Craft Beer: By the Numbers

Have to wonder how high that share percentage can get before course correction kicks in and we start losing some weaker offerings...

 

One thing that may happen in next years numbers is a slower growth as more of the breweries are not in the total due to buys outs or investment that exceeds the 25% rule. This would include some bigger ones such as Full Sail and Founders.

Edit - yes there are many weaker ones that may fail.

 

Agree. This has been argued before, but to bring it up again. The Brewers Association defines craft brewers as small, independent & traditional. Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Lagunitas are not so small. When do the big "craft brewers" become too big? I suspect the Brewers Association will modify its definition to suit the situation. For example, changing the 25% ownership characteristic.

For me, make a good beer and I don't care who you are, how big you are or what some of your other products might be.

 

I'm not sure that a "correction" is coming in the near future. Yes, 11% is a healthy chunk, but it means that 89% of the market is still available for craft brewers to grab. One thing is the generational aspect. As the current folks who are loyal to one of the Big Brands age, they're being replaced by a younger generation of drinkers that are used to craft beer, and probably won't making a switch to BMC as they age. Do we think any of the folks on this site who are in their 20s now, will, as they reach their 50s, say "eh, I've had enough IPAs and Bourbon stouts for one life, I think I'll just drink this watery stuff from now on"?

I believe the craft pie will only get bigger as we go forward, and there will be more slices available to more breweries.

 

The best news: Based on the data they give, there was a 42% increase in the volume of beer produced between 2013 and 2014. However, the retail dollar growth was only 22% over the same period. That means my habit is getting cheaper!

 

Could have fooled me!

 

Where did the 42% increase number come from. I read it as 11% increase in volume with the 22% increase in retail dollar growth.

 

Production volume, not sales volume.

 

They already bumped up the limit once, to accommodate Boston Beer and then Yuengling.

Their current definition is "Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less"

 

Anyone know how the Brewer's Association actually gets all these numbers?

If the breweries are all self-reporting the data, doesn't it need to be taken with a grain of salt?

 

Paging @jesskidden

Cheers!

 

"Craft Beer Barrels Produced" in the infographic on the page. It is a bit confusing because some sections refer to "volume share". If the entire beer market produces more beer, then volume share will not necessarily go up even if more volume is produced.

 

Yup, 15.6M to 22.2M is indeed a percentage increase of 42.3%.

I suspect that much of that increase was due to the BA redefining what a craft brewery is (e.g., Yuengling is now considered a craft brewery by the BA definition updates).

Cheers!

 

After looking my 11% number grabbed too quickly was the market share. The other graphic refers to a dollar value growth of 22% with a very big 18% of volume growth. I would guess they would be the two numbers that are apples to apples. That would imply a price increase of around 4% overall. I have seen that this number would make sense. In general 10.00 six packs a year ago are around 10.50 now around here.

 

The biggest price increase (on a per volume basis) that I experienced over the past year(s) was Victory beers that went from 6-packs to 4-packs; waaaaay more than 4%,

Cheers!