Photo © Brewers Association’

On December 15, the Brewers Association dropped its annual 2025 Year in Beer wrap-up, and we wish it had come with better news, but it didn’t.

Craft beer is still under pressure. Volume slid again. More breweries closed than opened. And the fight for drinker attention only got tougher. The BA isn’t calling 2025 a collapse, but it’s definitely framing the year as a reset — one that’s forcing breweries to rethink how they operate, what they make, and even what it means to be a brewery in the first place.

Still, the takeaway is hard to miss: growth didn’t come back, and the industry continues to grind through some real challenges.

“If the craft beer industry is a ship, we can comfortably say we’re no longer in the safety of a harbor, said BA staff economist Matt Gacioch…

“The days of relative calm are behind, and brewers are getting their sea legs in this new, challenging open water. Changing consumer behaviors, retailer rationalization, cost increases due to inflation and tariffs, and more competition than ever have been compounding difficulties in 2025. And still, brewers are stepping up to meet today’s challenges head on by adjusting their offerings and, sometimes, their entire business models.”

Much of the BA’s 2025 recap is anchored to its midyear survey released in July, which estimated craft beer volume down 5% year over year. That’s a steeper drop than 2024, when the category finished down 4%.

Final production numbers won’t be available until the BA’s Beer Industry Production Survey in early 2026, but retail scan data from Q3 2025 suggested things didn’t improve as the year went on. If anything, the back half of 2025 reinforced the idea that the post-pandemic reset is still very much in progress.

On the brewery count side, he number of small and independent breweries in operation in the U.S. in 2025 totaled 9,778.

But when the final figure arrive 2025 is expected to mark the second straight year where closures outpaced openings. The BA tracked 268 new brewery openings and 434 closures over the year.

While closures still account for just 4.4% of operating breweries, the message is clear: the market isn’t absorbing new supply the way it once did. For independent brewers, success is looking less like rapid expansion and more like staying profitable, staying relevant, and staying local.

The BA also points to consolidation — though not always in the traditional sense — as an evolving theme. Acquisitions, mergers, and collaborations continued to blur the lines of what it means to be a brewer. In many cases, brand mattered more than owning bricks and mortar. In a crowded marketplace, access, placement, and storytelling are increasingly where value lives.

Hospitality played a bigger role too. Breweries leaned harder into being community hubs, adding more food options, expanding beverage menus, and dialing in programming to create steadier revenue and stronger local connections.

And when it comes to what’s in the glass, the trends were familiar but still notable. Non-alcoholic beer continued to grow, and interest climbed in low- to mid-strength beers under 4.0% ABV. Brewers are clearly chasing more drinking occasions — delivering flavor without pushing alcohol levels higher.

In short, 2025 didn’t bring the rebound many were hoping for. But it did show an industry navigating rougher water, one adjustment at a time.

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