How is the US craft beer category faring?
The Brewers Association – the trade association for small and independent US brewers – has released its latest figures for the US craft beer industry.
The picture is one of a maturing market struggling to grow volumes, but benefiting from a continued increase in premium products.
“2022 presented small brewers with a number of challenges, including rising operating and material costs and increasing competition, particularly in distribution,” said Bart Watson, chief economist, Brewers Association. “In this maturing and competitive market, collective growth for the category is hard to come by.”
In 2022, US craft brewers collectively produced 24.3 million barrels of beer, on par with 2021’s numbers, and craft’s overall beer market share by volume grew to 13.2%, up from 13.1% the previous year (That is against a backdrop of a 3% shrink in the overall beer market by volume).
But with craft beer naturally attracting a premium, the category performed well in value terms. Retail dollar value for the category in 2022 is estimated at $28.46bn, representing a 24.6% market share and 6% growth over 2021.