Craft Beer Consumer Habits in February 2021: Are on-site attitudes changing?

It has been two months since I last conducted a study on consumer habits. Since then, temperatures have dropped in most of the country while access to vaccines has increased. While it is unknown how long the impact of the pandemic will be felt, it at least appears the end is in sight. Now let’s look at some numbers.

I conducted a study to get a better gauge of current consumer attitudes and spending habits. This research was collected through Secret Hopper and includes 1,560 unique submissions. 53.6% of respondents identified as male, 46.0% as female, 0.1% as non-binary, and 0.3% preferred not to say. The average age of respondent is 41.6 years old. All data was collected February 10 to 16, 2021.

Here is a breakdown of the geographic location of respondents. We define each region as the following:

Midwest: OH, MI, IN, WI, IL, MN, IA, MO, ND, SD, NE, KS
Northeast: ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA
South: DE, MD, VA, WV, KY, NC, SC, TN, GA, FL, AL, MS, AR, LA, TX, OK, DC
West: MT, ID, WY, CO, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA, OR, WA, AK, HI

Important on-site factors

The two most important aspects of planning a brewery visit for on-site consumption remained the same from our October 2020 Consumer Habits Study – “the brewery’s current beer menu” and “how well the brewery is showing adherence with COVID-19 protocol.” The biggest change is that we saw 14.4% less respondents include the importance of “an outdoor space” in their top 3. I’ll take a stab and say that many consumers aren’t willing to brave Winter weather outdoors.

The decrease in the importance of an outdoor space corresponds with the 12.9% decrease from October 2020 to February 2021 in those who stated that they are only enjoying beers in outdoor spaces. These people may no longer be visiting taprooms for on-site consumption. Additionally, 5.5% less of respondents are enjoying beers inside breweries’ taprooms than October 2020. An additional 11.3% of respondents, compared to October 2020, are no longer visiting breweries. We do see that an increase of 7.2% of respondents stated that breweries in their area are no longer allowing guests inside.

When asked as part of our December 2020 Consumer Habits Study, 57.2% of respondents at that time were visiting breweries less frequent than 30 days prior. When asked the same question in February 2021, 44.9% of respondents stated that they are visiting breweries less frequently. 15.3% of those surveyed are visiting breweries more frequently than 30 days ago.

40.5% of those surveyed have not visited a brewery in the past 30 days. This is an increase of 10.6% on the same data point from our December 2020 study. This 10.6% increase in those who haven’t visited a brewery nearly matches the 10.5% decrease in those who had visited 1 or 2 breweries in December 2020.

With regard to purchasing to go from breweries compared to 30 days ago, 34.8% are purchasing less frequently. This already follows a similar (36.5%) decrease in frequency in December 2020.