For Colorado, Recycling Day was far from a cause for celebration – the state’s aluminum can recycling rate is dismal. According to experts, only 16% of cans are recycled in Colorado, the birthplace of canned craft beer. That number is even lower than the national average, which is only about 50%. Clearly, there is a need for improvement.
At the highly anticipated California Craft Beer Summit 2023 in Sacramento, the exhibition floor was filled with an abundance of resources and services for brewers. With 1,100 attendees and a plethora of new flavors, equipment, and more, the event was an inspiring experience for brewers across the state. Hosted by the California Craft Brewing Association, the summit was the first in four years, and it showcased a variety of new and innovative items that were more appealing than ever before.
To commemorate its anniversary, Urban South has teamed up with several of its favorite craft breweries nationwide to launch eight new beers for fans to savor. These breweries include Baa Baa Brewhouse, Great Notion, Martin House Brewing, Mortalis Brewing, RAR Brewing, Tripping Animals, Unbranded Brewing, and Weldwerks Brewing.
The European Commission has released its proposals for EU-wide rules on packaging to ‘tackle this constantly growing source of waste and of consumer frustration’. But what will this mean for the beverage industry?
Last year, the brewing industry surfed the choppy waves of carbon dioxide shortages, a tight labor market, and spiking expenses, as inflation impacted everything from cans to grains to freight. “Nearly everything costs more than it did before the pandemic,” says Bart Watson, the chief economist at the Brewers Association. “Brewers haven’t been able to fully pass those costs onto customers, meaning lower margins.”
Low-to-no beer, cider, wine, and spirit products grew over 7% in volume across 10 key global markets in 2022, according to fresh data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.
The craft-brewing industry has slowly but definitively shifted in favor of smaller, hyper-local operations for whom success does not equate to taking over the world or the beer aisle.
US craft brewers have had to contend with supply chain disruption, competition from other beverage categories, and a continued unsteady on-trade recovery in 2022. But the innovation and flexibility of brewers will help them take on the challenges in 2023, says the Brewers Association, as it sums up the year.
As 2022 winds down, there is a pessimistic outlook among beer distributors, reports the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA). The group’s Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI), a forward-looking indicator that measures expected beer demand, sports a low reading of 38 in November, and the “at-risk” inventory index is relatively higher at 49.