Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling, Co.

Business Overview

Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Co. is on a mission to make excellent craft beers + spirits for the world and bring opportunity, and a lively, well-deserved break to our friends and neighbors.

From the classic beginning of four college friends, an idea and garage space in 1999, to a 10,000 square foot manufacturing facility, 20 employees, multi-state distribution and a portfolio of 16 craft beers and 9 distilled spirits, Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling is amongst today’s leaders in the New England brewing and distilling industry.

The first licensed distillery in Rhode Island in over 135 years, Newport Craft resurrected the history of Newport distilling, once the rum capital of the world, with its production of Thomas Tew Rum®. Using the same distilling methods, equipment and ingredients of its distilling forefathers, the Thomas Tew Rum line can be found on the top shelf of over 500 restaurant and bars, Walt Disney World’s EPCOT and as the official rum of the New York Mets. In 2019, USA Today ranked Thomas Tew Rum amongst the top ten craft rums in America.

In November, 2017 a group of local Rhode Island investors acquired a controlling interest (now 100%) in the Company, and has, to date, combined and rebranded the brewing and distilling divisions, reorganized the product lines, introduced new products, updated manufacturing equipment and back office technology, and made strategic acquisitions of Braven Brewing Company to open the Company to the New York metropolitan market. These efforts spearheaded by a dynamic management team, have, in the past 30 months, doubled the amount of beer produced, added several new spirits to the product line, more than tripled the work force, increased distribution to five states (CT, MA, NY, PA and RI), and grown the social media platform to over 45,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook and impressions on the geosocial network beer application Untappd to over 130,000. Also, the Company continued to add to its inventory of distilled rum and whisky which now stands at 860 barrels, representing 36,000+ cases.

In addition to doing well, the Company does good. Newport Craft supports Aquidneck Island art and culture by sponsoring the Newport Folk Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the South Coast Comedy Series and the Audrain Newport Concours & Motor Week. Beyond these sponsorships, the Company engages with both local and national charitable organizations. Amongst many initiatives, the Company is a lead sponsor of Newport’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center Gala, brews the specialty beer, Iron Horse, donating 25% of all sale proceeds to the ALS Foundation in honor of a former employee battling the disease, brews one-off beers for other charities to auction off or to serve at events, provides event space free of charge to the US Navy and the Aquidneck Island Farmers Market, partners with Clean Ocean Access to brew a beer from recycled ingredients and canned in 100% recycled packaging, and donates a full work day of employee and executive time to ocean and beach cleanup. The Company also provides internships to Johnson & Wales University students in the beer education program and participates in on-campus seminars.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has produced and donated over 3,500 bottles of hand sanitizer to first responders, healthcare workers and the general public, and donates a portion of the sale of each case of beer and bottle of spirits to the Rhode Island Hospitality Employee Relief Fund.

Living up to its motto “Of Sea and Spirits”, Newport Craft is retooling its production methods to reduce its carbon footprint. From the simple step of converting the manufacturing facility’s light fixtures to LED bulbs, to sending spent grain to Aquidneck Island farmers for livestock feed and instituting a PakTech recycling program to recycle and re-use packaging material, the Company endeavors to “go green”. The Company’s design to increase its manufacturing space includes green initiatives including the improvement and reduction of wastewater discharge.

Standing on its history and building on its experienced management team and the proven steady, strategic and focused growth model, Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company is positioned to continue as a leader in the New England, New York and Pennsylvania craft brewing and distilling markets for years to come.