Breweries NAICS 312120

May 13, 2025 - Beer Drinkers Balk at Higher Prices

• Beer doesn’t enjoy the same price elasticity as other alcoholic beverages like vintage wines or top-shelf whiskies, with beer drinkers balking at rising prices, The Wall Street Journal reports. Breweries must keep a lid on costs and prices and innovate to justify price hikes. “Beer is [still] considered a commodity,” said Justin Catalana, CEO of San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co., adding “People talk about a six-pack’s cost the same way they do a carton of eggs.” That wasn’t always the case. As craft breweries began to transform the industry, consumers gladly paid more for hazy IPAs and other novel brews. But as they proliferated the market became crowded and craft beers became grocery store staples, according to WSJ. Now, amid slumping sales, craft breweries compete for sales with increasingly popular nonalcoholic beverages, cannabis, and canned cocktails. Some breweries are expanding beyond beer to boost revenue.
• Beer sales are declining as health-conscious consumers seek out nonalcoholic options, the market for cannabis-infused beverages grows, and new tariffs on aluminum for beer cans and other key inputs cause brewers to raise prices, The Street reports. As a result, small breweries are struggling. In April, Cotton House Craft Brewers announced it will be closing, and any combination of these factors could be a part of the reason, according to The Street. The popular family-owned brewery in Cary, North Carolina has filed for Chapter 11 and is seeking to restructure. While craft beers had a big moment starting in the 1990s that exploded into the 2000s, production and sales have slumped in recent years. Looking ahead, Sales for the US breweries industry are forecast to grow at a 1.77% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.

• In tune with President Trump’s mission to Make America Great Again, some major league baseball (MLB) parks are making a symbolic change: For the opening weekend of the 2025 season, six home stadiums of MLB teams swapped out the word “domestic” for “American” at concession areas serving Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) beers for the new season. The switch was made after ABI’s chief executive Brendan Whitworth said in February he wanted to change the term that describes his US-made beers, which include Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Busch Light, to “American. In a letter to distributors he wrote “The pride we take in this great country should also be properly and accurately applied to our great American beers.” The Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, and Cincinnati Reds have made the change with other unnamed teams expected to follow suit, according to ABI.
• The Producer Price Index (PPI) for breweries, which measures prices before reaching consumers, rose 1.1% in December compared to a year ago after rising 2% in the previous December-versus-December annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At the retail level, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for beer-at-home rose 1.8% year over year in March and beer-away-from-home was up 2.9% YoY for the month, compared to all alcoholic beverages, which rose 1.9% on an annual basis in March, BLS data show. Meanwhile, employment by breweries grew 5.9% in January compared to a year ago, per BLS data.