The biggest infrastructure issue facing brewery growth is getting the beer to both the OG customer that regulary shows up at your taproom to fickle beer geeks to restaurant patrons AND to those new to beer.
Doing that requires knowing how your beer is treated once it leaves not only the brewery, but how it is treated at your distrobutor, then how it is taken care of at the retailer. Oh and then you have to go about getting back any old beer that will reflect poorly on your brand.
A maze of laws has certainly hampered distribution. SABInBev through their large network has hampered anything but their distribution. The haircut taken by a distributor also plays into the slow down.
All that is prelude to the piece by Collin McDonnell of HenHouse Brewing that appeared between 900 kajillion “Fervent Few” opinions on Good Beer Hunting. It is a long read, but one you should take the time on.
Tomorrow, I post on what I think new forms of distribution could look like.