In the mid-2010s, the craft brewery was the epicenter of millennial life, a place to solidify one’s hipster pedigree and sip an IPA or four. Less than a decade later, breweries are making their last call, shuttering their taprooms for good. The businesses still open are scrambling for solutions to return their trickle of customers back to a flood.
“We got to put our big kid pants on, so to speak,” Julie Rhodes, craft beverages consultant at Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, told Fortune. “Business-wise, it's not bootstrapping and grassroots marketing and stuff like that anymore. That's not going to fly in today's market.”
