According to the Beer Institute’s April tax paid estimate, overall US beer production is up 0.4% for the month. For YTD that puts the industry up 0.6%, one of the strongest showings in a number of years. This may be in part because of Anheuser-Busch’s “loading up” of wholesaler’s inventory in anticipation of a possible union strike at their plants. The strike has been avoided, the brewer shipped over a million barrels “extra” to their distribution network in case there was a work stoppage.
The overall beer industry has been down the 4 out of 5 years with a total drop in volume of 4% over that period.
Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors combined have lost a total of 17 million barrels in the last 5 years.