The number of breweries in America grew by 19.7 percent over the past 12 months — about four times the rate of growth in the production of craft beer, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Brewers Association.
Such a disparity in numbers is largely to be expected, as new breweries contribute much smaller volumes of beer than established breweries distributing to all 50 states, such as New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins or Oskar Blues Brewery of Longmont.
But it also reflects rising fears by brewers in Colorado — home to about 360 beer makers — and elsewhere — that the flood of new taprooms and distribution breweries coming online is diluting sales for all breweries, as the market for their products is not growing as rapidly as the number of companies offering fermented beverages. A number of well-known breweries — including Beryl’s Beer of Denver, Caution Brewing of Lakewood and Nighthawk Brewery of Broomfield — have closed this year already.
Between July 1, 2017 and June 30 of this year, the number of active breweries in America rose from 5,562 to 6,655, according to the annual mid-year report from the Boulder-based BA, the trade association for craft breweries. Meanwhile, production growth grew by 5 percent from the first half of 2017 to the first half of this year.
Bart Watson, chief economist for the BA, said that while 2018 is on pace for both a record number of brewery openings and brewery closings, those openings continue to out-pace the beer makers who are shuttering by a significant amount.
Meanwhile, he added that the second year in a row of 5 percent growth — a growth number that is the lowest for smaller and independently owned breweries since the depths of the Great Recession in 2009 — is a sign not of a slowdown so much as a sector that has grown to the point where its year-to-year boosts in sales and production simply will be lower because they are starting from a higher level the year before.
“While more mature, the market continues to show demand for small and independent craft brewers,” Watson said in a statement Tuesday. “There are certainly industry headwinds, but this stabilized growth rate is reflective of the market realities that exist for brewers today.”
The release of the mid-year report comes one day before tickets to the Great American Beer Festival — the biggest annual U.S. beer-tasting event, organized by the BA — go on sale to the general public. That sale begins at 10 a.m. Wednesday and is expected to last no more than a few hours.
