Crippled by the Pandemic, the Craft Beer Market Shrunk 9% by Volume in 2020
Photos via Brewers Association
By just about any estimation, 2020 was a terrible year for the beer industry, owing largely (but not entirely) to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was clear throughout the year that craft breweries were suffering from the lack of on-premise drinking opportunities and the ability to sell beer to their draft accounts, but it was largely unclear whether those craft brewers were suffering more than the average—whether the pandemic was truly hurting them more than the major brewers. And now, with the Brewers Association’s year-end statistics now available, one day after the organization announced it was canceling the in-person portion of the 2021 Great American Beer Festival, we can say it for sure: Yep. The pandemic was especially hard on small and independent breweries, particularly those without access to as many traditional retail outlets to sell their wares, and the data is pretty painful.
All in all, “small and independent brewers” by the BA definition produced 23.1 million barrels of beer in 2020, which was a decline of 9% from 2019. This decline was expected, but the subsequent decline in overall beer market share really illustrates what a terrible year it was: Beer from BA-defined craft brewers made up 12.3% of the market in 2020, down from 13.6% only a year earlier. That would effectively erase several years of gains in terms of market share, were it to repeat in 2021, while also suggesting that at least some consumers turned to cheaper domestic beer over pricier craft brews during the pandemic. The number of craft brewing jobs also declined sharply as brewers presumably had to let go of employees—the 138,371 jobs provided by the industry was a 14% decrease from 2019. Overall, the larger U.S. beer industry declined in volume by a total around 3% in 2020.