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The ‘Sober Curious’ movement, which is already changing the drinks biz in the UK, is gaining momentum in the US and being felt in the beer biz.
What started as ‘Dry January’ with people stepping away from alcohol to recover from holiday drinking, has spawned similar abstinence periods like ‘Dry July’ and ‘Sober September’ and in turn given birth to the ‘Sober Curious’ movement. A movement that is changing the drinks industry.
As NPR reports “Instagram accounts like Sober Girl Society and Sober Nation now have tens of thousands of followers, as does Ruby Warrington, author of the book Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol, which was released last December.”
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And now Nielsen reports that 47% of US consumers over the age of 21 are making a concerted effort to reduce their alcohol intake – a figure that jumps dramatically to 66% when looking specifically at millennials, who are driving the “Sober Curious” movement.
Alcohol consumption in the US has been “relatively flat over the past year” according to Nielsen while sales of no and low-alcohol beers, wines and spirits are on the rise.
In fact, no and low-alcohol beer on-premise sales (that’s products served in bars and restaurants) is now the fifth-fastest growing beer segment in the US with a total value of US$77 million, according to Nielsen.
Non-alcoholic drinks in the US are now worth $7 billion more than they were four years ago. And sales grew by $1.1 billion in the last year alone.
Nielsen also found that 54% of consumers reported abstaining from alcohol at some point last year, with half of those surveyed citing health as the primary motivator.
Major breweries like Heineken and Guinness are introducing non-alcoholic beverages at an accelerating rate to counter sales losses as younger consumers abandon the buzz for a healthier lifestyle or gravitate to alternative buzzes like recreational marijuana…
Just this week beverage giant Diageo acquire a majority stake in non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ brand Seedlip and Hops & Hemp announced its new CBD-infused, low ABV beers.
But these announcements are just the beginning of what we expect to be many in 2019 as breweries and beverage companies move to address an increasingly sober clientele.
