For several years, the Brewers Association (BA) has pushed for full funding for the primary federal regulatory agency responsible for the brewing industry—the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The BA has not …More
Bart Watson
Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, is a stats geek, beer lover, and Certified Cicerone®. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where in addition to his dissertation, he completed a comprehensive survey of Bay Area brewpubs one pint at a time. You can follow him on Twitter @BrewersStats.
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Increased TTB Funding Benefits Small Brewers
Brewery Visits Add Occasions to Help Grow Beer Category
As the volume going directly through breweries has grown, so has the concern from traditional on-premise retailers and distributors as to the effects of breweries on their business. Let me start by saying that some of these concerns are valid and need to be heard by breweries that want to …More
Why Beer Style Growth May Not Matter For Your Brand
The last time I looked at styles, I spent some time looking at the general growth of style categories. This is probably one of the top two or three questions I receive; some variant of …More
An Economist’s Take on Take Craft Back
As you’re probably aware, Take Craft Back has launched the largest crowdfunding campaign of all time, aiming to raise $213 billion to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev. The campaign notes that “it only seems impossible if you …More
2017 GABF Medal Winners Analyzed
Happy October everyone! The end of Oktoberfest means it’s time for my favorite blog post of you year: analyzing the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) winners! Frequent readers of the Insights and Analysis section (you …More
Do You Know Who Buys Your Beer?
One of the most common data requests from members concerns the demographics of craft beer drinkers (note to members: check out the recent Nielsen Power Hours for last of demographic data). For many breweries, however, …More
The Demographics of Brewery Visitors
If you tuned into last week’s Power Hour, you may have heard the team from Nielsen share some of the data from our Craft Insights Panel (CIP) on why people visit breweries. You may have …More
An Inside Look at Mid-Year Craft Beer Growth Data
The annual mid-year growth estimate is out, and at first glance it may seem like the industry headwinds are increasing, as small and independent brewers continue to see growth decelerate. That said, I think there …More
California Case Study: Sales Shift to Craft While Business Models Remain Consistent
Before we turn to the mid-year 2017 growth release at the end of the month, it’s worth taking one last look at 2016. To do so, I’m going to use one of the richest state …More
Digging Deeper Into Beer Styles
The IRI Group has recently reworked their beer styles data and the results provide new insights into the changing nature of craft brewing over time. Their data can now be broken into approximately 100 styles, …More
