Warning signals are flashing red in a brewing industry facing slumping sales, closures, consolidations, competition from cannabis and ready-to-drink cocktails, and an existential crisis surrounding alcohol. For aging drinkers, a double IPA a day is not what any doctor ordered.
“We’re seeing a loyal craft audience starting to reconsider their relationship to alcohol,” says Brian Hughes, the PNW director of marketing for 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend, Oregon.
As of October 26, dollar sales of beer declined one percent and volumes fell 3.2 percent from a year earlier, according to data from NIQ. (Non-alcoholic beer, though, grew dollar sales and volumes 26.6 percent and 21.6 percent in that same period.)
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Facing headwinds, breweries are tightening portfolios and prioritizing flagship beers. “Focus will be the word of the year,” says Rob Day, the founder of the Better Crafted Business consultancy.
To navigate turbulent trends, “we’ll need to be hyper aware of who we are and what we stand for,” says Alex McNamara, the senior brand manager for Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers, based in Seattle and Portland, Oregon. “We can’t be all things to all people.”
Targeted partnerships with local sports teams, tackling TikTok, and seeking placements in convenience stores are important levers to pull as craft beer matures beyond its wild youth.
“No longer is this an industry of just ‘cool’ and ‘fun,’” says Jason Bell, the founder and owner of Living the Dream Brewing in Littleton, Colorado. “It’s 100 percent business, and breweries have to adapt.”
As breweries batten the hatches for a tumultuous 12 months, here are six trends that industry pros believe will point the way forward.
1. Breweries Will Swap Extremes for Approachability
Novelty and excess fueled craft beer’s rise, but drinkers are reaching a breaking point for dessert-inspired imperial stouts and extreme beers.
Brewers have beaten “gimmickry, forced creativity, and pun thoroughly to death,” says Jason Oliver, the founding brewmaster at Devils Backbone Brewing in Roseland, Virginia. The brewery is reverting to traditional beers like its bestseller, the smooth and subtly sweet Vienna Lager. “Our biggest imperative and goal is to reinstate the integrity of craft beer,” Oliver says.
David Deline, the president of Prost Brewing, headquartered in Northglenn, Colorado, sees a “trend back to quality and basic drinkability.” The brewery specializes in no-nonsense, moderate-strength European-inspired lagers like a crisp German-style pilsner.
Avoiding the latest trends can be a smart business move. Living the Dream sees little demand for “out there” beers, says Bell, the founder. “Our customers want beers they can count on to be approachable and enjoyable.”
At its two locations, Living the Dream’s easy-drinking beers, such as cream ale and red ale, cultivate a steady taproom clientele seeking dependability, not a dice roll. “People want to be sure their hard-earned money returns them a beer they know they’ll enjoy,” Bell says.
2. Ingredient Provenance and the Environment Become Selling Points
Ingredient transparency and provenance will become important, especially under the forthcoming presidential administration.
“With the election of Donald Trump, we could see many environmental protections rolled back and natural resources come under greater threat,” says Eric Steen, who founded PR and marketing company Forest Green. “Farmers and suppliers that practice resource conservation should receive greater attention from brewers.”
Last year, Aslan Brewing in Bellingham, Washington, released the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified beer, an IPA made with perennial grain kernza and organic hops. Ferment Brewing in Hood River, Oregon, teamed up with the Oregon Wildlife Foundation to make an IPA with Salmon-Safe hops and malt.
Brooklyn Brewery is making a concerted effort to champion fonio, an ancient African grain, in beers like the Fonio Rising pilsner and Fonio Stout, a recent collaboration with Guinness. “Traditional beer may be challenged, but the consumer has given us permission to explore, and that always creates new avenues for growth,” says Eric Ottoway, Brooklyn Brewery’s CEO.
3. Trusted Flagship Beers Become Paramount
Promiscuous drinkers are seeking monogamy in the beer aisle. “We see them less interested in new or hard-to-source beers,” says Adeline Druart, the CEO of Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Waitsfield, Vermont. “Veteran beer lovers are returning to flagships.”
In 2025, Lawson’s is planning activations to support the 10th anniversary of its still-growing flagship double IPA, Sip of Sunshine, which is stored and shipped cold to maintain freshness. “Beer quality and consistency will be a table stake with consumers,” Druart says.
Allagash Brewing in Portland, Maine, is doubling down on its flagship witbier, White. “We think we can be the go-to white beer at home and away,” says founder Rob Tod.
For Topa Topa Brewing of Ventura, California, up to two-thirds of its sales are its flagship IPA, Chief Peak, while lager brands Montucky Cold Snacks and Eight only sell a single SKU apiece. Magnify Brewing in Fairfield, New Jersey, is prioritizing its flagship hazy IPA, Maine Event, by packaging it in 12-packs of 12-ounce cans sold for $25.
“We see a shift in more customers purchasing things they know and have become familiar with at lower, more everyday prices,” says Eric Ruta, the founder and owner.
4. Breweries Will Continue to Expand Beyond Beer
As demand for traditional beer flatlines and falls, established breweries will evolve into total beverage companies.
TailGate Brewery, which operates nine locations across Tennessee, offers beer alongside housemade hard seltzer, non-alcoholic sweet teas, and hard cider. “I can’t understand why we’d say no to trying anything,” says Wesley Keegan, the founder and owner.
Expanding into other beverages can fill “holes in the local market,” says Colin Vent, the head brewer at Seventh Son Brewing in Columbus, Ohio. Seventh Son now makes Kitty Paw hard seltzer, canned Oso cold brew coffee, and partners with Echo Spirits Distilling on ready-to-drink cocktails. A hard lemonade line is also planned.
Fieldwork Brewing, which was founded in Berkeley, California, is known for expressive IPAs, but the brewery is branching into sodas, hop water, non-alcoholic beers, and the zero-proof Supertonic line. “We look at ourselves more as a beverage company,” says CEO Barry Braden, adding that its non-alcoholic beers are sold in chain grocery stores—a first for the taproom-focused brewery. “We have the opportunity to go into new channels.”
5. Food Is an Essential Taproom Draw
No one needs to drink beer daily, but eating is essential. To draw customers, breweries are becoming destination restaurants that happen to make good beer.
In 2014, Moody Tongue Brewing began as a Chicago production brewery. A decade later, the brewery runs a Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago and a sushi spot and newly opened pizzeria in New York City. (Moody Tongue is planning another sushi restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida.) “We find ourselves becoming restaurateurs,” says Jared Rouben, the founder and a former chef.
Last summer, Switchback Brewing Company in Burlington, Vermont, opened a new beer garden and tap house serving pickle-brined chicken wings and mussels in butternut broth alongside cocktails made with its Essential Spirits line. “To keep up, breweries need to continue to expand their vision,” says Amy Lieblein, who runs marketing and events.
Offering food can draw locals that might not typically visit a brewery taproom. “There are swaths of people that live less than a mile away who have no idea who we are,” says Drew Durish, the head brewer at Side Project Brewing in St. Louis.
Last March, Side Project introduced a new menu featuring smash burgers, finding that “food can help ease drinkers into beers they might not try,” Durish says. The brewery focuses on fruited beers with restrained acidity “that mesh well with salty foods and snacks that keep butts in seats.”
6. New Hops and Products Will Make More Versatile, Aromatic IPAs
The ever-popular IPA will become more targeted to both seasons and moments, no time a bad time to sip something hoppy.
“We’ve been diving in to meet consumer occasion needs with a variety of hop-forward beverages that can fit a variety of moments,” says Ellie Preslar, the chief commercial officer at Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina.
The brewery recently released the non-alcoholic Trail Pass Hazy IPA, and its forthcoming seasonal, Hop Tropical IPA, “invokes a sense of tropical escapism in the depths of winter,” Preslar says.
At its core, the IPA is a delivery mechanism for flavor and fragrance, the bigger the better. Brewers will look beyond Citra and Mosaic hops for new varieties that help entice drinkers at first sniff.
Skip Schwartz, the head brewer at WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado, likes Elani, a wild hop that mixes mango with passion fruit and cantaloupe, chased by undertones of pine and marijuana resin. “This hop has incredible flavor and aroma,” Schwartz says.
Another promising hop is the newly released Krush. Look for its fruit-cocktail flavor—ripe guavas, peaches, berries, and oranges—in Krush Hazy IPA, from Buoy Beer in Astoria, Oregon, and the Interstellar Kush collaboration between Half Acre Beer and Roadhouse Brewing.
“The biggest trend we are focusing on is how to use and integrate new hop products into our beers,” says Max Shafer, the brewmaster for Pure Madness Brewery Group in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (It produces Roadhouse and Melvin beers.)
High-tech innovations are also intensifying flavor and fragrance. In 2024, Haas introduced Euphorics, a potent aromatic amplifier derived from hops and botanicals. Yakima Chief Hops developed the concentrated HyperBoost, which delivers varietal-specific hop flavor, while Abstrax Hops uses terpenes to produce Skyfarm fruit flavors—no fruit pureés required.
The latest hop products can “create even hoppier beer that’s still wonderfully drinkable and bursting with aromatics,” says Evan Price, a cofounder and brewer at Green Cheek Beer, which operates four locations across Southern California. “That’s what our customer base is most excited about.”
Dispatch
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Contributing editor Joshua M. Bernstein is a beer, spirits, food, and travel journalist, as well as an occasional tour guide, event producer, and industry consultant. He writes for the New York Times, Men’s Journal, New York magazine, Wine Enthusiast, and Imbibe, where he’s a contributing editor in charge of beer coverage. Bernstein is also the author of five books: Brewed Awakening, The Complete Beer Course, Complete IPA, Homebrew World, and Drink Better Beer.
