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The Brewers Association (BA) today released the results of its annual production survey. Below are a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the report.
We open a survey for every brewery in the country asking for their taxable production, then fill in the blanks for every brewery that doesn’t respond with a status report number or estimate (previously reported data, comparable brewery trends by size or type, media or brewery reports, or other sources).
No, we are opening the survey to all US brewers and the numbers reported are for the entire craft segment, regardless of membership.
70.6% of the total boat volume was reported. Another 7.1% was taken from state excise tax reports. The final 22.3% was estimated from other sources.
Our reported volume showed a change of -7%. State report data was -18%. Estimated values were -14%. The difference between the state report estimates and the other estimates is consistent with the discrepancy between the values reported in the state report states and the other states.
The individual estimates probably include a fair amount of error on average, but we are confident that these errors largely cancel out in the aggregate and have great confidence in the aggregate totals. State totals are checked against APC production numbers and category totals are checked against other metrics.
For example, using on-site sales figures from TTB, on-site BA-defined craft data from CGA Nielsen, and on-site BA-defined craft data from IRI Group weighted by their volume share in 2019 (13%, 27% and 60% respectively) also gives -9%.
The total number of trades may vary from apples to oranges due to changes in the trades dataset (due to large acquisitions of brewers, etc.). Growth figures are presented on an apple-to-apple comparable basis. Thus, the growth figures reflect the breweries that were in the dataset both years.
We ask brewers not to include them in their figures. While some non-beer volumes may be included, we strive to only report beer volumes from relevant breweries. We’re asking about spirits other than beer and distilled spirits separately and will present those numbers to members during the Collab Hour webinar on Thursday, April 8.
National figures are updated on the site today, state data should be available next week and the full data set will be available to BA members in May/June. The new brewer ships, probably early May.
Members can watch a Collab Hour webinar on Thursday, April 8 that will dive deeper into the numbers and watch more analysis in the Insights and Analysis section of the Brewers Association website.
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