Craft Beer Is Being Drained by COVID-19

I will personally applaud and try to support any brewery that fights a second lockdown.

 

Yeesh. That is not comforting news.

 

Let's see, locally we have 8 breweries (I'm honestly not clear on whether one is open any more or not since they didn't release.a beer between early July and a single beer drop in September, and never responded to an email i sent them), so a 22% loss means losing 1.76 breweries. Can I imagine us losing 1 or 2 breweries in the next year? Ya, unfortunately I would consider us lucky if that's the outcome

 

One just reopened near me, but their closing down was not Covid related. They moved to better facilities.

 

During this MN Lockdown 2.0, I will continue to lend my small purchasing power in support of the mainly non-distributing small locals who depend on the local walk-in pub trade.

And, "it's quite possible the fallout from a second coronavirus shutdown will be worse than imagined" ... Of course it will be a disaster for the entire small business segment that depends on walk-in trade, not just breweries. And it is is only "worse than imagined" for those "leaders" who have limited ability to foresee (or choose to ignore) the impact of their edicts. Anyone who understands business has seen this coming. The simplistic "lock down" will have long-lasting negative effects. And, for the breweries, Minnesota's archaic over-regulation of the beer industry makes it even worse here.

 

I don't think this is directly a beer issue but more of an income issue. If people don't have jobs with steady hours a craft beer habit is difficult to maintain. One of the most profitable businesses to thrive under COVID has been liquor stores. People are still gonna drink craft but I am buying less $26+ 4-packs of hops that is for sure

And for some reason the markets have been doing fine. The DOW Jones ATH was less than a month ago. It is almost like the markets have been disconnected from reality (trillions of fed money printed from no where helps I guess?)

Just wait for the inevitable inflation.

 

You left out my qualifier: "Of course it will be a disaster for the entire small business segment that depends on walk-in trade, not just breweries."

 

Sorry, it's early and I glanced over that. I still stand by the post in general though regarding market-reality/disconnect /fed/inflation. The majority of jobs in the US are all service sector which nearly all require direct contact with customers so we aren't talking a minority of people.

If you think business is bad now wait until everyone's savings (those who actually have them) begin to lose there value.

Let's take it even further, as the USD purchasing power plummets or becomes unstable what does the world gain from having the USD as a world reserve currency? The implications of US policy right now are going to effect this country world for decades.

 

I can't help but wonder if people stretched themselves too thin supporting local early in the pandemic, and now with inconsistent jobs / hours and threatened job security, the price of local craft beer is becoming too much for some too choose over liquor store options.

There was a thread near the start of this pandemic about what you miss about pre-COVID craft beer, and it really got me thinking - I don't miss releases or crazy beer - I miss sitting at the bar and joking / talking with staff and other patrons, or enjoying sunshine on the patio while writing. all the while drinking a slow pour. Unfortunately, those are not things I can replicate in my apartment with to-go or distro'd beer.

 

This x 1000

 

@Harrison8 its also just been the length of time we have been having a stagnated economy.

 

A reminder to all that we avoid the temptation of dichotomizing this as a "protect business" argument vs. a "save lives" argument. Our federal government has the power and resources to both save lives and protect businesses. It chooses not to.

 

Who can say with real assurance what they'll be doing tomorrow.
That being said, hopefully in 2021 there will be a rebound economy as we find a vaccine that actually works.
With that, breweries will prosper, and the economy will return to, "normal," which will be, The New Normal.

 

@Singlefinpin anyone that accepts the new normal is peak stupid. It’s not really freedom if they can take it away, is it?

 

What do you suggest governors do when all day long their phones are blowing with constituents crying because loved ones are dying? Of course they are going to have shut things down. And then of course businesses are going to suffer as a result, which is why there needs to be a safety net for all these businesses that are hurting. But, of course, if we have a safety net that works then we're a bunch of pansy socialists, so we couldn't possibly do that.

 

@Providence Not all governors are shutting down. Florida is perfectly fine. Yesterday they had 82 covid deaths.

http://www.flpublichealth.com/VSBOOK/pdf/2018/vscomp.pdf

page 99 is total Florida deaths for a normal year. divide that number by 365.

 

I will say I think the Governor mostly got it right here. Holing up just bought time in the Spring. I do think this would be tons better if people would use common sense & wear a mask as practice out & about. The first 3 weeks at the most of the lockdown around here seemed low activity, after that close to normal traffic for sure. Too many people ignore the rules; we aren't Taiwan or New Zealand.

I know this is a mess my hospital has opened the overflow ward for Covid. Having said that, too many people have to take their ass to work on a daily basis. Europe locked down tighter than us & they are back sliding. The difference between them & us, they have a better social safety net. Doesn't come cheap.

 

Ok, so about 562 died per day in Florida in 2018. I'm not sure I follow. What does that have to do with covid deaths right now?

 

Your perspective seems about right. The pandemic is probably not much more of a problem for breweries than for restaurants, though. Both have the burden of continuing overhead on facilities. Breweries, though, have an added complication. Before the pandemic, there was already glut of craft breweries, with supply far exceeding demand.