Let’s Do the 2018 Numbers

Let’s break this into (2) parts….

The two numbers that most people are going to obsess over are the big 4% and the 7% (Slightly more hidden) but since Bart Watson and the Brewers Association put a number at the top of the graphic, I wanted to focus on the .1 2016 to 2017 was .5% share of the market and 2017 to 2018 was .6% If you are looking for a silver lining then that is the big one. In a down market for beer overall, craft is still picking up share of mind.

The number that I find most important are the opens vs closes in this section of the graphic. We need to follow this number and see when column A dips below 1K and when Column B goes up and over the 500 mark. I won’t guess at what is the perfect number of breweries for the US but if pressed, I would say around 7K seems good with some churn still going on.

What will the 2014 numbers look like?

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Can the growth sustain at such a high figure as 17%+?

Will the total market for craft expand to 15 billion?

Will big beer continue to drip-drip customers?

I don’t own a crystal ball so I don’t know what exactly will happen. But upcoming posts on this blog only detail growth and expansion. I believe that if growth is steady above 10% the momentum will continue and 2015 won’t be the year of the “big contraction”.

Find more craft statistics HERE.