LEILA FADEL, HOST:
If beer's your drink of choice, your libations are less likely to come from a craft brewery.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah. Last year, after almost 20 years of explosive growth in the craft beer industry, more U.S. breweries closed than opened. The Brewers Association tracked 335 new openings and nearly 400 closings.
BART WATSON: I think the biggest challenge for breweries right now is standing out.
FADEL: That's Bart Watson, incoming president and CEO of the Brewers Association.
WATSON: You know, you go back a few years, and we were getting 1,200 to 1,400 brewery openings a year, which was unprecedented. So breweries have to find a reason for beer drinkers to visit them or pick their beer off shelves, which have a lot of great options these days.
FADEL: Successful breweries are trying to reach a wider customer base by leaning into the nonalcoholic market, expanding to become general beverage companies and becoming more visible in their local communities.
WATSON: I think the demand for craft beer really stemmed for three things - for flavor, for variety and for a set of values around local, independent and just the companies themselves. And, you know, they've really succeeded in their mission to change the beer industry. We have a lot of flavor and variety right now, and that's the competitive challenge that brewers face. In a world with lots of flavor and variety, how do you now stand out?
INSKEEP: Watson says the slowdown does not mark the end of craft breweries, and he's doing his part to support the breweries he likes.
WATSON: I'm in Florida right now, so I'm enjoying a lot of the what they call Florida Weisse beers - kind of, you know, light sours with fruit in them. And when I get back to Colorado, I'm sure I'm going to be enjoying a lot of darker beers that fit with the season there.
FADEL: Watson says, like with all local businesses, the way to keep them alive is to go in and buy the products. Happy New Year.
INSKEEP: Cheers.
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