Crafted Hope closes again as Rhode Island craft beer shakeout continues

Crafted Hope Brewing Company closed in East Greenwich, ending Kyle Toste’s attempt to turn the former Linesider Brewing space at 1485 South County Trail into the town’s only brewery. The taproom opened on Nov. 29, 2024, after Linesider shut down in July 2024 following a six-year run, and the site quickly became a test case for how much life a familiar brewery address could still hold.

Toste launched Crafted Hope with a big slate for a small room: 14 beers on draft, plus seltzers, cider and nonalcoholic canned beer. The taproom was built for about 100 people and included an event space, a setup that suggested the business needed more than weekend foot traffic to sustain itself. In a tighter market, that kind of broad lineup can read less like expansion and more like survival strategy.

The closure lands in the middle of a Rhode Island shakeout that has left nearly 30 breweries still operating, but with several recent closures or changes in ownership. Ravenous Brewing Company is being taken over by Moniker Brewery and renamed Moniker North, a sign that some brands are trying to reset rather than disappear entirely.

The pressure is not just local. The Brewers Association said 9,269 craft breweries were operating in June 2025, down 1 percent from 9,352 in June 2024, and craft volume fell 5 percent year over year. That kind of decline leaves smaller breweries with less margin for error on rent, distribution and the everyday cost of keeping tanks full and taps moving. For a brewery that had already inherited a space vacated by Linesider, the market made a second run at South County Trail hard to sustain.