Craft Staying Steady, if Challenging, Up 4% At Midyear

Dear Client: This morning, the Brewers Association dropped their midyear tally for craft growth in 2019.  The category is up 4% in production volume half way through the year, which is on pace with the growth recorded over the full year in 2018, but a notch below the 2018 half-year trend, which was up 5%. That's sobering, as the BA chief economist, Bart Watson, had depicted the 4% growth rate as more challenging for some of its members' business models