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Learn about craft brewery trends, including beer styles, packaging, brewery business models and market segments, demographics, and more from the craft brewing industry’s top economist, Dr. Bart Watson.
I’ve been asked by a couple of BA members about my predictions for style trends in 2017. Let me start by saying that figuring out what other people will like in the future is pretty darn hard. Rather than looking …Read More
Most of what I write about involves grand category averages. What determines category growth or decline, however, happens at a lower, brand level of aggregation. To that end, I decided to see how individual brands–both new and existing–performed in 2016. …Read More
There have been some reports in recent weeks which suggest that marijuana legalization is creating some drag on beer sales in states like Colorado, Washington, and Oregon (and there have also been reports arguing the opposite). Although I don’t purport …Read More
The beer business is currently experiencing what is often referred to as a “premiumization” trend, or a period where beer lovers trade up across the beer aisle. This isn’t the first premiumization trend beer has seen, as the dominant brands …Read More
Another year, another record number of entries for the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Once again, all 50 states entered the competition with 19 states sending more than 100 entries—up from 18 states in 2015. In addition to already being the …Read More
Q3 Update The mid-year production survey made clear that craft brewing growth has slowed in 2016, but did that deceleration continue in the third quarter of the year? The answer is complicated, and illustrates the difficulty in nailing down any sector-wide statistics in …Read More
A map of the 364 active brewery licenses in Colorado. Data comes from the Colorado Department of Revenue. While all of these licenses are active, many breweries shown on the map may still be in planning. Colors represent license types: Gold = …Read More
I’ve written extensively about the importance of taprooms for many breweries’ business models. What I’ve never written before is how important they are becoming for overall craft growth. Through the first six months of the year, the TTB recorded 851,142 …Read More
Despite a decade of success, I STILL get calls asking if the current growth in the craft industry is a bubble. Since apparently no number of “non-bubble” posts can dispel this notion, for this post I decided to take a …Read More
Craft Update: Q2 2016 The results of the Brewers Association mid-year survey were announced today, with an estimate of 8 percent growth in the first half of the year. Although the top level number is interesting in its own right, it …Read More
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