,000 industry members are expected to make the trip to Indianapolis for the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America (April 28 to May 1). The gathering takes place against a backdrop of growing headwinds for craft breweries and an overhaul of CBC’s host organization, the Brewers Association.
Here are some news items that were initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter January 5-6, including updates from Uncle Nearest, NIQ, Blake’s Beverage and more.
The beer category faces more uncertainty in 2026, according to wholesalers’ buying intentions logged in the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) monthly Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI).
From class-action suits over Fireball to disputes over jalapeño-flavored Tequila, this year’s bev-alc legal drama was, in a word, spicy.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday directing the U.S. Attorney General to move cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substance, marking a watershed moment in the history of U.S. marijuana policy and a significant step forward for the nascent THC-infused beverage industry.
A proposed consumer antitrust class action lawsuit was filed against PepsiCo and Walmart after a now-dismissed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint against them was unsealed. At issue is the allegation that Pepsi gave Walmart exclusive discounts not offered to other retailers.
Sycamore Brewing co-founder Justin Brigham may be divesting of the company, but industry members are not separating him and his legal charges from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based brewery so quickly.
PepsiCo allegedly created a soft drink “price gap” with Walmart, creating a system that allowed the world’s largest retail to obtain preferential promotional payments, while those same payments were reduced for Walmart’s competitors, according to court documents unsealed last week.
Pabst Brewing may be in hot water following the company’s sales restructuring and ensuing layoffs, with the company potentially facing a class action lawsuit.
Two former Boston Beer Company employees are pursuing a class-action lawsuit, alleging the Twisted Tea maker skirts Massachusetts law by paying departing workers $3,000, minus taxes, instead of “garden leave” or other compensation, while enforcing restrictive noncompetition agreements.
Four incumbents and two new members will join the Brewers Association (BA) board of directors following last month’s election. The new term is slated to begin in February 2026.
Bev-alc retailers are adjusting their buying habits as the Trump administration’s signature economic policy continues to add volatility to the spirits and wine industries.
Even for an industry born out of risk and uncertainty, hemp beverages are now officially in uncharted waters. As part of the funding bill to reopen the government signed into law last night by President Donald Trump, hemp-derived products will be required to contain less than 0.4 mg THC per container, as of November 13, 2026. Swept away like a storm in the night, the multi-billion-dollar, hemp-derived THC industry is waking up this morning to the stark reality that, barring the creation of a legal federal framework, they will be virtually extinct within a year.
The Senate advanced a spending package Monday that includes language that would effectively ban all hemp products. The package now moves to the House, which could pass it through to President Trump as early as today. Industry members for and against the ban have been vocalizing their stance online and in D.C. Below are some of the latest updates.
Intoxicating hemp beverages could be sacrificed in a deal to reopen the federal government. As political factions in Washington, D.C., spar over how to end the longest-ever federal government shutdown in U.S. history, legislators – led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) – are attempting to use the situation to shape the future of hemp and intoxicating THC products and restrict the market created by the 2018 Farm Bill.
