So many of the legacy craft brewing companies (those established in the 90s and every 00’s) I think are the ones with that face the most issues. Many of these brands grew because it was a burgeoning industry at the time and the market was less saturated - it had far less to do with the quality of the beer than the novelty. Many of those brands expanded to levels of regional or national distribution that is no longer tenable because so much more is available to the public at either their package store or at one of the 16635 breweries they have locally accessible to them (obviously I’m exaggerating but it feels that way sometimes).
A lot of those brands make quality product but many don’t, and as dumb as consumers can be there’s still visceral understanding when you have a non-shelf-stable beer past it’s enjoy by point.
Meanwhile the breweries doing “well” seem to be pretty okay with relatively meager growth/expansion of imprint while honing their portfolios and staying in line with the expectations of their relative constituencies.
There is something to be said about being ok with being small. I know in many cases the overhead for a brewery is a lot and the only way some owners make sense of ROI is rapid growth. If there were more breweries that built out small systems with small footprints that got them by I feel like everything would be in a better place but majority of these breweries that opened in the mid 2010s just had domination in mind and are paying for it.
So many of the legacy craft brewing companies (those established in the 90s and every 00’s) I think are the ones with that face the most issues. Many of these brands grew because it was a burgeoning industry at the time and the market was less saturated - it had far less to do with the quality of the beer than the novelty. Many of those brands expanded to levels of regional or national distribution that is no longer tenable because so much more is available to the public at either their package store or at one of the 16635 breweries they have locally accessible to them (obviously I’m exaggerating but it feels that way sometimes).
A lot of those brands make quality product but many don’t, and as dumb as consumers can be there’s still visceral understanding when you have a non-shelf-stable beer past it’s enjoy by point.
Meanwhile the breweries doing “well” seem to be pretty okay with relatively meager growth/expansion of imprint while honing their portfolios and staying in line with the expectations of their relative constituencies.
There is something to be said about being ok with being small. I know in many cases the overhead for a brewery is a lot and the only way some owners make sense of ROI is rapid growth. If there were more breweries that built out small systems with small footprints that got them by I feel like everything would be in a better place but majority of these breweries that opened in the mid 2010s just had domination in mind and are paying for it.