• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Craft beer sales trends in March: Sours, 16-ouncers trending up, says Tavour

April 6, 2021CBB Editorial Staff

craft beer sales trend

According to the Brewers Association and Nielsen Harris data, the portion of adults who enjoy craft beer rose to an all-time high of 44% in 2020 (shooting up from 35% in 2015). The COVID-19 pandemic has played a big role over the past year, with more people than ever opting to order beer from the comfort and safety of home.

Though beer e-commerce is relatively new, Tavour has been an industry leader since 2013. Working with over 600 of the nation’s independent breweries, the app-based service allows craft fans to access beers they can’t find locally. Tavour closely examines its inventory data and brewery trends each month. Here are the top trends as of March 2021:

Style Popularity: Sour and Funky tops Hoppy and Juicy

Tavour organizes the beers they receive into specific style categories:

  • Hoppy & Juicy – IPAs, Pale Ales, aggressively hopped styles
  • Dark & Intense – Stouts, Porters, Barleywines, certain Meads, other dark and high ABV styles
  • Sour & Funky – Sour Ales, Wild Ales, Farmhouse styles
  • Light & Crisp – Pilsners, Lagers, Golden Ales, Kölsch, Hard Seltzers, other light styles
  • Cider – Hard Ciders

Hoppy & Juicy styles led throughout February, but March saw exponential growth in the percentage of Sour & Funky styles appearing on the app. Most style categories nevertheless held steady between the two months. 

The Top-Selling Beers

Three of the top-five selling beers in March were Fruited Sours, which is unsurprising considering the notable growth in the portion of Sour & Funky styles offered on the app overall. The three beers came from Drekker Brewing Co., a Midwest brewery with a reputation for heavily fruited Sour styles. 

Nevertheless, the top two selling beers for the month were an Imperial Stout and a Wheatwine, both falling in the Dark & Intense category:

  1. Sent By Liars Imperial Stout – Anchorage Brewing, Anchorage, AK
  2. MIRE Wheatwine – Lua Brewing, Des Moines, IA *Brand-new brewery to Tavour
  3. Slang Du Jour Raspberry Cheesecake Fruited Sour – Drekker Brewing, Fargo, ND
  4. Chonk Mango Marshmallow Fruited Sour – Drekker Brewing, Fargo, ND
  5. Slang Du Jour – Mango Apricot Cobbler Fruited Sour – Drekker Brewing, Fargo, ND

It’s worth noting that the top-selling beer in February also came from Anchorage Brewing (The Explorer Imperial Stout).

These were the top-selling beers by style category (some entries above repeated below for clarification):

  • Sour & Funky – Slang du Jour Raspberry Cheesecake Fruited Sour – Drekker Brewing, Fargo, ND
  • Hoppy & Juicy – Juicy Bits New England IPA – WeldWerks Brewery, Greeley, CO
  • Dark & Intense – Sent By Liars Imperial Stout – Anchorage Brewing, Anchorage, AK
  • Light & Crisp – Be Patient India Pale Lager – Anchorage Brewing, Anchorage, AK
  • Cider – Blueberry Spaceship Box – Superstition Meadery, Prescott, AZ

16 oz. Cans Remain on Top

The COVID-19 crisis sparked a can shortage from coast to coast. As the Tavour team learned from communications with breweries, however, the shortage is largely around 12 oz. cans rather than other sizes, prompting breweries like Colorado’s Odd13 and Texas’ 903 Brewers to switch permanently to 16 oz. cans by the end of 2020. Others, like New York’s Evil Twin and Ohio’s Hoppin’ Frog, used some 8 oz. cans in late 2020, though these were not seen in February. 

From February to March, 16 oz. cans remained the dominant container. But in addition to the seldom-spotted 8 oz. cans, some brand-new containers made their way out: 6.3 oz. bottle, 8.45 oz. can, and 16 oz. bottle. This resulted in a percentage slip for 16 oz. cans, moving from 72.5% of the total amount of containers in February to 59.8% in March. Interestingly, the amount of 500ml bottles more than doubled, going from 5% in February to 11.5% in March.

(Quantities are shown in percentages)

Time will tell if 16oz cans remain the container of choice, as Ball Corporation (one of the biggest aluminum industry leaders) is poised to begin production with a new canning plant in Pennsylvania in mid-2021, along with another in Europe set to open in 2022.

What Will We See in April? 

The data from March shows a few emerging trends that could continue throughout the rest of Spring and into Summer:

  • Though individual Dark beer styles are top-sellers, Sour & Funky styles may continue to rise overall. Hoppy & Juicy popularity could continue to wane if current trends continue. 
  • 16 oz. cans are likely to remain the container of choice for many breweries, but they may not retain as strong of a lead as in the past.
  • More breweries from around the U.S. may start sending beer through Tavour to expand their customer base.
sales team needs help
Hey craft brewery owner, your sales team needs help
Arryved-screenshot
Why ‘guest-owned tabs’ are the future of brewery taproom sales
CODO Can design background
Exploring canning trends and the can shortage with CanSource
beer flow pour glass multiple pictures data-001
The beer flow: tallboys are trending, top IPA SKUs and on-premise taps continue to pour more

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • State of California Craft Beer: Covid recovery challenged by competition, consolidation
  • MicroStar Logistics launches Network Services Division to manage reusable plastic pallets for the beer Industry
  • Analyst speculates on Heineken acquiring Boston Beer, stock jumps
  • United States Bartenders’ Guild now has access to WOTVS Hospitality Assistance Program

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • CCBA California Craft Beer SummitState of California Craft Beer: Covid recovery challenged by competition, consolidation
    March 23, 2023
  • Koga-brothers-karben4Karben4 Brewing to relaunch Ale Asylum brand
    March 20, 2023
  • 4 steps to understanding the filtration process in craft beer
    March 20, 2023
  • newbelgium_2023_wildnectar-shopping-basket_family_IMG_2Beyond beer: Examples of craft breweries exploring canned cocktails
    March 16, 2023
  • brooklyn 35 featureBrooklyn Lager turns 35 and more beers to know this week
    March 14, 2023
  • Backwoods Brewing to open a 19-acre resort called Party Acres in the Columbia River gorge this May
    March 13, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC