The beer industry is experiencing a shake-up. Oversaturation, economic strain, and changing consumer preferences are causing many brands to rethink their products, according to Business Insider. Those who are succeeding and retaining their market share are doing so by making beer dumb again.
“Beer just doesn’t have that same shine or that same relevance. It’s just not as cool anymore,” Dave Williams, president of Bump Williams Consulting, told BI. "These companies are reacting to that and saying, ‘All right, we need to make beer fun.'”
There are a number of factors that have caused beer to fall out of favor with consumers. Chief among them is the economy.
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Andrew Heritage, the chief economist at the beer industry trade association Beer Institute, told BI that as Americans struggle financially, they tend to trade down on non-essentials like beer. More drinkers are opting for brands in the economy segment, think Miller High Life or Busch Light, that can be found at discounters like Costco or Sam's Club, over craft brews that can only be found at high-priced breweries.
"I think that’s evidence of consumers looking for a lower price point,” he says.
However, the economy isn't the only thing driving these changes. Over the last two decades, craft beers have been trending, which has brought a wide array of flavors, options, and alcohol content levels to the tap room. Experts say that this explosion of choices may have gone too far, overwhelming consumers and leaving them craving the simplicity of classics like Budweiser.
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"The craft beer market is kind of reaching a point of oversaturation,” CFRA Research Vice President of Equity Research Garrett Nelson told BI. "The last year and a half, there have been more breweries that have closed than new ones that have opened.”
Dave Infante, writer drinking-focused newsletter Fingers, agrees. “The American drinker has definitely shifted, if not toward blander stuff, necessarily, I would say much more straightforward stuff,” he told BI.
This return to the more straightforward stuff is what has made newcomer brands like Garage Beer so successful. The brand, which grew out of a Midwest brewery, was spun off into its own company in 2023. The following year, former NFL player Jason Kelce and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, became majority owners and frequently appear in its boorish commercials.
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“[Garage Beer is] kind of going back to beer’s roots a little bit, where it was endorsed by sports players, it’s easy drinking, and it’s for your garage,” Kate Bernot, chief analyst at alcohol industry research company Sightlines, told BI. "And I think it’s a little bit of a course correction to the fanciness of craft and fan imports.”
“We don’t take ourselves seriously in any way, shape, or form," Garage Beer CEO Andy Sauer told BI. "We just try to be the dumbest beer on the internet, and that’s sort of the spirit of what beer has been forever."
This attitude has proven successful for the company thus far. Last month, sources told The Wall Street Journal that the company had reached a $200 million valuation after a recent funding round. Other brands looking to replicate that success would do well to follow Garage's dumbed-down lead.
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