The New Brewer Industry Reivew 2024 Cover

May/June 2025

Industry Review

For the May/June 2025 The New Brewer, we present our annual Industry Review issue. The issue provides an overview of the performance of craft breweries in 2024, which saw the overall segment down 4%. It includes in-depth analysis of each segment including brewpubs, taprooms, microbreweries, regional breweries, and large breweries/imports.

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About The New Brewer

Cover Story

Industry Review

2024 Overview

2024 was a challenging year for craft brewers, but adaptability kept small decreases from being substantially larger. However, this might be craft’s new environment

Industry Review

Featured Stories

Brewpubs

Brandon Hernández

Despite difficult conditions, the brewpub business model still presents a wealth of opportunities unavailable to production breweries and even satellite sampling spaces.

Micros

Gabe Toth

In 2024, microbreweries learned to embrace a new definition of success. The segment was the hardest hit among all craft brewing categories, decreasing 7.5%.

Taprooms

Stephanie Grant

Taprooms, down 4.1 percent by volume in 2024, are going back to the basics—focusing on customer service, refining business strategies, and expanding offerings.

Regionals

Greg Kitsock

Regionals, defined as breweries that produce more than 15,000 barrels a year, lost 3.1% in volume over 2024, performing better than craft as a whole.

Large Breweries + Imports

David Steinman

U.S. beer shipments declined 1.6% to 193 million barrels in 2024 vs. 2023. That puts volume down 10% in the last three years, shedding over 21 million barrels since 2021.

A Note From the Editor

Jill Redding, Editor-in-Chief

This issue also includes our usual informative departments, plus brewery-generated news about the craft brewing community in the Brewery Updates and Beer Releases sections; and new products and services from the allied trade in Industry Supplier News. In our back-page interview, we highlight Sarah Real of Hot Plate Brewing in Massachusetts.

Cheers, and we hope you enjoy this issue of The New Brewer.

About The New Brewer