Craft Brewers Conference Returns Amid Uncertainty, New Challenges

The Brewers Association’s (BA) largest industry event, the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), returns at its regularly scheduled time of year but also at a time of flux.

The 2022 edition of CBC will take place in person on May 2-5 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minnesota, and will feature the World Beer Cup, the biennial global competition that the BA calls “the Olympics of beer.”

It’s unclear just how many people will make the trip to Minneapolis. BA president and CEO Bob Pease told Brewbound that the trade organization has budgeted for somewhere between the 14,000 who attended in 2019 and the more than 7,000 who traveled to Denver in 2021. However, exhibitor space had sold out early this year and sponsorship sales were at or surpassing the BA’s budget, according to Pease.

Those who travel to Minneapolis are doing so under a backdrop of challenges: nearly across-the-board supply chain issues; inflationary headwinds; ongoing wholesaler consolidation; non-alc beverage goliaths Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Monster and global cannabis firm Tilray entering the bev-alc space via products, acquisitions and distribution divisions; a slow to recover on-premise channel; the fallout from hundreds of women in the beer industry sharing their experiences of harassment, assault and toxic workplaces; and continued struggles with diversity, equity and inclusion.

How will BA leaders address these challenges? Several of those questions are likely to be addressed during the main stage general sessions with leaders of the trade organization and its board of directors, and will most likely come up in side conversations at parties at bars, breweries and restaurants throughout the week.

Highlights of the BA’s program include:

• BA chief economist Bart Watson will offer his state of the industry talk, sharing insights into the last year of data and expounding on his prediction that the industry will grow around 5% in 2022, but still remain below pre-pandemic levels.

• Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham’s day-long THRIVE workshop on May 2, which focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, human resources and physical and mental wellness over six 45-minute break-out sessions.

• Russian River Brewing Company co-founder Natalie Cilurzo’s keynote speech on May 4 on the challenges she and her husband/co-founder Vinnie Cilurzo have faced in recent years.

Also likely to be addressed during the general session is the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s report on competition within the beverage-alcohol industry, which parroted many of the concerns in comments submitted by the BA on improving the competitive marketplace for small producers. It remains unclear what, if anything, will change in the wake of the report.

Another question that needs to be answered — in an industry built on founders’ stories over the last 40 years, who will step up as many of those pioneers retire, sell their companies, or fade away? It’s a question the we’ll be searching for during the conference — and likely for many years to come.