Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, August 9, 2025.

So, let’s start off with my grocery trip to WHOLE FOODS in NYC this past week, and just … no. Let me enjoy my Italian pilsners for a couple weeks on August vacation, SIERRA NEVADA!

THEN AGAIN: GABF tickets are now on sale, so the calendar waits for no man.

YUP: Especially since the fall NFL beer ads are starting to drop as well. Here’s your latest Peyton Manning BUD LIGHT ad, after his big push with BL for the NETFLIX Quarterbacks series this summer that Peyton’s OMAHA PRODUCTIONS produces.

I’m afraid it’s last call for the TRULY and ANGEL CITY taprooms in SoCal.

• TRULY will move to weekends-only by the end of the year, and eventually wind down operations, although no exact date was set.
• ANGEL CITY will close up shop in March 2026 when its lease is up, but BOSTON BEER may support the brand living on “outside of Boston Beer,” so interpret that as ya like. Also, if you’re interested in buying the brand, give Jim a call.

• 2024: 9,352 breweries
• 2025: 9,269 breweries

The latest BA report on U.S. brewery numbers at the 2025 midway point, a loss of 83 breweries.

PLUS: Here is what distributors want these days in their business relationships with suppliers, according to TAMARRON’s Brewer Partnership Compass survey of 173 distributors (gonna guess it’s not more craft beer).

They also share their thoughts on the performance of 8 top suppliers.

HUDSON NORTH CIDER CO.

Packaging Manager – Newburgh, NY

LONE PINE BREWING CO.

Territory Manager – Greater Boston

CEREBRAL BREWING

BOSTON BEER’s CEO Michael Spillane announced that he’s leaving the company on August 15 after a year-plus for personal reasons (he’ll stay on in an advisory role through March). Jim Koch is sliding back into the CEO & president role.

• It also sounds like Jim may be around for at least a little while, saying to the WSJ: “There are multiple people who are not yet ready, but in a couple of years, one or two of them will be.”

PABST is changing CEOs – Paul Chibe is out after 3.5 years, and Greig DeBow is in as the new CEO, coming over from 1ST PHORM nutritional supplement provider, although he was EVP of national accounts at PABST from 2015 to 2019.

• CFO Tim Tulfur is also leaving after 3 years at the company. BLUE RIBBON PARTNERS Board member  Michael Levitt will take over as interim CFO for now.

OK, fine – it’s just +0.3%, according to the latest BI numbers, but we need this one, mmkay? It’s also the first month with a positive number in 2025 so far.

Although when you factor in imports (-3.5%), that number goes to -0.5%. Just don’t tell anyone. 🤫 The YTD number now stands at -5.2% at the midway point of 2025.

Yeah, that’s not good. BALL CEO Daniel Fisher said he’s pivoting the company further into "a higher customer concentration" in energy drinks and carbonated soft drinks, indicating the company is overindexing in beer.

So, what kinda change are we talking, here? Bev-alc – you’re at a 40% share … and we need you at a 30% share, eventually 🤏. Thanks, bud. 

But hey, at least that should dial down Fisher’s consistent critiques that beer needs to lower price! Always find the positive.

As for the Q2 numbers:

• Revenue: $3.3B (up from $2.9B last year)
• Net Profit: $212M (up from $158M last year)

Well, at least you’re not alone in revising guidance downward twice already this year, BOSTON BEER. 

MC FY25 net sales are now looking like -3% to -4%, with U.S. revenue between -4% and -6%. Those numbers were previously set as “low single-digit decline.” 

As for the Q2 numbers:

• Shipments (sales to wholesalers): -7% YoY 
• Depletions (sales to retailers): -5.1% YoY

Looking at H1 comps, yeah that’s not great either.

2025:

• Shipments: -10.2% YoY 
• Depletions: -6.4% YoY

2024:

• Shipments: flat YoY 
• Depletions: -1% YoY

Yeah, “deteriorated” isn’t a great word to use to describe the “sentiment” among your “core consumers” about your lead “beers,” as BMI indicated.

• H1 25 ORGANIC NET REVENUE: down mid-single digit
• H1 25 VOLUME: down high-single digits
• 2025 OUTLOOK: Revised to be flat in volume, but revenue still expected to be +4% to +8%

Tariff impacts aren’t expected until moreso in H2 – so yeah … H1, we have that goin’ for us, which is nice. 🤦‍♂️

AND JUST GONNA PUT THIS HERE:

MONSTER’s Q2 bev-alc revenue was -8% YoY in Q2 to $38M.

• HENSLEY BEVERAGE CO. bought the 75% of SCOUT DISTRIBUTING in Arizona that it didn’t already own. SCOUT’s LA business was sold to HAND FAMILY’s SUNSET DISTRIBUTING earlier this year. 
• A-B has invested $9M in its Baldwinville, NY brewery to upgrade facilities to make more beer things other than beer. 
• ALLAGASH opened its new Bungalow taproom location in Scarborough, ME this month (about 15 mins outside of the heart of Portland) that will also feature food offerings including lobster rolls, naturally.
• UNCLE NEAREST responded to the complaint from FARM CREDIT MID-AMERICA about not paying its bills to the tune of $100M, saying it has made multiple payments … but that also its former CFO acted alone in fraudulently misrepresenting the company without leadership’s knowledge.

With a lotta newsletters to go until December, I’m saving some of my “best” material to incentivize ticket sales in this section ‘til at least the fall.

BUMP WILLIAMS CONSULTING (BWC) president Dave Williams and VP of business development and portfolio strategy Brian “BK” Krueger join the pod this week to trade GABF plaid shirt fashion tips with Justin dive into:

• The importance for brewers to fight to keep any display, floor, promotional and feature space they have in the off-prem to move product vs. just focusing on shelf space.
• The reality checks to keep in mind from the H1 25 sales numbers this year, and more.

BUT FIRST: The BREWBOUND trio dive into the changes at the top of BOSTON BEER, as Jess secretly maps out her retirement lifestyle plan in her head.

LISTEN HERE! Or just search “Brewbound” on your podcast listening platform of choice. And leave a review and rating, would ya? (Good ones only, plz)

This week’s beer goes out to Oasis fans! Although I’m pretty sure they’re all cut off from the bar, so maybe I’ll drink it for them.

An average of over 250k pints of beer were sold each night at the band’s big Wembley Stadium return this summer, which puts other acts doing gigs there last year to shame:

• Coldplay: 120k
• Taylor Swift: 40k

Way to go, Gen X! Show those Swifties what’s up. And at an average British pint cost of $11 at the stadium, I think it’s more cost effective for me to fly to the U.K. to see shows and drink beer than it is to do that in NYC.

Wembley staff even began running out of places to store kegs, having to turn unused areas under escalators and cupboards into cold storage.

Heck, Oasis has even been helping craft beer! 😱 One brewery in Cardiff said its sales 4x’d when the band came to town. So, Chicago breweries … you may wanna double batch some brews this month before they arrive on August 28.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty 

(you can always reach me here on LinkedIn)