Pennsylvania craft breweries cut output as market pressure deepens, volume falls

Pennsylvania’s craft brewers made less beer in 2024, and the numbers put the slowdown in sharp relief. The state’s 530 craft breweries produced 3,132,799 barrels, while the industry’s economic impact was $5.474 billion in 2023, still enough to rank Pennsylvania second nationally in both production and economic impact and third in brewery count.

That scale matters because the pullback is happening inside one of the country’s biggest beer states. Nationally, craft brewers produced 23.1 million barrels in 2024, down 4% from 2023, the largest volume decline since the pandemic year of 2020. Craft’s market share held at 13.3%, but the Brewers Association still counted 9,736 small and independent breweries in operation, with 335 openings and 399 closings. By mid-2025, the association was already estimating another 5% drop in craft volume year over year, with 49% of respondents reporting growth and 47% reporting declines.

The pressure is showing up on the ground in the way breweries sell beer, not just in the totals. Operators have pointed to saturation, tighter shelf space, and consumers drinking less beer as the big forces squeezing the market. That has pushed more breweries to lean on taproom traffic, reduce the number of rotating seasonals, and retreat to core brands that move reliably. At the same time, nonalcoholic beer and other beverages are taking a bigger share of the drinking occasion, leaving fewer easy wins for brands trying to fill grocery coolers and draft lines.

Pennsylvania has tried to cushion the blow. In October 2024, the state awarded $516,894 in nine research and marketing grants for craft beer and malt beverages, including projects tied to brewery trails, marketing aimed at women and Black craft beer communities, and a Penn State University study on turning brewery waste into poultry feed. The grant package underscored how far the industry had expanded, from 88 craft breweries a decade ago to 530 today, even as the latest production figures point in the other direction.

The slowdown is no longer just a matter of softer sales at the top end. Seven of Pennsylvania’s largest craft breweries saw sales dip in 2024, and more than 65 Pennsylvania breweries shuttered in the previous 24 months. For drinkers, that usually means fewer seasonal releases, tighter tap lists, and less room for ambitious one-off experiments as breweries fight to protect the brands that still sell.