Brewery growth data shows industry shift

Figures released by the Brewers Association (BA) this week are very good news for the business health of small local breweries. It is an especially encouraging report for the breweries of West Virginia, since all of them are among the categories of breweries that had the most growth.

Of the 5% national growth in craft beer volume during 2017, the BA reported that the two smallest categories of breweries — microbreweries and brewpubs — delivered 76 percent of that growth.¹ The data shows smaller breweries are still growing in popularity.

Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, said the industry is adapting to “the new realities of a mature market landscape,”

“Beer lovers are trending toward supporting their local small and independent community craft breweries,” Watson said. “At the same time, as distribution channels experience increased competition and challenges, craft brewer performance was more mixed than in recent years, with those relying on the broadest distribution facing the most pressure.”

Growth slowing for larger craft breweries

Larger national- and regionally-distributed craft breweries, such as Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Stone, Southern Tier,  Dogfish Head, Great Lakes, etc., are finding growth more difficult to achieve as craft consumers move to drinking more and more beer from small local breweries and from the cultish little boutique breweries–de-jour that distribute beer only locally or often only at their own brewery taprooms, yet still have customers lined up for every bottle and can release.

While the larger craft brewers continue to make consistently good products at fair prices, they are falling behind in the battle for the buzz. Small local breweries are firmly entrenched as the industry innovators. Whether it is barrel-aged adjunct stouts, pastry stouts, New England IPAs, milkshake brews, fruited Berliner Weisse and Gose, or foeder fermented wild & sour ales, it is primarily the smaller brewers who are leading the way. Much of the market growth has been in beer styles that are either new or were rare five or ten years ago. Those trends favor the small, more nimble end of the brewery market.

WV brewery numbers kept pace with the nation

The BA reports that in 2017 the number of operating breweries in the U.S. grew 16 percent, totaling 6,372 breweries. They count 6,266 of those as independent craft breweries, and all but 202 the craft breweries are the smaller microbreweries or brewpubs. The count of West Virginia brewery licenses kept pace with the nation, growing by 17 percent last year to 27 total. All of the new WV breweries were licensed by the state as brewpubs.

West Virginia ended 2017 with 8 microbreweries, one contract brewery, and 18 brewpubs.² Nationally, breweries break out as follows: 3,812 microbreweries, 2,252 brewpubs, 202 regional craft breweries and 106 large or otherwise non-craft brewers.

Nationally, the BA said craft brewers provided more than 135,000 jobs, an increase of greater than 6,000 from the previous year.

Notes

¹ The BA defines a microbrewery as a brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer per year with 75 percent or more of its beer put into distribution and sold off-site. All West Virginia breweries produce less than 15,000 barrels annually.

² The numbers presented here utilize the West Virginia legal distinction between microbreweries and brewpubs. In WV, only a brewpub licensee is allowed to sell beer for on-site consumption (pints, flights). In WV a non-brewpub microbrewery may not sell beer at its brewery for on-premise consumption, but may only sell beer for off-site consumption. Nationally, different standards are common. The Brewers Association defines a brewpub as restaurant-brewery that sells 25 percent or more of its beer on site. BA re-categorizes a company as a microbrewery if its off-site (distributed) beer sales exceed 75 percent — even if the brewery holds a brewpub license. Applying the BA standard to West Virginia would produce different breakout numbers for microbreweries and brewpubs — a split something like 11 brewpubs and 15 microbreweries.

Brewers Association news release link