Homebrewing COVID Bounce
The American Homebrewers Association set a record earlier this month with its annual Big Brew Day celebration when nearly 5,000 people in 77 countries pledged to make more than 31,300 gallons of beer. The prior record was 11,000 gallons in 2016. After years of declining AHA membership and overall interest in homebrewing, the nearly-global stay-at-home orders have driven a bounce in homebrewing.
“We are seeing a number of consumers who haven’t been … brewing in a while coming out of the woodwork,” Taylor Caron, the manager at Hops & Berries, a homebrew supply store in Fort Collins told the Colorado Sun. “Especially with so many local microbreweries shutting down … the idea of swinging by for a pint of beer isn’t reality anymore.”
Most homebrew retailers remained open after the state’s order shuttering businesses because they qualified as specialty grocery stores.
