Brewers Association says craft beer production fell 4% in 2025
Craft output fell 4% to 22,034,000 barrels, but craft’s share of beer volume ticked up and taprooms held up better than production-heavy segments.
The Brewers Association reduced its 2025 craft beer production decline to 4% in a May 29 update, putting total output at 22,034,000 barrels after an earlier April 14 estimate had shown a 5.1% drop.
That revision sits beside a more complicated picture. Craft beer’s share of total beer volume edged up from 13.2% to 13.4%, while retail dollar value slipped 2.8% to $28.0 billion. Charlie Papazian has flagged the revised numbers as a key discussion point for the sector, because barrels are still falling even as craft held a slightly larger slice of the market.
The clearest signs of stability came from the taproom side. Brewpubs fell 1.7% and taprooms 3.9%, both better than microbreweries, down 8.9%, and regional breweries, down 4.1%. The Brewers Association has also pointed to a more difficult phase of adjustment, with changing consumer behavior, retailer rationalization, inflation, tariffs and increased competition all weighing on the category.
Geography offered a few bright spots too. The East North Central Census division posted the strongest regional performance at plus 0.4%, while the Mountain division came in at minus 1.5%. The association singled out brands such as Garage Beer and Outlaw from Tivoli Brewing Company as examples of labels finding room to outperform in a tougher market.
The headcount and brewery count show how much pressure still remains. The craft brewing workforce fell to 191,000 jobs, down 6,000, and the number of operating U.S. craft breweries slid to 9,578, with 300 openings against 481 closures. In late 2025, the association was already tracking 268 openings and 434 closings, and Matt Gacioch said the industry was in a more difficult phase of adjustment.
That is a much tighter market than 2023, when the association counted 9,761 operating breweries, 495 openings, 418 closings, 23.4 million barrels and $28.9 billion in retail value. Bart Watson said the mood had started to move from a “grin-and-bear-it” stage toward more people “coming out the other side,” but the 2025 numbers still describe an industry that is stabilizing unevenly rather than snapping back cleanly.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
