Author: Marshall Schott
On top of satisfying personal curiosity, there are a few reasons I think it’s good and even important to regularly collect data on homebrewing. The information gleaned from our annual General Homebrewer Survey gives us a unique peak into the hobby that reveals trends about the people who make it up and the direction things are going. When used properly, this data can used to inform decisions in the hopes of making sure homebrewing continues to flourish.
Based on comments we received after publishing the results of the 2015 General Homebrewer Survey, I decided to take a different approach with sharing the 2017 data by providing more visuals and a little less chatter.
2017 General Homebrewer Survey
On May 11, 2017, we began asking homebrewers to complete the 2017 General Homebrewer Survey, which was advertised on Brulosophy.com, The Brülosophy Podcast, homebrewing forums, and various social media channels. The survey was available for 3 weeks during which it was completed by a total of 2,570 people, a slightly larger sample than 2015.
| DEMOGRAPHICS |
Similar to 2015, a rather hefty majority (71.6%) of respondents live in the United States with the next most common nations of residence being Canada (8.2%), United Kingdom (5.3%), Australia (2.9%), Sweden (1.9%), and New Zealand (1.7%). A host of other nations were represented as well, which was cool to see.
Respondents were then asked a series of questions unrelated to brewing in order to provide an idea of what the modern homebrewer looks like.
What is your age?
What is your ethnicity?
What is your gender?
What is your marital status?
What is your profession?
What is your annual income?
What is your dwelling place?
What is your religious perspective?
What is your facial hair status (men only)?
Based on these results, and completely assuming those who responded to this survey accurately represent the hobby, the modern homebrewer is a white married male in his 30’s with some form of facial hair who works a fairly well paying job, has no strong religious convictions, and brews in a home he owns. This obviously doesn’t apply to all, thankfully, though I’d imagine there are more than a few out there feeling like I just described them well.
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| BREWING BEHAVIOR |
What follows are responses to questions regarding the general brewing behavior and approach of respondents to the survey.
How long have you been homebrewing?
This is pretty interesting. Back in 2015, nearly 19% of respondents reported they’d been brewing 1 year or less whereas under 8% endorsed that option this year, which could be indicative of slowed growth. On a potentially positive note, it would seem a good portion of those who got their start back then have stuck with the hobby, as the percentage of people who have been brewing longer than 3 years increased by about 22%.
How did you learn how to homebrew (primary source)?
What approach did you use initially?
What approach do you use currently?
What all grain method do you use most often (all grain brewers only)?
Extract brewing continues to be the most common approach used by new homebrewers, though it’s interesting to see that almost 1 in 4 respondents reported starting with grain, with most others making the switch at some point down the line. Indeed, batch sparge brewing is still popular, but this data indicates its losing some interest, as nearly 47% endorsed it as their preferred method in 2015 while only 38% reported relying on it this year. Unsurprisingly, Brew In A Bag (BIAB) remains the next most popular mashing method.
What type of brewing setup do you have?
How often do you brew?
What is your typical batch size?
How many batches per brew day?
A rather large number of homebrewers brew one to four 5 gallon batches per month using propane rigs outdoors and usually just a single batch per brew day. I found it interesting and pretty cool the percentage of respondents who reported using electric rigs indoors increase from 11% in 2015 to 18.3% this year, I can think of a few converts myself.
How much homebrew do you produce annually?
How do you typically package your homebrew?
Over 68% of homebrewers reported kegging their beer, a 16% increase from 2015. Nuts!
How do you usually shop for ingredients and gear?
On average, how much do you spend on homebrewing per month?
Similar to before, most homebrewers spend $100 or less per month on ingredients and gear, which corresponds with the aforementioned data on brewing frequency, and it would seem a majority prefer to support local before buying online.
What is your preferred online homebrewing community?
Some previously speculated that this question may have been influenced by the fact I personally tend to mingle the most in the Homebrewing subreddit, as that received 52.1% of the vote back in 2015. However, my behavior and preference hasn’t changed while preferences for online communities have. I noticed an uptick in homebrewing Facebook groups over the last few years, and given the increase in popularity can’t help but wonder if people find appealing its more personal/less anonymous nature. It’s also good to see increased interest in the AHA forums!
How much homebrew do you consume?
How much commercial beer do you consume?
What do you prefer drinking more?
We’re not all alcoholics and we love us some homebrew! I count myself among those who enjoy drinking beer made by myself or others over commercial beer, though at the same time, I always tend to have a 12 pack in my fridge as well.
What style do you brew most often?
Surprised? Me either.
What percentage of your brewing is gear toward sour beer?
Traditionally, sour beers required a lot of time to produce, though of late it seems quick souring methods have become quite popular, which might account for the slight increase in people brewing such beers. In 2015, nearly 75% of respondents said the don’t brew sours compared to 69% this year.
What percentage of your brewing is gear toward lager beer?
What lager fermentation method do you use (lager brewers only)?
Some will likely view the fact that more people are foraying into lager beer brewing as a bad thing, particularly since a majority are employing quick fermentation schedules, but I love it!
What other alcoholic beverages do you make?
What is your preferred yeast harvesting method?
What do you use for brewing water?
What do you use to determine brewing water adjustments?
A whopping 66.4% of homebrewers these days are adjusting their brewing compared to only 41.1% who reported doing so in 2015, most relying on some sort of calculator for accurate measurements. I have to believe this is due in large part to the contributions of people like John Palmer and Martin Brungard. Water matters!
| OPINIONS & BELIEFS |
Homebrewing is rife with opinions often formed from one’s own or perhaps a trusted other’s anecdote, though occasionally rooted in something more. While I tend to agree with Leonardo da Vinci that “the greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions,” the fact is, we’re only dealing with beer here.
Respondents were presented with a series of statements and given the option to agree, disagree, or claim not to know. Links to relevant xBmts are provided for each statement.
All grain brewing produces better beer than extract
Transferring from primary to secondary is beneficial
Decoctions have a noticeable positive impact on beer
Hot-side aeration leads to off-flavors and should be avoided
Water chemistry adjustments are key to producing great beer
xBmt 1 | xBmt 2 | xBmt 3 | xBmt 4 | xBmt 5 | xBmt 6 | xBmt 7 | xBmt 8 | xBmt 9
Irish moss will noticeably impact the clarity of your beer
Boiling for less than 60 minutes will lead to DMS off-flavors
You cannot make award winning lagers using hybrid yeast strains
Clear wort in the fermentor leads to clear beer in the glass
First wort hops produce a noticeably smoother bitterness
First wort hops contribute noticeable hop aroma and flavor
Macro beer is evil bullshit and should be avoided at all costs
And there you have it, a snapshot of what the modern homebrewer of 2017 looks like and believes. I’ll be interested to compare this data with those of the recent American Homebrewers Association survey, which if drastically different would suggest an error in my sampling. If in fact our data is accurate, the poignant finding to me is that women and people of color make up less than 10% of homebrewers when combined, which is pretty pathetic. We can do better than this, the question is– how? I’ll certainly be mulling this over and hope others do too.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute, we’ll be back next year with the 2018 General Homebrewer Survey. Until then, think beer!
Please share your thoughts about these results in the comments section below.
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Interesting read!
Most of the results seem fairly typical based on what I’ve observed as well. However, I am surprised by the higher number of people kegging. That’s one area I need to climb on board myself since I am behind the curve on that one!
Less than 1% of people drink 4 beers a day? Some people be lying
Careful there. It could be that several people drink 2-4 homebrews and 2-4 commercial beers, resulting in up to 11% of respondents who are drinking 4-8 beers a day. I know that before I started trying to lose some weight, I drank in the 4-8 range, but probably not more than 4 homebrews or 4 commercial beers a day…
True, True. I don’t drink much commercial beer anymore. I’m for sure in the 4-8 range of homebrew. I exercise quite a bit to stay away from developing a beer gut. lol
Also, sometimes I drink all my homebrew, so there are days where I dont drink beer.
Agreed. There’s too much good beer not to.
Me too.
Was Hong Kong a separate entry in the countries list? I can’t remember (maybe I just put China).
This is an awesome amount of data, but I have one critique and that is it’s hard to read and could be easier. I find the following pdf super useful.
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/save_the_pies_for_dessert.pdf
I agree – pie charts are most often the least informative. Especially on things like salary, age, etc. Looking back and forth on colors is not fun and the tiny slices don’t give you any information.
Thanks!
Very nice.
Just would like to point out that “Istambul” is not a country, it is a city in Turkey (the country).
Dammit, I meant to change that. My bad.
What are the stats for the HSA question from the last survey? Just curious if that increased since the publication of the LoDO papers.
Great to see statistics smash the stereotype that all home brewers are old men. The results show that it’s a real passion, and like Bryan, I’m surprised so many people are kegging; a little limited space wise to do that in London. Also interesting that most use unfiltered tap water, again not something you should do in my area.
There is even one or two women among us!
Lotsa people in the rural US are on well water so Chlorine / Chloramine is not an issue.
Yeah, the diversity in race/ethnicity/gender is pretty pathetic.
Also, seeing the largest income demographic is the $100,000+ group does make me feel better that I don’t brew as much or as large as I like due to costs of equipment and ingredients.
Yah, it made think “so that’s why everyone seems to have five freezers and all that nice shiny stainless steel”.
On the other hand, those of us who brew using a cheap cooler, paint strainer bag, shitty turkey fryer pot and burner, and no chiller or fermentation chamber or kegerator don’t tend to post pictures inviting people to look at their brewery. Maybe there are more of us than I think?
Agreed!
This is a snapshot of Brulosophy home brewers, not home brewers in general. Example: I’m pretty sure there is more than 3% of people brewing with extract. Interesting stuff!
It’ll be interesting to compare this data with the AHA’s survey results… though I suppose it could be argued that’s a snapshot of AHA members.
What makes you so sure there are more than 3% of people brewing with extract? Going through my mental Rolodex of homebrewers, I honestly can’t think of anyone for whom that’s their primary method. And I know a lot of homebrewers.
Why no question about chilling? I am a total fan of Aussie No-chill…
Dammit, that’s a good one!
I’m a bit surprised by the number of homebrewers who don’t think macro beer is evil and should be avoided!
I’m one of those homebrewers!
Wow 22 Brazilians \o/\o/\o/!!!
If I totally spaced when this survey went out, that’s my bad. But I’m pretty sure what happened is, when I got to the two-answer gender question I closed it and promptly forgot about it for my own mental health. Now that I’m feeling a little less prickly about it, though, figured I should mention it. To be clear, I’m not bringing it up just to take issue with the survey, but because I realize it blocked me from giving you data at all (and it would’ve been inaccurate anyway) and likely affected others as well.
You don’t even do all 78+ gender options! One great variant I’ve seen is: Female, Male, Non-binary, Prefer to Self-Describe. You don’t have to publish every individual fill-in-the-blank response to the self-describe option, and could even get away with not having a fill-in box.
Please go away, you’re not funny.
That pie chart show that the general home brewer survey results shows that it’s not easy to conduct a survey especially on beers.
I can imagine that Brulosophy attracts the geekier sort of homebrewer, which will tend to skew things a bit (not exclusively) towards eg men in engineering and the sciences. Compare with eg cooking, where one might assume that more women than men are involved on a global basis – but of the many women I know who cook, the only ones interested in the science side (molecular gastronomy and all that) are an accountant and a scientist, whereas I know a rather higher proportion of men who are into that stuff.
It affects other factors as well – I’m not surprised that such a high proportion of readers of a brewing educational website have learnt about brewing from websites for instance, and I imagine that in itself skews the age profile downwards.
One thing that you may be able to pull from the data – how does electric brewing compare in 100-120V countries versus 230V countries (ie most of the world bar Japan, North/Central America)? From a British perspective it’s surprising how normal propane is in the US.