Industry leaders say beer could use some love in 2024.

Shipments of the long-
popular brew in the U.S. fell more than 5% during the first nine months of 2023, according to industry tracker Beer Marketer’s Insights.

At the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s annual convention in October, Chairman Gordan Green said the entire industry “needs to step up and help support beer, show its value to our retail and on-
premise partners, and help make beer a more appealing and first option for young,
legal-drinking-age customers.”

Beer’s value is of particular importance to Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale , which built a new warehouse off Route 66 in Salem after running out of space in its Pittsburgh location.

Fuhrer Chief Financial Officer Jake Wrigley said their overall beer volume was down 3.6% compared to 2022, which is in line with the declining trend identified by Beer Marketer’s Insight — although Wrigley was quick to point out that nationally, the wine category declined even more sharply than beer.

“Spirits have continually taken market share from beer and wine over the past decades,” Wrigley said. “Anheuser Busch is Fuhrer’s biggest supplier, and the Bud Light boycotts certainly affected our company along with other AB wholesalers across the country in 2023.”

Bud Light’s partnership with transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney triggered calls for a boycott from conservative and anti-trans groups. The boycotts contributed to Bud Light being dethroned by Modelo Especial as America’s most popular beer during the four-week period ending July 1, according to the Reuters news agency.

Anheuser Busch InBev also owns Grupo Modelo, which brews Modelo Especial. But Anheuser Busch is certainly not the only beer supplier.

“Fuhrer also is fortunate to represent other great brands such as Coors Light and Iron City Light, both of which had strong years,” Wrigley said.

Nick Hartle, owner at Spaniel Beer Distribution in Vandergrift, said his sales figures for 2023 are “about the same” as those in 2022. It’s mostly the mix of items that has shifted.

“The consumer wants what they want,” Hartle said. “For example, Boston Beer used
to make most of its money
with Sam Adams. All their money now is in things like Twisted Tea.”

Both Hartle and Wrigley have seen the rise of hard seltzer across the industry.

“Fuhrer sells flavored malt beverages including Twisted Tea, which has achieved phenomenal growth over the past few years,” Wrigley said. “Malt-based hard seltzers were a massive innovation that helped grow overall sales volume.”

Hartle admits that he didn’t see the hard seltzer boom coming.

“A few years ago, a salesman came in and pitched it to me, and I said, ‘That’s not going to work,’ ” he said.

The volume of hard seltzer in Spaniel’s inventory tells a different story. Hartle said he also has seen a boost in sales of non-alcoholic beer.

“They’ve gone from a couple varieties to now a whole bunch, where you have NA beers like juicy IPAs and things like that,” he said.

In Fuhrer’s case, the company is not just working to establish relationships with promising brewers, but also growing its own footprint.

“We closed our acquisition of Von’s United Beverage on Dec. 29,” Wrigley said. “They’re based in Johnstown, and represent Anheuser Busch, Yuengling, Pittsburgh Brewing, New Belgium and others in Cambria, Somerset and Clearfield counties.”

The acquisition expands Fuhrer’s footprint from 11 to 14 Pennsylvania counties.

Spaniel Beer Distribution has been in business for more than six decades, and Hartle said that while trends regularly come and go, he has confidence consumers will continue to purchase beer.

“Even with something really popular like the seltzers, they’ve kind of found their niche,” he said. “I think the growth with them is done, because you get a bunch of smaller brands coming to try and compete with the White Claws and the Trulis, and it ends up saturating the market. It’s just more of an evolving business now compared to what it used to be.”

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .