The Nielsen consumer research company offered this ominous prediction for 2020: “Growth in the beer industry will focus on nearly everything but beer.”
You can try to ignore the prevailing winds. You can grumble about them. You can stick to knitting your excellent beers and hope that works out for you. Or, you can give people another option—another reason to spend money in your taproom—and likely for a higher margin than the beer.
Hard seltzer isn’t news anymore, but just for reference: It reached $1.2 billion in sales in 2019, almost fivefold what it did the year before. According to the consumer research firm Nielsen CGA, the number of people drinking hard seltzer in bars and restaurants went up 73 percent just from spring to fall last year. But sure, it could be a fad.