In a world that’s not lacking in CBC retrospectives, I’m not one to miss a party.

In the run-up to the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) for your average Brewers Association (BA) staffer, there’s hustle and chaos and preparation and nary a moment to take it all in.

Philadelphia gave us (and the wider craft beer industry) a moment to breathe and take stock. And when I had the time to listen, what I heard across sessions, hallway conversations, and exhibit hall exchanges convinced me of what I had suspected: this industry is both at an inflection point and brewers are feeling more agency in determining the outcome.

Yes, the past few years have brought declining production volumes, net negative brewery counts nationally, and an evolution in consumer behavior that hasn’t been easy to predict coming out of the pandemic. And yet, the questions brewers were asking at CBC this year weren’t the questions of an industry in retreat. They were the serious questions of an industry that expects serious long-term success (and that also doesn’t take itself too seriously).

Here is a sampler platter of some of the topics this beer economist is walking away from Philly thinking about.

Financial Fundamentals

A recurring theme was financial literacy. And I don’t mean in a Finance 101 way, but in a “how do I get to the next level in optimizing my operations” way. Brewery owners want to understand how to best structure their lease terms. They want to be able to negotiate supplier contracts from a position of expertise, even if they don’t have the buyer power of larger companies. They want wage benchmarking data that lets them compare apples to apples not just against other breweries, but against hospitality and manufacturing employers competing for the same workforce in their metro area.

Owning the Consumer Narrative

Craft beer has slowly acquired a perception problem that industry leaders are unwilling to ignore. For too many younger and non-traditional craft drinkers, craft beer has been reduced to IPAs or “something my dad drinks.” Of course, the industry knows it boasts a portfolio that is far broader than that framing suggests, and I got the sense in Philly that brewers are actively working on how to close that gap. The host state’s push to brand itself as “the craft lager state” was a sharp example of intentional differentiation. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Lawson’s Finest Liquids, a powerhouse brand that demonstrated what it means to stand out in a crowded market. Whether at the brand level, the company level, or the regional level, there appears to be growing energy around telling a more complete story about what craft beer is (and is becoming).

Sharing Wins in Trying Times

The conversation happened once, then twice, then thrice and so on. And it always began the same. It would start with a lowering of voices and a scan of who’s in earshot before candidly sharing with me that their brewery actually had a pretty solid 2025.

I was taken by how breweries seemed reluctant to talk openly about success. After years of shared difficulty, some brewers seem to feel uncomfortable broadcasting that there are things that are working — perhaps not wanting to jinx it or perhaps not wanting to gloat. I understand that instinct on a personal level, but I’d challenge the community to push through it. The industry needs its success stories shared as loudly as its challenges. There are breweries thriving right now. There are styles tracking, concepts resonating, programming strategies (including happy hours, experiential events, etc.) that are genuinely connecting with new audiences. Those wins deserve airtime.

Speaking of community, I also heard desire for tighter, more specific community building: brewery owners who want to connect not just with peers broadly, but with people who share their circumstances. For example, I came across a solely women-owned brewery seeking to connect with other solely women-owned breweries. There also appears to be appetite for job function-specific communities. Fortunately, these are already in the works at the BA, so stay tuned..

The Bottom Line

The ten-year arc of this industry shows a market that has been forced to reckon with the fact that things aren’t how they were. Where the industry stands in another ten years won’t be determined by macroeconomic forces alone. It will be shaped by the brewers who understand they are the main characters in their own story; the ones who take today’s hard-won knowledge about consumers, operations, and hospitality, and build something forward-looking with it.

I’m walking away from CBC feeling more energized and more optimistic than my energetic and optimistic baseline. These conversations have offered great guidance for my upcoming queue of Insights & Analysis posts, hopefully providing the opportunity to answer some of these tough questions.

This industry of tinkerers and dreamers is at it again. The brewers who are ready to own their future are already doing the work.

Postscript: I’m interested in what you took away from CBC and what analysis you’d like to see next. Please shoot me an email at matt@brewersassociation.org with your thoughts. Hope to hear from you!