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USA | A former employee at Rogue Ales & Spirits is suing Oregon Brewing, Rogue’s parent company, for an alleged violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). The lawsuit claims Oregon Brewing failed to provide employees with the legally mandated 60-day advance notice before issuing a mass layoff at Rogue in December, media reported on 20 January.
Canada | The number of breweries in Canada has now started to contract, suggesting that the craft beer party may be winding down, media reported on 20 January. Beer sales are declining – a shift driven by a mix of cost pressures, and changing consumer behaviour.
USA | For the first time in decades, the US government does not offer specific guidance to American adults about how much to drink. On 7 January, the Trump Administration released its long-awaited, updated dietary guidelines for 2025-2030. The overall message is: Americans should eat more whole foods and protein, fewer highly processed foods and less added sugar.
USA | Constellation Brands warned that beer sales could remain volatile and under pressure as economic uncertainty and high unemployment among Hispanic consumers, its core customer base, continue to weigh on spending.
USA | AB-InBev will reacquire a 49.9 percent minority stake in its US-based metal container plants from a consortium of institutional investors for USD 3 billion, the firm announced on 6 January. The metal container operations include seven facilities across six states. The company says the plants are a strategic component of its business, ensuring quality, cost efficiency, speed of innovation and supply security.
Canada | American Bourbon has already become a victim in the US trade war. Provinces pulled it from their shelves in response to Mr Trump’s tariffs. Now it looks as if Canadian whisky Crown Royal could become a victim too, if Ontario’s provincial premier Doug Ford has his way. He said on 7 January that Crown Royal would be boycotted by the province-owned liquor chain LCBO in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, firing a warning shot at Diageo, the brand’s owner.
USA | Suntory Global Spirits, the maker of Jim Beam bourbon, on 1 January, halted production at its main site in Clermont, Kentucky, for all of 2026, while the firm takes “the opportunity to invest in site enhancements, the BBC learnt on 21 December. Its rationale is explicitly framed around aligning production with demand and managing inventory.
USA | All intoxicating hemp, including hemp-derived THC and CBD beverages, will be illegal to sell or possess in 90 days (March 2026), according to legislation Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine signed on 19 December.
USA | With US beer production in decline, it was inevitable: On 11 December, AB-InBev announced it is looking to shake up its brewery business for 2026 with the sale of one of its oldest breweries and the closure of two more. The company's Newark, New Jersey, brewery, which has been in operation since 1951, is going to be sold to property development firm Goodman Group. Breweries that are located in Fairfield, California, and Merrimack, New Hampshire, will close permanently. Production will be shifted to the firm’s nine remaining major breweries.
USA | Whatever happens to the USMCA trade agreement after its review next summer – Heineken pans to be prepared. Shortly after Donald Trump retook power in Washington, D.C., in early 2025, importing beer from Mexico went from a relatively straightforward business to a quagmire. While beer is still compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the administration’s trade policy has already forced the Big Brewers to rethink how they do business across the southern border.
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BRAUWELT on tour
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BRAUWELT on tour
