Thursday 6 June 2024

2024 Homebrewing Trends - Brulosophy General Homebrew Survey Results

We're big fans of Brulosophy, and every year they conduct a survey amongst the homebrewing community to gain various data points, and then share the results publicly via their website. It's pretty neat and a great way to gain some insights into trends in hombrewing.

We previously wrote about the survey results that were posted back in 2022, so after missing last years results we thought it would be interesting to jump in again and see what has changed and any other trends that may be happening currently in the brewing community.

Demographic

Unsurprisingly, the demographic amongst surveyed homebrewers hasn't changed, with 98% identifying as male - exactly the same as it was in 2022. 94% are Caucasian. 

The most common age bracket is 30-39 years and 40-49 years, both having 31%, giving a total of 62%. An interesting change up from 2022 where 30-39 years was 39% and 40-49% was 26%. Most likely because of some brewers reaching the 40 milestone in the past 2 years?

What is it with middle aged white guys and brewing? Though we must admit we're guilty of being in this bracket also.


There's been a slight change in geographical split, with USA climbing from 62% in 2022 to 68% in 2024, and Europe sliding from 20% in 2022 to 17% in 2024. Oceana and Canada also saw a drop of 1%, with a value of 6% each in 2024.

Is this indicative of a change in the homebrewing market, or simply a change in respondents?

Brewing Profile

Back in 2022, there was a fairly even spread of brewers by years of experience with around 20-28% for the 1-3, 4-6, 7-10 and 10+ years of experience brackets. Those with less than 1 year of experience have dropped from 4% to 3% from 2022 to 2024.

Looking at 2024, and there's definitely been a drop in those with 1-3 years of experience, now at 14% which sees a 10% drop from 2022. The 4 year mark seems to be the magic number, where if you stick at it for 4 years you'll likely be a lifelong brewer.


For brewing education, books are making a slight resurgence, growing from 24% to 30% as the main source of brewing education from 2022 to 2024. Podcasts have marginally grown as well from 8% to 11% in 2024. Friends remains consistent at 9%, but online has actually seen a drop from 57% to 48% (online was split into video vs written for 2024) which is mostly accounted for by the growth of books and podcasts. Interesting that in the current online and digital age, that books are making a comeback and online has seen such a decline.

66% of brewers are brewing a single batch per month, a slight increase on 64% back in 2022, with the total number of gallons being produced remaining relatively stable as well over the past few years.

An interesting trend is the continual decline of the most popular beer style to brew - American Pale Ales, IPA and Double IPA's. These styles were, and continue to be the majority but you can clearly see that trend slipping consistently since 2018.

This notable decline has been met with an almost equal incline of the Pale Lager category. We noticed this trend back in 2022 also, but it's continuing to grow. So what is causing this? A number of factors we would suggest. The improvement in homebrewing equipment quality, and affordability, like PET plastic pressure capable fermenters. This makes pressure fermentation more accessible to the average brewer which can help produce better results by suppressing off flavours under certain conditions. There's also the rise of hybrid yeast strains like NovaLager that can turn out awesome lagers at ale temperatures, with next to no lagering period required.

Essentially, brewers now have the knowledge, equipment, and ingredients to make lagers at home that are just as good as commercial ones, without all the expensive high-end equipment. And improvements across all these areas mean they can be turned around and enjoyed more quickly, meaning brewers are more likely to embrace them as an option to brew at home on the weekend.

The other beverages being made by homebrewers remains relatively consistent, with cider remaining stable after a dip in 2021, and a slight increase for mead from 2023 to 2024


For recipe design, Brewfather remains the go-to favourite, climbing from 35% in 2022, to 40% in 2023, and 44% in 2024. This is our favourite brewing software app also, so doesn't come as a great surprise to us - you in our Why Brewfather is the Best Software for Homebrewing article


Brewing Basics

The popularity of all grain brewing has remains steady, with a 1% increase from 95% to 96% from 2022 to 2024. This is great as all grain brewing certainly yields the best results in our opinion, so the more people making beer this way, the better. And with the increasing popularity of single vessel home brewery options, and their affordability, it's little surprise to see this popularity remain.


Speaking of all-in-one brewing systems, it looks like their popularity has started to level out with their numbers remaining consistent from 2024 to 2023 at 43%. Have we reached market saturation here? Quite possibly. All the other all grain brewing methods have remained relatively consistent over the past couple of years after a steady incline from 2018 to 2022 for all of them.


Dry yeast is slowly increasing in popularity, climbing from 43% to 50% over the 2022-2024 period. We exclusively use dry yeast, and have achieved excellent results doing so. There's many benefits to using dry yeast - longer shelf life, ease of use (direct pitching), no need to oxygenate wort, doesn't need to be stored cold (though it is preferable), and is generally cheaper. We expect to see this trend continue in future years as well.

Kegging as a method of packaging is also seeing a steady increase, with all 3 kegging options combined giving a total of 82%, a 5% increase from 77% in 2022. As homebrewers are becoming more aware of the impact and ways to prevent oxidation, particularly for hoppy beer styles, it's good to see this trend continuing to grow

Brew Day Profile

Coinciding with the stability of all-in-one electric brewing systems, outdoor electric brewing has remained relatively consistent at 43% and 5 gallons remains the go-to batch size for most home brewers.




It also appears that brewers are being more careful with their brewing water, with a slight and steady increase in those using unfiltered tap water from 2022 to 2024, and slight increases in those using filtered tap, RO and purchased RO water.


Coinciding with the popularity of Brewfather for recipe creation, it is also continuing to grow in popularity for calculating water adjustments, climbing from 27% to 36% in the 2022 to 2024 period. Other popular options including no adjustments, Bru'n Water and Beersmith also lost small amounts as well during the same period.

There's plenty of other stats and charts included in the report that we didn't cover here - mainly because they remained consistent and unchanged from previous years. We really tried to strip it back and focus on the more interesting and prevalent trends, but we encourage you to take a look for yourself at the Brulosophy 2024 General Homebrewer Survey Results 

Thanks to Brulosophy and to everyone who responded to the survey









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