This was inevitable between the rapid expansion in the teens and Covid, but it’s painful to see breweries that don’t want to shut down, having to make that decision. I wonder what part canning plays. I see breweries who are either barely established or hyper local to a neighborhood fighting for space at the metro area liquor stores that are already bursting at the seams. Often times they’re canning hazies, which are beyond over saturated. https://www.westword.com/restaurant...he-local-craft-beer-scene-in-trouble-17687736
I definitely think there's a ton of overreach with packaging. I can never tell who is pulling the strings, either. Are breweries just reading that "IPA = the best selling style" and taking a huge risk, or are the distributors pushing it? I can never really tell, but it doesn't take much effort to look at all the IPAs collecting dust on our shelves. A quick glance at most medium-sized neighborhood store and you'll see roughly 50 different IPAs breweries breweries all over the region. There are maybe 10 that are selling great and the rest are just stagnating. At least a dozen have probably never been bought a single time and are already well past their suggested lifespan. The consistent theme for most of them is that they're from {insert random brewery from an hour away nobody cares about in my suburb}, too. I can't imagine most stores like that situation, but it seems to happening everywhere around here.
Article starts off with story of development of "Wanderment Brewing" and the intent to brew "rustic ales". Then the writer appears to burst the bubble with a list of closings and effects on consumers. The potential path to success of the startup brewery isn't well explained, but some attention was paid to limiting the investment risk. I guess the kickstarter investors should be able to get some of the initial brews (hope they like them).
