The craft beer business has confronted two years of financial difficulties, which have led to a number of corporations closing their brewery operations.
Brewers have blamed rising prices pushed by inflation and tariffs, shoppers’ altering attitudes towards ingesting alcohol, and excessive competitors for the beer greenback as causes for his or her financial challenges.
Tariffs have been the newest drawback dealing with breweries, as many use aluminum for his or her beer cans and paper merchandise for packaging that may be topic to tariffs.
Craft brewers’ struggles have been mirrored within the Brewers Affiliation’s 2025 Midyear Market report launched in July, which confirmed brewery closings outpacing openings, with 9,269 breweries working in June 2025, down 1%, in comparison with 9,352 in June 2024.
Craft brewery working numbers decline:
- U.S. craft breweries working in June 2025: 9,269.
- U.S. craft breweries working in June 2024: 9,352.
The variety of working craft breweries has additionally plummeted considerably from 2024 and 2023, based mostly on the affiliation’s report.
The variety of working craft breweries declined nationwide to 9,680 in 2024, down from 9,747 in 2023.
Associated: 55-year-old restaurant chain closes key location over excessive lease
It was additionally the fourth consecutive 12 months that the variety of new brewery openings declined, with 434 new breweries opening and 501 closing in 2024, based on the Brewers Affiliation.
And now, extreme monetary difficulties will pressure a once-dominant craft beer firm to shut its brewery, taproom, and separate brewpub on Nov. 4 after 25 years of serving its followers.
twenty first Modification Brewery will shut down its brewpub, brewery and taproom by Nov. 4.
Picture Supply: Shutterstock
twenty first Modification Brewery shuts down
twenty first Modification Brewery revealed on Instagram that it’ll shut its doorways, together with its San Francisco-based brewpub and its San Leandro, Calif., brewery and taproom within the East Bay, in lower than two months.
The corporate confronted a serious decline in gross sales throughout a downturn within the American craft beer market, which resulted in its lender informing the brewer that it might not fund the corporate as a result of its “cash bleed,” the corporate’s co-founder Nico Feccia instructed the San Francisco Chronicle.
Gross sales plummet 20% annually
twenty first Modification’s co-owner shared that his firm’s gross sales had declined by about 20% annually since 2021.
Competitors from exhausting seltzers and ready-to-drink cocktails and reviews of a decline in consumption of alcoholic drinks had contributed to the gross sales droop, Freccia mentioned.
The craft brewer additionally confronted vital headwinds, Freccia mentioned, together with rising prices of brewing components, transportation, and tariffs on aluminum and paper which are wanted for canning and packaging beer.
“It’s the perfect storm to challenge craft beer, on top of significant headwinds,” Freccia mentioned.
The homeowners hope to discover a purchaser who will preserve brewing their craft beer.
Extra closings:
- Main furnishings producer closes down, no chapter
- Iconic pizza chain’s franchisees shut a number of eating places
- Iconic retail chain closing over 100 shops in chapter
Freccia and his companion Shaun O’Sullivan based twenty first Modification Brewery on Second Road in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood in 2000, two blocks from the San Francisco Giants’ Pacific Bell Park — now named Oracle Park — which opened in the identical 12 months, based on the corporate web site.
The brewery began canning its beer on the Second Road location in its early years, since cans protect freshness longer than bottles.
twenty first Modification opens brewery in former Kellogg’s plant
The corporate started brewing with a Minnesota companion in 2008 and expanded to large-scale manufacturing in 2015 when it started working its brewery in a former Kellogg’s cereal manufacturing unit in San Leandro.
twenty first Modification grew to become one of many high 50 craft breweries within the nation, peaking at No. 26 from 2016-2019, based on the Brewers Affiliation.
twenty first Modification Brewery milestones:
- 2000: twenty first Modification Brewery opens 2 blocks from San Francisco Giants’ Pac Bell Park.
- 2015: twenty first Modification opens San Leandro, Calif., brewery in former Kellogg’s cereal plant.
- 2016-2019: Ranked No. 26 amongst nation’s craft brewers.
- 2025: twenty first Modification closing brewery, taproom, and brewpub.
The Covid-19 pandemic slowed the corporate’s growth and it by no means reached most capability on the East Bay facility, the Chronicle reported.
twenty first Modification has not indicated whether or not it plans to file for chapter safety because it closes down its operations, as another craft brewers have carried out.
Craft breweries file for chapter
Current brewer chapter filings have included Dissent Craft Brewing, which shut down its flagship brewery location in St. Petersburg, Fla., and filed for Chapter 7 chapter liquidation on Aug. 25, two years after closing its Lakeland, Fla., brewery.
Lastly, craft brewer Memphis Made Brewing Firm filed for Chapter 11 chapter on Aug. 7, 2025, a couple of 12 months after closing its authentic brewery location.
The debtor didn’t point out a cause for submitting for chapter in its petition.
Associated: Common beer model, brewery recordsdata Chapter 7 chapter, liquidates
