2018: The Year in Craft Beer

This was another high growth year for craft beer in the U.S. A few things stand out:
1) The number of small breweries made a huge increase.
2) That increase is not matched by a growth in craft beer sales.
3) The haze craze (the hazy, juicy beer style) is huge.
4) The switch from bottles to cans.

Craft breweries are defined as small, independent licensed breweries

Craft beer sales are up 5% over 2017 while overall beer sales dropped 1%. That current 5% growth seems to be slowing, however. The major domestic brands lose share yearly (Bud, Coors, Miller, etc.) and the large independent breweries like Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada are also seeing slight drops.

There are 7,000 breweries in the U.S. and that's a 20% increase over 2017. These are mostly very small, local breweries. The craft beer industry's job growth is 9% over this time.

The average price for a six-pack of craft beer is about $8, but varies widely. Part of the higher cost of some beers is because they come from small breweries that don't have the scale of efficiency of larger operations, sometimes it's because more ingredients are used (a low alcohol pale ale is cheaper to make than a 10% ABV stout), and some of it is the ol' wholesaler corruption in some parts of the country.

85% of adults now live within ten miles of a brewery.

The move to cans for craft beer was fueled by better can technology, but they're also more convenient, lighter and the beer stays fresher (something that's real important with IPAs).

These figures are a bit preliminary as the actuals for the year aren't available yet.
Numbers from beveragedaily.com