These are wild times in the world of brewery inputs. You may have noticed (or participated in) discussions about inflation and the potential impact of proposed tariffs on breweries’ supply chains, not to mention hop oversupply and the impact of a changing climate on barley production.
Among this tumult, the Brewers Association (BA) is releasing the results of its 2024 Raw Material Survey (RMS). This survey, administered from December 2024-January 2025, dove deep into the weeds of what craft brewers are using for fermentables and hops, as well as what they expect to use in the year ahead.
Before getting into the results, it is important to note that this year’s survey had a relatively low response rate and, as such, should be taken as representative of this sample, but perhaps not the entire industry. Among this sample, the median production volume for 2024 was 1,708 barrels. The sample group experienced more growth than the overall craft industry as the median production change from 2023-24 was +5% (compared to -1% for craft overall) and the median expected volume change for 2024-25 is +7%.
Fermentables
| Base Barley Malt | Specialty Barley Malt | Wheat Malt | Non-Barley or Wheat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 70% | 15% | 7% | 7% |
| Median | 75% | 10% | 5% | 5% |
| Max | 95% | 70% | 28% | 28% |
Across the sample, the average fermentable usage in 2024 averaged 66.7 pounds per barrel of beer produced (lbs/bbl). This amounted to an average decrease of 2% since 2023 and is 3% higher than expected usage in 2025. This decline in normalized fermentable usage may reflect the increased efficiency of modern brew systems or the continued trending away from high alcohol styles. At the same time, the median change for both 2023-24 and 2024-25 was 0%, so the median brewery is essentially expecting to maintain a status quo.
The RMS also asks about local purchasing behavior and found that more than 50% of respondents purchase fermentables from their home states. This includes brewers from most corners of the country, except for the South (though the response rate was especially low for that region). 38% reported purchasing other fermentables from their home state.
Hops
| Pellet | Whole Cone | Concentrated Hop Powders and Pellets | Hop Extract | Flowable High Oil Hop Extracts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 90% | 1% | 7% | 1% | 1% |
| Median | 96% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Max | 100% | 24% | 71% | 9% | 10% |
The past years have seen an oversupply of hops as production has outpaced demand by the industry. Although starting to decline as significant acreage is pulled, the stockpile of hops is still hovering around 1.5 years of demand. This oversupply of hops has led to hop price declines of over 5% in the past year (United States Department of Agriculture National Hop Report 2024).
Median hop usage per barrel stood at 1.4 lbs/bbl in 2024 for the RMS sample. This is essentially flat when compared to 2023 usage—1.3 lbs/bbl—and expected 2025 usage—also 1.3 lbs/bbl. This steady usage while the volume of IPA sales continued to rise indicates that brewers are not using falling hop prices as an excuse to tweak recipes for additional hop volume.
As for purchasing behavior, 30% of respondents report purchasing hops from their home state. Outside of the prolific hop growing region of the Pacific Northwest, brewers report purchasing at least some quantity of hops from Colorado, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, California, New York, and Michigan. The RMS also asks what hop variety brewers would use if there was a more stable supply. Nearly half (45%) said there’s no variety in short supply, and the rest pointed to a mix of varieties. The only varieties receiving more than one request were Simcoe, Anchovy, Peacharine, and Strata.
We also saw the highest share in the past four years of respondents reporting having a forward contract for at least some portion of their hop supply. With significant hop acreage being pulled, perhaps this is a method to ensure the varieties they need are available.
While it is still the dominant application, there has been some movement away from hop pellets over the past few years. The average share of pellets is down 5.4 percentage points in the period 2021-2024, while at the same time non-pellet and non-whole cone hops (“Other”) are up 6.8 pp. Within the “Other” category, in just the past year, we see share of concentrated powders and pellets up from 6.9% to 7.3% of overall usage, hop extracts up from 0.4% to 0.7%, and flowable high oil hop extracts up from 0.3% to 1.1%.
Full Dataset
Download the full aggregated results from the 2024 RMS.
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