Hacker News Reader

Comment by malablaster | Hacker News Reader

Some of the younger readers might not realize that Anchor was at the forefront of the American craft brewing renaissance. Back then Canadians would laugh at USA beer as all tasting like water. Only Europe had craft brew. Fast forward to now and the market is saturated. There are more craft breweries per capita in the USA than in Germany. We’re beyond peak craft brew.

View on HN

> We’re beyond peak craft brew.

Peak craft beer implies that the trend is now on a downward trajectory. I don't know if that is the case, craft beer feels really ingrained in the culture at this point.

1. Is there a decrease in craft breweries being started, or total gallons of craft beer being produced?

2. Is there a decrease in beer brewing hobby supplies?

To #1, at least according to the Brewers Association figures (https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/natio...), craft beer sales have been fairly stagnant since about 2015. That has been kind of a problem for an industry that was seeing investment at a rate that would seem to presume that this rocketshp was headed to the moon. And, maybe most pertinent to the situation for Anchor, regional and microbrewery beer sales have been in decline. The only segment of the craft beer industry that's growing is taprooms.

To #2, yes, at least in my area there are about half as many homebrew supply shops as there were ten years ago.

As to #2, how much of that is due to online sales? The last homebrew store in my town closed down last year, but there are is much wider selection of both equipment and ingredients available to me now than at any other time.

We're beyond the peak from a critical view. Most innovation from brewers today is coming in terms of marketing or making numbers go up (loading up on ABV or IBUs), while seemingly treating flavor as secondary.

I'm definitely not saying no one is making good new beer anymore, just that the improvements from the ~80s-00s has slowed down.

I didn't think Germany had much craft beer given the purity law.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com