Kate Bernot

As large-scale, destination beer festivals emerge from COVID hiatuses, they are encountering a different competitive and economic landscape from just a few years ago.

You don’t have to join ’em to beat ’em. Trends in flavored malt beverages, canned cocktails, and even nonalcoholic products suggest new ways to develop and market beer that connects with today’s exploratory drinkers.

This hybrid brewery and distillery is igniting growth with a second location while staying true to the quality-focused principles that lit its spark.

Looking to widen their customer base, hybrid brewery-distilleries are getting into ready-to-drink canned cocktails.

Fruit beers with straightforward flavors and familiar inspirations may be all that breweries need to keep up with ready-to-drink canned cocktails. (The little umbrellas are optional.)

As rentals have become unavailable or unaffordable in towns where workers live, breweries weigh a novel solution: providing housing for employees.

Driven by nostalgia, hometown connections, and the chance to sell some beer at volume, a handful of independent breweries are successfully reviving long-lost local lager brands.

On behalf of independent breweries, Brewers Association lobbyists are prioritizing issues such as direct-to-consumer shipping, support for hospitality businesses, and tax changes that could put breweries at a disadvantage on retail shelves.

The pandemic streamlined the process of selling beer to accounts—and some of those changes are here to stay. While many embrace a return to in-person meetings, others prefer texts or online. To succeed today, sales reps need a more customized approach.

Even as the jobs outlook improves, breweries are still struggling to find qualified workers for all types of positions. To find and keep staff, brewery operators—and the industry more broadly—need to consider the bigger picture and think longer term.