Bart Dives into YTD Trends

Dear Client: Yesterday Brewers Association economist Bart Watson gave a state of the union on craft YTD trends. He started acknowledging that last year's 18% growth has slowed ever so slightly in the YTD IRI data, which is up 17.1% in cases through April 19. The comparative period last year was actually up 21%. Still, Bart cautions, "if we try to smooth that to a Brewers Association definition craft number, the gap is smaller, as Q1 2014 saw strong growth