Recent reports on the health impacts of alcohol have added a dizzying wrinkle to craft beer’s comeback plan for 2025.
After another year of sales declines—one in which brewery closures finally outpaced openings for the first time in two decades—the National Academy of Sciences offered some good news on the imbibing front: Moderate drinking could actually lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and of all-cause mortality more generally.
Almost immediately, and in seeming response to that conclusion, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking claimed that even a modest intake of alcohol would increase the mortality risk among drinkers. In the interim, the World Health Organization declared that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health, and the Surgeon General recommended that the health warning on alcoholic beverages expand to include language on the risk of cancer.
While some drinkers settled into their annual post-holiday detox, these well-publicized reports suggested that we should keep Dry January going through the winter and beyond.
Rather than reinforce our understanding of the negative effects that excessive alcohol consumption can have on a drinker, these studies serve to condemn alcohol more broadly. In so doing, they distract us from data that struggle to show that moderate drinking is responsible for negative health outcomes.
While moderation has long been the guidance offered in the face of confusing and often contradictory claims about the risks of alcohol, I believe there’s an important opportunity for the craft-beer industry to more fully embrace this concept today.
Correcting the Narrative
Craft beer needs a new story to tell in 2025. It no longer benefits from the rebellious, anti-corporate identity that helped its initial ascendance, and many drinkers now overlook it in favor of other flavor-forward beverages, regardless of how they’re made.
Yet craft beer—which is committed, at its core, to the singular alchemy of malt, hops, yeast, and water—remains the ultimate beverage of moderation. Thus, it has an opportunity to flip the script on government warnings and reposition itself as the drink of choice for a balanced, well-moderated life.
Though age-old maxims and marketing campaigns would have you believe that all alcoholic beverages have a similar impact on your body, this is simply not the case. High-octane beverages—most notably spirits and spirit-forward cocktails—deliver more concentrated levels of ethanol to your system than even the strongest ales and lagers. Although distilled beverages increase ethanol intake and trigger more quickly, we’ve long been told that a shot of booze equals a 12-ounce beer. That kind of thinking has transformed the alcohol industry over time, contributing to the ubiquity of cocktails and spirits, now found plastered to billboards and stocked alongside draft beer at baseball stadiums across the country.
But beer is different, and not just because of lower alcohol levels.
For one thing, beer is a wonderfully inefficient intoxicant. Even as we drink, our bodies process alcohol at a rate close to one light beer per hour, depending on individual physiology. Strong drinks and binge drinking quickly overwhelm that process, but unhurried beer drinking makes it easier to relax without becoming incoherent or sloppy. (Still, don’t drive.)
For another, ales and lagers of any strength deliver—through the malt and hops that form the backbone of all beer—a unique array of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that other alcoholic beverages can’t supply. It’s called liquid bread for good reason, and when you consider the reduced levels of ethanol, beer is the ideal option for drinkers in search of a more balanced and responsible way to enjoy alcoholic beverages.
Lightness on Tap
Even better, beer can go really low when it comes to ABV. Whether less than 4 percent or all the way down to nonalcoholic, there is a storied tradition of styles—along with more contemporary riffs on the classics—that deliver full-flavor experiences in light packages. These offerings are vital to what makes beer distinctive.
While plenty of high-ABV brews continue to attract customers, that space is crowded with double IPAs and fruit-laden strong ales, to say nothing of high-powered flavored malt beverages and ready-to-drink cocktails. Low- and no-alcohol beers stand out in a sea of canned alcohol intensity, providing an alternate identity for what beer can mean to the consumer.
Lower-alcohol beer is also perfect for on-premise enjoyment. Whether dispensed on draft or from cask, beer is the perfect accompaniment to food, games, or socializing. The restrained levels of alcohol allow these beverages to be consumed without overwhelming the rest of the experience and—when enjoyed responsibly—won’t affect plans for the rest of the day or night.
Plus: When we sell more draft beer, we win. The margins on packaged products, particularly because of increased costs (and looming aluminum tariffs), are only getting slimmer, even while competition on the shelves—from FMBs, RTDs, and other beers—continues to grow.
Different modes of beer-dispense differentiate the drinking experience, providing a reason to get out of the house and drink in a social setting. The freshness of draft beer and the round, full-flavored experience of drinking cask ale set on-premise consumption apart from cracking bottles and cans at home. The flavor experience—from aroma and taste to texture—is unparalleled. And brewery taprooms, bars, and restaurants do more than just serve beer properly—they function as invaluable third places where communities are built and can thrive.
The Social Dimension
Much has been written about the isolation epidemic that’s only accelerated since the pandemic, with scores of people—and not only young people—choosing to stay home, looking to technology for connection. Less noted is the lack of a social infrastructure that used to draw people out of their homes and into social spaces.
Churches, community centers, library branches, public pools, and social organizations once provided the meeting points for a more social society. As the popularity of these gathering places declines, there’s an opportunity for our on-premise locations to step in and encourage the kind of social and emotional health that meeting for beers can affect in a positive way.
And, because you’re drinking lower-alcohol beers—flavorful and not without nutritional benefits—as you catch up with friends, throw some darts, and grab some food, you’re integrating alcohol into a modern, healthy lifestyle.
Beer is social. It’s the drink of moderation. It belongs in a balanced life. And it can be the next big thing, again.