37-year-old Rogue Ales & Spirits (Newport, OR) ceased operations on Friday. Its landlord – the Port of Newport, to whom it owes more than $500K – and employees learned of the closure the same day. Brewbound Insiders are reading about the abrupt shutdown of the country’s 50th largest craft brewery by volume and the context around Rogue’s decision to close.

In today’s Brewbound Insider Newsletter and on Brewbound.com, Insiders are also reading about the effect tariffs are having on bev-alc retailers and off-premise scan data’s bumpy ride post-Halloween. 

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Rogue Ales & Spirits (Newport, OR) shut down operations at its production facility and brewpubs Friday, according to a report that first appeared in the Lincoln Chronicle.

The craft brewer and distiller allegedly owes the Port of Newport $545,000 in rent and Lincoln County $30,000 in taxes, the Chronicle reported. The Port of Newport owns the building that houses Rogue’s 47,000 sq. ft. brewery, warehouse and taproom. 

The brewery operates 6 pubs in OR – 3 in its hometown of Newport, and 1 each in Astoria, Portland and Salem. 

Rogue was the country’s 50th largest craft brewery by volume in 2024, according to the Brewers Association (BA). Last year, its output dipped 18%, to 45,602 barrels of beer. That followed 2 consecutive years of double-digit volume declines (-24% in 2022, -17% in 2023). 

Its volume peak in available BA data came in 2014, when Rogue produced 117,075 barrels. 

Insiders can read about Rogue’s shutdown here and dig deeper here.

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.

As spirits companies have been tasked with reevaluating everything from pricing to supply chain to expansion, retailers are also adjusting price tags and inventory selection, according to a Thursday webinar hosted by the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS).

Insiders can read more here. 

As Circana EVP of BevAl Scott Scanlon put it: “The improved data from the Halloween holiday was fun while it lasted.” 

Scanlon’s somber comments accompanied Circana’s latest weekly off-premise scans report, in which total bev-alc dollar sales declined 4.5% YoY and 6% WoW, for the period ending November 9. 

In the prior week (data ending November 2), dollar sales declined 2.3% YoY, but were up 4% WoW. Bev-alc volume fell 5.5% YoY in the latest week, compared to -4.1% in the week prior. 

Insiders can read more, including the latest beer, wine, spirits and RTD performances and post-Halloween figures for top beer and spirits brand families. 

Lagunitas CEO Bernardo Spielmann joins this week’s Brewbound Podcast to share his view from the legacy craft brand nearly a year after taking the helm. The Brewbound team will also discuss the surprising closure of Rogue.

Jocks may be forsaking beer, but the nerds aren’t. NVIDIA (A.I. tech) CEO Jensen Huang chose beer for his meeting with Samsung and Hyundai. With a market cap of $4.55 trillion, beer could do worse than following the money.

Insiders can catch up on that and the latest headlines in the latest Insider’s Week in Beer recap, including the beer igloo opportunity. 

FMBs and hard seltzers have had a bright red 2025, but those declines haven’t fazed Mark Anthony Brands, which continues to find growth in the segments where others have faltered. 

In this episode of the Brewbound Podcast, Mark Anthony Brands president David Barnett details how the bev-alc company is “doing better than most” in today’s challenged marketplace. He spoke about the company’s highlights with Brewbound editor Justin Kendall, in a conversation recorded at the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA’s) Annual Convention in Las Vegas. 

Ahead of the conversation, Brewbound senior reporter Zoe Licata chats with BevNET managing editor Marty Caballero about the latest hemp news, and how a spending bill could put a halt to the intoxicating hemp beverage industry.

Listen here or on your podcast platform of choice. 

In less than a month, the beer and beverage-alcohol community will come together at Brewbound Live (Dec. 10–11 in L.A.), and this year’s attendee list is a who’s who of the companies shaping the industry’s next phase.

Executives from New Belgium, Whole Foods, Deschutes, Karl Strauss, Breakthru Beverage, Alaskan Brewing Co., ExtraMile, Heimark Distributing and JuneShine are already confirmed and more are registering each day.

The room is filling fast, and these are the conversations that set the tone for the next year in beverage alcohol.

Register now to make sure you’re a part of it.

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Interested in other beverage coverage? 👀 Check out the BevNET Daily Briefing covering the broader beverage industry, including energy drinks, cannabis and other non-alcoholic beverages. Want to stick to the hard stuff? Subscribe to our Spirits Newsletter (published every 2 weeks). 

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