Covid-19 Presents Problems for Craft Beer, but Opportunities, Too

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on countless industries, and craft beer is among them. As noted by Fox News, craft breweries have seen downturns of up to 20% as bars across the country shuttered and job losses led to empty pockets. These problems remain a growing a concern for the craft brewing industry. However, as the months wear on, there’s a chance that the pandemic can offer craft beer and their related businesses a significant advantage over the larger, more institutional brewers across the country.

The current problem

The challenge facing craft breweries is twofold. Firstly, like any other business, COVID-19 is a significant threat to sales and onward growth. This is exacerbated within the hospitality industry; as the Brookings Institute note, 58% of small hospitality businesses had to fully close – at least temporarily. That is likely to include many craft breweries. In order to build resilience against coronavirus, businesses need to take steps to modernize their business. Moving online, building delivery schedules, and offering new marketing materials and shrinking budgets to keep the business moving forward are all important. In the craft brewery industry, this offers an opportunity to see some stability through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The opportunity

This opportunity comes in the form of that modernization. According to the Brewer’s Association, 75% of craft beer drinkers live within 10 miles of a brewery. What’s more, statistics indicate that those people are likely to be between 35 and 44 – and so likely active on the internet. This offers a distinct benefit to craft breweries, who can offer delivery services using online registration and purchasing. By conforming to regulations by taking socially distanced ID checks at the door, they can ensure they are meeting their legislated needs as brewers. While this is a promising way for craft breweries to continue to operate safely – after all, breweries are naturally clean places that are unlikely to go out of business for want of being COVID-secure – there are emerging issues.

Emerging problems

While the beer continues to flow and orders continue to come in, business will continue. But this doesn’t resolve issues in the supply chain. This has been highlighted by the Washington Post’s report exposing the lack of canning capacity across the entire industry. This is a serious bottleneck, as all brewers know – beer doesn’t keep indefinitely within vats, and not being able to get it sealed up and sent out endangers the quality of taste that all craft brewers base their reputations and products on. As a result, it’s going to be of crucial importance that beer brewers look for sustainable new supply chains – or perhaps even look into developing their own from recycled sources.

To that end, the craft beer industry has an exciting chance to keep growing despite all the challenges. Even if the bars can’t serve customers, home delivery can. For now, only the problems in other supply chains can prevent that, and brewers should be aware of this bottleneck.