The rate of craft beer drinkers who say they drink craft weekly has declined -4% since last year, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) annual consumer survey conducted by the Harris Poll.
Harris Poll surveyed 2,035 legal-drinking-age (LDA) consumers from May 18-26. Respondents all drink craft at least several times a year, or more.
Below are takeaways from BA chief economist Bart Watson’s presentation about the poll’s findings, including thoughts on who is drinking craft beer, which styles those drinkers are interested in and how their experiences at breweries affect their consumption habits.
46% of Craft Beer Drinkers Do So Weekly, Down From 50% in 2021
The rate of craft beer drinkers who drink it weekly dropped from 50% in 2021 to 46% in 2022 after being “up fairly sharply in 2017,” Watson said.
“One year’s decline isn’t something that we should be freaking out about,” he added.
In 2017, only 36% of craft beer drinkers said they consumed the product on a weekly basis. That number increased to 45% in 2018 and was flat in 2019, before jumping +4% in 2020.
“Craft’s growth in terms of just the population drinking craft maybe hasn’t stopped, hasn’t reversed, but certainly has slowed and we’ll watch this again next year to see whether this data point bounces back,” Watson said.
The gap between consumers who say they are drinking more beer compared to last year and those who are drinking less has narrowed. Only 7% more survey respondents said they were drinking more beer in 2022 (27%) than said they were drinking less (20%). The 7% difference between the two is half the size it was in 2017, when 20% of respondents said they were drinking less and 34% said they were drinking more.
Because the survey only reaches active craft drinkers, it does not include those who exit the segment.
“If we added in the last of the people who were exiting the category – which I don’t think adds up to 7%, but we don’t know because we don’t survey on them – that net flow is going to be less than what our survey shows,” Watson said.
55% of Those Drinking Less Craft are Drinking More of Other Bev-Alc Offerings
What is driving craft drinkers to drink less craft beer? More than half (55%) of those who said they’re consuming less craft beer pointed to an uptick in consumption of other beverage-alcohol offerings, including wine, spirits and flavored malt beverages (FMBs), Watson said.
“The reason isn’t money, it isn’t ‘I stopped drinking,’” he said. “It’s that ‘I’m drinking more of other types of beverage alcohol.’”
Weekly craft beer drinkers are also weekly consumers of many other bev-alc categories. More than two-thirds reported drinking domestic beer (68%), imports (68%) and wine (67%) weekly. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they drink spirits weekly; more than half drink FMBs (56%) and hard seltzers (55%) weekly. Hard cider came in last, with 46% of craft beer drinkers also drinking it weekly.
Questions have circulated about the possibility of craft beer’s higher price point driving drinkers away due to pandemic-driven economic uncertainty; however, Watson said only about 20% of those drinking less said it was due to reduced disposable income.
Only 10% of respondents said they drink less craft because they consume more cannabis products, another industry bugbear that has yet to pan out as a major cause of decreased beer consumption.
Because this question was only posed to survey respondents who said they drink less craft beer now than before, Watson said dividing each number by five will estimate how the general craft beer drinker population feels about each reason for consuming less. That would mean that about 4% of drinkers are buying less craft because they have less disposable income, and 2% are consuming less craft beer in favor of cannabis.
Women Drinkers +8% in 5 Years; LDA Gen Z Spending Less on Alcohol
As for who is drinking craft beer, the segment continues to over-index with men, but the gap between male and female drinkers is narrowing, Harris Poll found.
This year, 62% of male respondents said they drink craft beer “several times a year,” compared to 37% of female respondents. That 25% gap is considerably smaller than 2017, when 71% of men said they drank craft beer, compared to 29% of female respondents. The data also shows that more women are becoming craft beer drinkers.
However, contrasted with data from Scarborough USA+, the rate of women who say they have drunk craft beer in the last 30 days has remained relatively flat over the last decade.
“What that says to me, putting it together, is that craft is doing an OK job of getting women to try craft,” Watson said. “But it’s not doing as well on the job of getting women to stay in craft and make that part of the more regular consumption.”
In addition to Harris Poll demographic data, Watson also pulled statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Study that revealed consumers between the ages of 21 and 25 spent about half as much money on alcohol in 2022 as the same age group did in 2010, which would have been older Millennials.
“This is survey data so maybe they’re just answering the question differently, but that’s a watch out for all beverage alcohol, I think, going forward,” Watson said.
The 35-44 age bracket recorded the highest alcohol spending across most years of BLS data, which Watson attributed to that age group having disposable income and still flexible palates, making them a prime target for craft beer brands.
“That’s the peak spot … you still drink a lot of beer, you’ve got money now, and your brand references aren’t locked in,” he said. “Younger than that, you probably don’t have a lot of money to spend on craft.”
Drinkers Care About ABV, Local Brands; Millennials Into Organic and Low-No Alc Offerings
Both high and low ABV remain important to consumers, particularly younger LDA and Black and Latino drinkers, Watson said.
“Unlike other things, the trend has been pretty clear that craft drinkers have cared more about ABV over time,” he said. “And that’s true at both the high end and the low end.”
About three-quarters of weekly craft drinkers said high ABV is very important or somewhat important, and about 45% said the same about low ABV. Slightly more than 60% of overall craft drinkers said high ABV is somewhat to very important, and about 35% said the same about low ABV.
Although the importance of low ABV beers have declined slightly compared to last year, the number of drinkers calling out ABV as somewhat to very important has increased from 2016 levels.
The Harris Poll also found preference for local brands increases with frequency of consumption.
Local brands matter most to daily craft drinkers. About 45% of respondents said it is “very important” that the beers they drink come from local breweries, while more than 30% of drinkers who consume craft beer several times a week said the same. One-fifth of drinkers who have craft beer “several times a year” said local was “not at all important” to them.
“This is almost linear in the relationship between how often you drink craft and how important local is to you,” Watson said.
Mindful drinking – whether drinkers gravitate toward beer that uses local or organic ingredients or helps them meet fitness goals – has declined slightly from 2021. However, the rate of respondents who say the concept of mindful drinking (a phrase Watson uses to avoid calling some beers a “better-for-you” option) does not apply to them has dropped to 27% in 2022, down from 37% in 2019.
Interest in local ingredients and organic beer, as well as low ABV and non-alcoholic beer, is concentrated among drinkers between 31 and 41, Watson found. Younger LDA drinkers’ disinterest in organic beer could potentially stem from such products costing more money.
Interest in non-alcoholic beer falls off among respondents older than 50, which indicates “they still want their IPAs,” Watson said.
Coming Friday: Part 2 with insights on consumers gravitating to brands over style and the need for a customized brewery experience.