Jamie Bogner

What do changes in the beer market and drinking habits portend for one of the most creative and influential beer-producing countries? These data points from the Belgian Brewers industry group provide an eye-opening glimpse.

• infographic
• Belgium

Not every brand can be a hit. Even at the most successful breweries, classics must make way for new chart-toppers. Here, we chart New Belgium’s brands as they’ve appeared among the top 25 craft beers annually since 2020, as the Voodoo Ranger line has ascended.

• Infographic
• New Belgium
• Branding/Marketing

Here's a fresh look at the growth in the number of breweries in the United States—growth that’s been leveling off, recently—with some other data points for context.

• Infographic
• Craft Breweries
• Craft Beer Bubble

The double standard around shipping alcohol across state lines continues unabated in 2024, as breweries have yet to find parity with wineries in regard to state laws that limit interstate shipments.

• Infographic
• DTC Shipping
• State Laws

The NB2A’s executive director shares the vision and mission driving this new industry group, which aims to reduce inequity and expand opportunities while growing the cultural footprint of craft beer.

• Black Brewers
• Inclusion
• Diversity

Much is made of the current market challenges facing beer. Lost in the discussion of brewery closures is a broader question: ”What should be normal?” From the Summer 2024 issue of our Brewing Industry Guide, here are a few stats for context.

• Infographic
• Brewery Closures

To illustrate how some styles of beer tend to attract more effusive ratings than others, we compared the top scorers in several categories.

• Infographic
• Beer Ratings
• Untappd

Beer-drinking habits continue to evolve in unexpected ways, whether it’s adding nonalcoholic drinks to a beer purchase, younger drinkers being more likely to prefer packaged beer over draft—are bottles getting cool again?—or beer consumption itself defying common assumptions, such as the modest increase among our (admittedly self-selected) audience. Here, we plot a few interesting points.

• Infographic
• Consumer Trends
• Drinking Habits

The owner and head brewer of Keeping Together—formerly of Chicago, now of Santa Fe, New Mexico—talks about leaning into farmhouse-inspired brewing and helping drinkers unlock their flavor memories.

• Q&A
• Saison
• Santa Fe

This year has seen craft beer continue its remarkable bifurcation in purchasing behavior, as on-premise diverges ever further from retail.

• Infographic
• Distribution
• ABV

Atrevida Beer in Colorado Springs, Colorado, became nationally known last year, but not in the way that any brewery would choose. Here, cofounders Jess and Rich Fierro talk about how Jess got into brewing and about managing through traumatic circumstances.

• Atrevida Beer
• Q&A
• Trauma

As hop growers and the brewing industry manage an ongoing hop surplus, farmers this year planted fewer acres. But will that mean fewer hops? Here, we sketch out the past 15 years of hop acreage, as well as hops kept in stock over that time.

• Hops
• Hop Acreage
• Hop Surplus