Explore the world of craft beer, from performance reports and innovation tactics to the state of the industry and breaking news.
Anyone looking for an answer to when craft’s current era of compounding hurdles and declines will come to an end received a reality check Wednesday during Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bart Watson’s state of the industry address, held at the start of Day 2 of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Indianapolis.
Around 10,000 industry members are expected to make the trip to Indianapolis for the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America (April 28 to May 1). The gathering takes place against a backdrop of growing headwinds for craft breweries and an overhaul of CBC’s host organization, the Brewers Association.
Craft’s rolling four-week losses improved to start 2025, according to the most recent report from market research firm Circana. The segment’s off-premise dollar sales declined -3.1% and volume, measured in case sales, declined -4.6% in the four-week period ending January 26 (L4W) at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C). That marked an improvement over the prior four-week period (through December 29, 2024), when craft dollars declined -5.1% and volume declined -6.5%.
The fallout surrounding the conservative-led boycott of Anheuser-Busch’s (A-B) Bud Light brand and the accelerated declines that ensued accounted for three of Brewbound’s top stories of 2023. The internal machinations at A-B, including a reshuffling of its craft division, also piqued Brewbound readers’ interests. As we close out the year, here’s a look back at the 10 most-read stories of 2023.
Craft beer has entered “no to negative growth territory,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during a year-end webinar last week. “We were in double-digit growth as recently as 2014, 2015, and then we moved into kind of a more developed, slow, single-digit growth rate,” Watson said. “COVID hit, and we had the worst year in craft history in 2020 with a partial bounce back in 2021.
Scan data through Q3 showed a “slightly more promising outlook for craft,” according to Bump Williams Consulting (BWC) in the firm’s quarterly craft report. Craft dollar sales growth in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels (total U.S. xAOC + liquor plus + convenience) is now flat year-to-date (YTD) through September 30.
The majority (29) of the Brewers Association’s (BA) top 50 craft breweries declined in volume in 2022, according to data in the May/June 2023 edition of the trade group’s New Brewer Magazine.
The Brewers Association (BA) has shared its rankings of the top 50 independent craft breweries by sales volume, with U.S. craft brewers under the trade group’s small and independent brewery definition collectively producing 24.3 million barrels of beer and gaining 0.1% share of the overall beer market by volume to claim 13.2% share.
Craft beer dollar sales and volume at off-premise retailers declined in 2022, and 2023 is not expected to be much better for the segment. If craft wants to win consumers and occasions, producers must meet new consumers on their level, Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson shared last week at the New England Craft Brew Summit.
Off-premise sales of craft beer are off to a rough start in 2022. Year-to-date through April 2 of 2022, craft dollar sales declines have accelerated to nearly -10% ( $1.24 billion in overall sales) compared to the -6% decline in calendar year 2021, according to Bump Williams Consulting, which shared the latest NielsenIQ (total U.S. — XAOC + Liquor plus Convenience) scan data.
Midway through 2021, just two of the top 15 craft beer suppliers have been able to generate off-premise dollar sales growth in NielsenIQ tracked channels compared to a year ago, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s latest analysis of the craft segment.
