- This guide is for founders, commercial directors, and brand managers at small and medium-sized US craft spirits, beer, and wine producers. It assumes you are already operating – not starting up. It is not a guide to launching a distillery.
- What it covers: the confirmed data on what the current market correction means specifically for small producers, the channel and revenue decisions that determine who navigates it and who does not, and six specific actions grounded in that data.
- What this guide does not cover: individual state distribution law details, specific distributor contract terms, or legal and financial advice. For those, consult a specialist in your state.
- Data sources: ACSA 2025 Craft Spirits Data Project (primary, October 2025) – TTB public data, analysed by Harry McKaig (Double Cross Vodka) – WSWA SipSource Q1 2026 and Forward Forecast July 2026 – Luca Mariano bankruptcy court filings – BevNET, July 2026 (payment delays).
787 US craft distilleries closed or stopped operating in the twelve months to August 2025. That is the finding of the American Craft Spirits Association’s 2025 Craft Spirits Data Project – the most comprehensive annual study of the US craft spirits sector – which confirmed the number of active craft distillers fell 25.6% to 2,282, from 3,069 a year earlier. The ACSA notes that an updated research methodology accounts for some of this change, but acknowledges directly that many distilleries simply closed their doors. Either way, the number moving in a single direction at that scale is not a methodology artefact.
The same report confirmed that craft spirits volume declined 6.1% to 12.7 million nine-litre cases in 2024, and value declined 3.3% to $7.6 billion – the second consecutive year of volume and value decline. The producers who survived 2024 and are navigating 2026 are operating in a market that is smaller, more competitive, and more demanding than the one most of them launched into.
This guide maps what the data says about why some producers are navigating this and others are not – and what the specific decisions are that determine which group you are in.
The market you are operating in
Before the decisions, the context. The craft spirits correction is not a temporary demand dip. It is the combined result of three structural changes arriving simultaneously, each of which independently would be manageable, but together require a different approach from the one that worked during the expansion cycle.
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