• 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

Homebrewer survey: More than 1 million homebrewers brew 2 million barrels annually

November 14, 2013Jason Morgan

Homebrewers Survey
The survey was completed by more than 18,000 homebrewers via an online survey from July 30 to Sept. 3, 2013. Of the respondents, 65 percent were members of the AHA, and 35 percent were unaffiliated homebrewers.

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) — the not-for-profit trade association serving as a resource and community for homebrewers — released results of a first-ever nationwide homebrewer survey, a breakdown of demographics, brewing habits and shopping behaviors of American homebrewers. According to the survey, there are an estimated 1.2 million homebrewers in the United States, two-thirds of whom began brewing in 2005 or later.

“The homebrewing community is in every corner of the country and highly engaged in this hobby,” said Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association. “From the amount of money spent on supplies to the sheer number of homebrewers, it’s clear this is a growing trend and people are incredibly interested in learning about and making their own brews at home.”

Survey results include:


  • Demographics: The average homebrewer is 40 years old, with most (60 percent) falling between 30 and 49 years old. The majority of homebrewers are married or in a domestic partnership (78 percent), have a college degree or some form of higher education (69 percent) and are highly affluent — nearly 60 percent of all homebrewers have household incomes of $75,000 or more.
  • Location: Homebrewers are fairly evenly spread across the country, with the slight plurality congregated in the West (31 percent), followed by the South (26 percent), Midwest (23 percent) and the fewest in the Northeast (17 percent).
  • Production: In terms of brew production, homebrewers mainly stick to beer — 60 percent of respondents only brew beer at home, compared to wine, mead or cider. AHA members and people affiliated with the AHA on average brewed nearly 10 batches of beer per year, at 7 gallons a batch, which is 15 percent more batches and nearly 30 percent more volume than homebrewers who were not affiliated with the AHA. Collectively, homebrewers produce more than 2 million barrels of brew a year, which represents a small but sizeable portion (1 percent) of total U.S. production.
  • Retail: Nearly all homebrewers (95 percent) shop in two local homebrew stores eight or nine times a year, while a majority (80 percent) also shops in three online stores five times a year. On average, homebrewers spend $800 a yea r— about $460 on general supplies and ingredients, and $330 on major equipment.

Our take: A growing trend? More like an explosion. Just look at the number of new craft breweries. This year brought the total to more than 2,500. Many, if not most, craft brewers get into the business through their homebrewing passion. But where is all this growth heading? Is the craft beer industry looking at a bubble fueled by interest in the art of brewing and the allure of striking IPA gold? Voices are split on the matter, but we’ll keep tracking the trends that impact the industry.

San Diego selected as site for 2023 Homebrew Con
AHA beer
Congress makes itself useful and brews beer in AHA competition
This year’s finally the year: Learn to Homebrew Day set for November 5
Homebrew-Con-2022_DSC7579
Check out the 2022 National Homebrew Competition winners

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Boston’s Dorchester Brewing and Yakima Chief Hops team up to offer contract breweries discounts on hops
  • Montucky Cold Snacks offers hilarious prizes to winner of Mascot Contest
  • Root Shoot Malting, Blue Ox Malthouse highlight Malt Cup Award winners
  • 805 Beer debuts trailer for documentary “Inverted Perspective,” focused on freestyle motocross champion Vicki Golden

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Boston’s Dorchester Brewing and Yakima Chief Hops team up to offer contract breweries discounts on hops
    March 28, 2023
  • 10 craft beer variety packs that have us excited to try new beer
    March 27, 2023
  • Take a look at Jack’s Abby’s renovated Beer Hall and its sweet new Tradition Meets Tech pilot system
    March 27, 2023
  • 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

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