Looking back on 2025

A Year in Flour, Fire, and Headwinds: 2025 at Grainbakers, and Why 2026 Matters

2025 was a good year. I launched www.caitjewell.com, bringing my personal art and creative work fully into the world. At One Hat One Hand (www.onehatonehand.com), my day job that I genuinely adore, I helped lead a major milestone that strengthened our creative and fabrication capabilities.

And then there’s Grainbakers (www.grainbakers.com), my slightly feral, deeply joyful side venture that kept growing. We brought hands-on breadmaking and pretzel experiences to thousands of participants at dozens of breweries and communities across America.

Grainbakers is about people. It’s never about bread.

My mission with Grainbakers is to help small American breweries, and heading into 2026, their challenges are huge. There are around 9,500 breweries in the U.S., and we’ve lost over 1,000 since the beginning of COVID. These businesses are endangered, and they are a cornerstone of our culture.

Breweries are where communities actually happen. They’re where friends meet up after work, where regulars are greeted by name, where you celebrate good news, and where you can walk in alone and still feel like you belong.

What Grainbakers Does for Breweries

This year, Grainbakers worked with thousands of class participants, activating breweries with programming that brings in new, first-time guests, honors longtime regulars, and showcases breweries at their best.

Grainbakers also supports breweries where they often struggle most: marketing. We bring programming that’s easy to promote, brings in first-time guests, and gives regulars a fresh reason to come back.

Most attendees find our classes through Grainbakers-run online ads, not the brewery’s channels. About 90% of participants discover the event through those campaigns. A typical class generates 100,000+ digital impressions, which is real advertising reach for small breweries that often can’t afford ongoing online ads and don’t have the time or in-house know-how to run them effectively.

This has been a challenging side hustle, because it’s entirely about people. Some guests arrive ready to laugh and learn. Others walk in a little nervous, then surprise themselves by jumping in, having a ton of fun, and realizing they’re more capable than they thought. We welcome everyone with kindness, clear guidance, and a little bit of scrappy humor. Last year, we did these classes from sea to shining sea: Maine and Boston to Denver, San Francisco and San Diego.

The Rest of My 2025 Puzzle

For the first half of the year, I consulted with Bonsai Bar (www.bonsaibar.com) as a fractional CMO, which let me combine my love of tiny trees with brewery entertainment in the best possible way. They have a great offering. You should try one of their workshops, or, in the Bay Area, check out www.bonsaify.com, which has highly experienced bonsai farmers.

All the while, I continued consulting for Crafted Destinations (www.crafted-destinations.com), Jeff Leiter’s company that builds really special eating and drinking establishments for small American business owners, helping local hospitality dreamers find their footing and flourish.

2026: Growth in Challenging Times, and a Real Decision Point

2026 is about growth in headwinds. I want to help every company I touch grow stronger and more intentional. For Grainbakers, I’m at a decision point. Do we do a slight, controlled expansion, staying tight and small? Or do we scale carefully to help more breweries survive and thrive? (I'm waiting for our first concept-imitators too. GL2U+FAFO.)

And yes, San Diego is calling me. A warmer zip code for our family feels like what’s next.

And to my Boston homies: I keep a standby plane ticket, because my accent needs maintenance, and saying “Market Basket” is the calibration.

If you’re a brewery reading this and you’re feeling the squeeze, I see you. And if you’re a guest who has come to a class, thank you. You’re showing up for the places that hold our communities together with kindness in unkind times. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably met the amazing Grainbakers instructors and teacher assistants. They’ve kept me going when I'm so tired I can't see straight on the long nights, made me look wildly more put-together than I deserve, and delivered genuine warmth to our guests.

Janet, Kristen, Jeff, Dave, Mike, and Tam (plus dozens of helpers and volunteers) zip into those Grainbakers jackets and smiles and instantly help turn a room full of strangers into a table full of friends. Because our mantra is true: it’s not about bread. It’s never about bread. It’s about people. And if you’ve taken a class (or two… or three) and want to get more involved with Grainbakers, reach out.