2018 General Homebrewer Survey Results

Authors: Marshall Schott & Andrew Bromley


There are numerous benefits that come from knowing more about the people who enjoy engaging in the same activity. From offering a fresh perspective on trends to revealing areas that could use a little more focus, these are the goals of our annual General Homebrewer Survey, which over 2700 homebrewers recently completed.

Based on critiques received after sharing the 2017 results, I made it a goal to come up with a more effective way to report the data that was also pleasing on the eye. I suck at this, but thankfully, Brülosophy supporter Andrew Bromley doesn’t. In addition to graciously offering to compile the 2018 results in way that makes them easy to digest, he also built this beautiful infographic.

 

Due to the amount of information included on the survey, we chose to leave some off of the graphic to keep things tidy. For the sake of thoroughness, here’s that data.

What is your annual income?

What is your marital status?

What was your primary source for learning how to homebrew?

How often do you brew?

How many batches do you usually make per brew day?

About how much homebrew do you produce annually?

Where do you prefer to shop for homebrew items and ingredients?

On average, how much do you spend on homebrewing on a monthly basis?

What is your preferred online homebrewing community?

How much homebrew do you consume on a daily basis?

How much commercial beer do you consume on a daily basis?

What do you prefer drinking more?

What percentage of your brewing is geared toward sour/wild beers?

What percentage of your brewing is geared toward lager beers?

How many children do you have?

If you have any thoughts about these survey results, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!


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19 comments

  1. This is very informative and clearly presented. My first reaction to this data is how similar brewers are in our age,gender and education level. We are a very homogeneous group. I’m not sure why that is the case.

  2. God, we’re a depressingly white male bunch aren’t we. I would love to see more diversity in the homebrew community.

    1. One of the things I see reflected in these results is the blue collar/white collar division between macro and craft. This is probably why white people are far more likely to become home brewers. Address socioeconomic disparities and you’ll probably see more diversity in Caucasian dominated hobbies. Keep in mind though that different cultures like different things. I don’t necessarily think homebrews are typically white because minorities just can’t get into the hobby, it’s because they have no interest in getting into the hobby. That’s ok, you do what you like and I’ll do what I like.

  3. Wow, what a great job presenting all this info! I always think it’s interesting to see such high numbers folks in engineering and computer science. Of course, it makes sense, given the opportunity to geek out on gear, process, etc. I happen to fall into both of those categories myself, so I totally get it,

  4. Discovered how very average I am – at least within this population.

    Surprised that you didn’t inquire about beards.

  5. I found he survey to be of great interest and was quite surprised by some of the “perceptions and outlook.” In particular that fully 78% of respondents didn’t agree that racking to a secondary fermenter has beneficial consequences. I’ve experienced enhanced clarity in my beer and the trub left in the secondary is clean enough that i pitch it directlly into my next batch without washing and never had a bad result.. So go figure.

  6. This is terrific data. Seconded that it’s depressing how white and male the demographic is. It’d be a separate article, but it’d be interesting to see trends in year-over-year changes in responses once enough data has been collected.

  7. I was looking forward to reading the results of this year’s survey. It will be interesting to see the trends change from year to year over time. I like the trend of more people going right for the all in one systems to start out. I think this will keep more people in the hobby. Less gear, less gear to set up, less time to clean up and available with compatible with your phone. The less complicated and time consuming we can make the hobby, I believe, the more people will join and stay. Of course, still room for the two and three vessel Brewers out there if that’s your thing. No hate here. Just a little less intimidating and better suited for people with limited space. Cheers.

  8. Great job on the data viz here. I think the most surprising data point for me was just how many folks don’t even filter and just use straight tap water.

  9. As a lifetime member of the ~4% of the global population who are colorblind, THANK YOU for the technical magic you used to make the little wedges light-up and for the callouts. When I first saw the results I was going to skip the article but I moved the cursor over the “Profession” pie chart and voila!

    It would be interesting to know if people’s brewing habits change with the seasons. That is, if you live in an area of the country that experiences extreme weather, how, if at all, does it affect your brewing? I know in the dead of winter, I can lager in my basement and that I’ll often do at least one extract kit in lieu of all grain just so I don’t have freeze my baguettes off outside any longer than I have to.

    Great data.

    1. Glad to know I’m not the only one brewing by the season. You should try using kveik yeast in the summer, since it doesnt give a damn how hot it gets!

  10. I would like to see a question to reflect the level of education, high school / bachelors / masters / doctorate.

  11. I would just keep in mind about the diversity question, all of us accessed the survery thru this one website. That is called selection bias. The survey presents data from all of the people who filled out this survey on this website. Not generalizable to the larger beer brewing population. I kept looking for the answer- Brulosophy. This website got me interested and brewing.

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