BOSTON -- Ordering data from a beer-delivery app suggests younger legal-aged drinkers are increasingly choosing "macro beers"—Budweiser, Miller and the like—over craft beers.
"Macro beers are taking share from craft amongst the early-adopting, millennial e-commerce consumer,” Drizly wrote in a recent blog post. “More than 90% of beer SKUs in Drizly’s catalog are craft as defined by the Brewers Association. Despite the fact that there is an abundance of craft beers available to the consumer, macro beers represent more than half of beer sales on Drizly and are growing.”
This comes on top of data that shows a slowdown of beer sales overall as millennial consumers have shifted their spend from craft beer to macro beer, wine and spirits.
Five-year-old Drizly, Boston, is an alcohol e-commerce marketplace serving more than 40 markets across 25 states in the United States.
When comparing Drizly data from the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2016, craft beer is down only 1%. However, in comparison to the first half of 2015, it is down 8%, despite a modest uptick in the second quarter this year, Drizly said.
“Those who are still buying craft beer at the highest rate are consumers in their 30s, who became old enough to legally drink around the time of craft beer’s peak growth phase,” the blog said. “However, those in their 20s, as well as those in their 40s, have shown less of an affinity for craft beer. Unsurprisingly, the generation of baby boomers who are 50 and older never became particularly enamored with the craft-beer movement and have shifted away from craft even further over the past two years.”
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