“In Maine, we have one of the highest state excise tax rates, almost triple some of the New England states,” said Sean Sullivan, executive director the Maine Brewers Guild. “Add that to the production challenge of switching to predominantly canned beer, as well as shortages of aluminum cans, these were additional trends hurting the industry.”
In 2017, the American craft beverage industry got a break when a temporary federal law lowered the excise tax of $7 per barrel to $3.50 per barrel, which was set to expire on December 30, 2020.
“The risk was that as of January 1, that federal excise tax rate was going to go back up to $7 a barrel,” said Sullivan. “More than 25 breweries opened during the last three years that had never paid that amount per barrel, and hadn’t factored that into their costs. Picture yourself as a brewer, heading into a winter where you didn’t have a good economic summer, and then all of a sudden your taxes go up twice the amount you’re used t
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Overall 2020 U.S. beer consumption will hold up relatively well, but there are major differences in where it's consumed and the types of products consumed, a beer industry economist said at a recent farm show.
2020 a strange year for beer
Overall 2020 U.S. beer consumption will hold up relatively well, but there are major differences in where it s consumed and the types of products consumed, a beer industry economist said at a recent farm show. 5:30 am, Dec. 24, 2020 ×
2020 wasn t necessarily a bad year for beer consumption, but there were a lot of changes about where people drank beer and who drank it. (Pixabay photo)
U.S. beer consumption rose a modest but encouraging 0.6% in 2019, and the U.S. beer industry was hopeful that 2020 would see similar results. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, leading to widespread concerns that the industry would be devastated.