Craft beer is growing as a part of the overall beer industry. Similar to wineries, there's craft beer establishments across all 50 states. Craft brewery, as a class within the industry of alcohol drinks has been in existence for about four decades, but there is no particular event that can be used to define the official beginning point for the industry. In 1859, the Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco began to brew. Unfortunately, from 1859 to 1965, the company was plagued by a turbulent record of financial difficulties in producing fine beer. But, since 1965, it has had a record of accomplishment and is considered to be America's first craft beer brewery.

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Despite the increase in brewery production, the craft beer sector is confronting significant problems. For instance, constantly evolving consumer preferences as well as rapid expansion in the industry the growth of product offerings (this also includes the introduction of new items like hard cider) distribution restrictions; reaction to market trends and imports. In December, the new tax law went into effect, and it will free capital to finance expansion and marketing plans without requiring debt. "CMBTRA (Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act-2017) as part of the new tax bill is cutting the excise tax bill in half for the nations small brewers," Bart Watson, Chief Economist at the Brewers Association. This is an impressive amount of capital that can be reinvested. "There are benefits for wine/spirits producers as well."
The consumption of beer per capita across the U.S. has been flat for the past decade. But it is worth mentioning that, as an important point, "craft beer" appears to be increasing by around five percent in the year the year 2017. The biggest issue within"the "here-and-now" is the loss in shipments which occurred throughout 2017 across the entire industry overall. Beer Institute economist Michael Uhrich observes, "the 2.2 percent decline in shipments (through November 2017) is the largest percentage decrease in annual domestic beer shipment volume since 1954." This raises the question: does this indicate shifts in the beer industry? Sales of beers are measured using barrels shipped. The 2017 numbers show 3.8 million less barrels shipped. In 2017, U.S. brewers produced 170 million barrels, each equals 248 glasses of beers. One barrel weighs 30 gallons, whereas wine is 60 barrels that weigh 60 gallons. In addition the craft spirits industry has seen an increase of 4 percent and wine is expected to see an increase of 2% in production.
Mr. Bart Watson, attributes the decline in domestic sales in 2017 to the fact that consumers are trading in their domestic lagers and lighter lagers from their domestic brands to import brands. Furthermore, issues related to branding/marketing distribution, demographic shifts and so on. have a direct impact on the industry as well. "I would expect this trend to continue for the medium term," Watson writes. "In addition, wine and spirits growth in market penetration are two other reasons." Craft brewers are leading approach to addressing emerging niches like in-style and marketing.
U.S. households who consume spirits, beer, and wine (26 per cent of the households, and 55 percent for sales spent on adult beverages) have now outnumbered those who drink only one or two of these as per Nielsen Homescan figures. An Harris Poll conducted Jan. 16-18, 2017 revealed that 39 percent of people choose beer first while 29 percent go to wine, 27 percent go for spirits, and 4 percent go in hard cider. It's an increase for wine by 21 percent, who stated that it was their preferred choice in the past, but the beer portion is down from 45 percent, and for spirits, from 32 percent. This is a sign of a shift towards wine as millennials become older.