Draft beer remains the dominating sales driver for taprooms, but breweries may need to expand their menus (and hours) if they want consumers to keep coming back, according to a new report from the Brewers Association (BA), citing taproom point-of-sale data from Arryved.
Draft beer and food made up nearly 80% of sales at Arryved customers’ taprooms from January 2023 to December 2024, according to the report. Those sales are also some of the most volatile depending on seasonal changes in consumer habits. On average, monthly draft beer sales at their lowest are $7,600 below taprooms’ best performing months of the year, according to the report. Food has about a $4,800 swing.
Combined, food and draft beer sales during their peak months typically spike about 15% to 20% above a taproom’s monthly average, while lows fall about 25% to 30% below average.
“This only serves to enhance the feeling of loss aversion where the down months create more acute negative impact than the corresponding positive impact from good months,” BA staff economist Matt Gacioch wrote in the report.
Draft beer sales are also in decline. Between January 2023 and December 2024, draft beer sales fell an average of $73.28 per month, the largest decline among taproom sales categories. Retail beer (-$2.11/month) and merch (-$3.11/month) recorded more moderate losses in the period.
Meanwhile, monthly food sales increased by an average of $42.31, making up more than half of the lost sales from draft beer. Liquor and draft hard cider sales also increased (+$15.29/month combined).
“Of course, these changes are quite small (less than 1% annually),” Gacioch wrote. “So, this can justifiably be taken as a reason to stay the course.
“However, taken over a longer time horizon, these results suggest that diversification can be an approach to actively mitigate revenue decline. Operations with broader category offerings may find themselves better positioned against the overall trend of declining draft sales.”
The number of brewpubs in operation in 2024 increased 1.4% year-over-year (YoY), to 3,552, according to the BA, which could suggest that some breweries are already embracing larger food menus. Such changes could change breweries’ definition within the BA from a taproom to a brewpub, as the BA defines brewpubs as craft breweries that sell at 75% of their beer volume on-site and offer significant food service.
Breweries who have already embraced portfolio expansion into beyond beer products – whether at their taprooms or in distribution – were also rewarded in 2024, further backing consumers’ desire for more options. Craft breweries that produced beyond beer products last year recorded median production volume growth of 1.1% – significantly outperforming total craft breweries, which had a median decline of 6.5%, BA president and CEO Bart Watson shared earlier this year, citing a member survey.
More than half of those beyond beer producing breweries (52%) recorded production volume growth in 2024, compared to 42% of total craft breweries.
For taprooms that are hoping to focus on beer itself, the answer to declining beer sales may be offering larger pour options, according to the BA’s latest report.
Pints (16 oz.) remain the dominating serving size at taprooms, hovering just below 2,000 orders per location per month at the format’s peaks, and around 1,500 at its lowest, over the past two years. All other formats fell between 200 to less than 50 orders per location per month.
However, pint sales are in decline. The format started 2024 with January pint sales down 11% YoY, and ended the year with December pint sales down 16% YoY.
It’s not entirely the pint’s fault. Total draft beer sales at Arryved partners’ taprooms were down 14% YoY in January and 15% in December, so naturally the largest slice of that collective pie is going to feel those losses the most.
Notable, those declines were well-below off-premise trends during the same periods: January 2024 -3% YoY; December +2%.
Despite collective draft beer declines, some formats were able to increase sales last year, Gacioch reported. Those trends favored larger formats such as 20 oz. and half liter pours, “likely driven by value-seeking behavior,” Gacioch wrote. The two formats were the only sizes to increase sales last year, both hovering around 5% YoY growth.
Meanwhile, the smallest formats led declines, including 4 oz. (-25%) and 5 oz. (more than -20%).
“With growing consumer pessimism around the economy, maximizing ounces per dollar becomes important,” Gacioch wrote.
Beyond product mix, taprooms could also benefit from expanded operating hours, according to sales trends by days of the week.
Saturday remains the No. 1 day for taproom sales, accounting for nearly 30% of taprooms’ weekly gross sales on average, according to the report. Friday is the second most popular day, hovering just over 20%. However, Friday’s share of weekly sales has been slowly declining since 2021.
The shift could be consumers with strained wallets deciding to avoid Friday outings and saving for the weekend. However, contrary to this belief, weekdays such as Monday (+0.4 percentage points YoY) and Tuesday (+0.5 percentage points) – the two lowest-performing days of the week – are slowly gaining share of weekly sales.
“These traditionally slower days experienced not only increased share, but actual dollar growth year-over-year, while all other days of the week experienced decline,” Gacioch wrote.
Those changes could be consumer or brewery driven, with some of the latter expanding the days of the week they’re open after a few years of constrained operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing shortages.
Gacioh suggested taprooms with a more “traditional” Thursday through Sunday schedule may be missing out on “all available business opportunities,” although he noted that “like all aspects of running a brewery, this national trend may not match local conditions.”