The Beer Institute published its November 2023 estimate of tax paid shipments by domestic brewers today which carried no surprises. Estimated shipments were 10,950,000 barrels, a decrease of 6.8% compared to November 2022 removals of 11,751,874.
November was not the worse month for 2023, and showed some improvement over October which was down by 10.8%. The worst month for the year has been May when shipments were down 11.8%. Only one month has shown growth last year. February shipments were up 1.4% over the same month in 2022.
Shipments for the year through November are down 6.9%, which represents a whopping decrease in production of 10 million barrels versus the same period last year.