Three related stories grabbed my attention while waiting for a plane to take me to Boston, which turns out to be the opposite direction from California. First, five Chicago-area breweries have closed in the last six weeks as economics asserts itself:
Alarmist Brewing & Taproom in Sauganash permanently closed Feb. 1, and not long after, Berwyn’s Flapjack Brewery and Forest Park’s Casa Humilde turned off their taps. Two more are shutting down: Whiner Beer Co. in Back of the Yards will close March 29, and Illuminated Brew Works in Norwood Park will close June 28.
A steady decline in drinking is partially to blame. The U.S. drinking rate reached historic lows in 2025, according to data from Gallup. But the recent string of local closings was accelerated by rising operational and production costs, including aluminum tariffs, and what many feel is an oversaturated market, owners said.
Besides game and trivia nights, concerts and other concerted efforts to get people in the door, breweries are raising their prices to match inflation and trying to market to younger and more health-conscious consumers with alternative products, such as THC- and CBD-infused beverages.
Not all of the news is horrible. The city's black-owned breweries have embedded themselves in their communities, to some success:
Leaning into cultural celebration is one way Moor’s [Brewing] and Funkytown Brewery — the city’s two Black-owned breweries — set themselves apart in a volatile industry that is seeing increased brewery closings nationwide. In Chicago, at least five have shuttered or announced closures this year amid rising operational and production costs and a decline in the U.S. drinking rate.
By contrast, Moor’s Brewing and Funkytown Brewery have remained resilient due to contract brewing — producing their beers at other breweries instead of opening a brick-and-mortar location right away. They also have built a following by pairing their beer with cultural experiences and events, and targeting a diverse consumer base. The owners say they hope this approach will sustain them when they eventually open their own space.
Funkytown Brewery was founded five years ago by Rich Bloomfield, Greg Williams and Zack Day. It has spent the last five years operating at beverage incubator Pilot Project Brewing in Logan Square. It plans to open its own facility in 2027 on the Near West Side thanks in part to a $3.7 million Community Development Grant from the city.
Cannabis companies have also taken big hits, except for the one I own shares in. So to me, this counts as great news:
Chicago’s Green Thumb Industries reported $114.1 million in net income last year, making it a stark outlier in an Illinois cannabis market where competitors continue to hemorrhage cash.
Five of the so-called multistate operators in Illinois — New York-based Ascend Wellness, Connecticut-based Curaleaf, Massachusetts-based MariMed, and Chicago-based Cresco Labs and Verano Holdings — lost a cumulative $761 million last year, underscoring the strain for an industry facing regulatory uncertainty.
Ascend, Cresco, Curaleaf and Verano each have 10 dispensaries in Illinois, while MariMed has five. Outlier GTI has 12 dispensaries in Illinois and a national footprint in 14 states.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order a week before Christmas last year that instructs the Department of Justice to move marijuana to Schedule III, which would nullify the impact of 280E on marijuana businesses nationwide and save the industry as a whole billions of dollars in tax payments.
But since Trump’s order in December, there has been zero movement by the DOJ to actually reschedule cannabis. It’s not clear when or if the reclassification will be finished, given that the process was first started under President Joe Biden, but stalled out in 2024 amid pushback from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Of course the OAFPOTUS's DoJ has done nothing about this; he's decimated the agency. Yet another reason to do whatever it takes to get him out of office before he does more damage to the country and the world. I'm surprised any intoxicant companies are doing poorly with him in office.
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