Page 20 - Craft Beer and Independent Microbreweries in Ireland 2018

Current Performance of the Independent Microbrewery Sector

the more pessimistic outlook expressed by some brewers points to a changed
market. While the rate of entry continues to be high, this is unlikely to be
sustained in the near future, without further brewery closures.

A full analysis of the reasons for the changed market conditions are outside
the scope of this report. However, as part of the survey, brewers were given
the opportunity to comment on any matter that they wished to raise. By far the
most common issue raised was the extent to which the sector was being held
back in the on-trade by difficulties in gaining access to taps.

2.4 Size Structure and Output
Of the 70 breweries in mid-2018 that were also in production in 2017, 31 or
44.3% produced 500hl of beer or less in that year. A further 14 or 20.0% of
breweries produced between 500hl and 1000hl of beer, so that two-thirds
of microbreweries produced 1,000 hl or less. Only 11% of microbreweries
produced more than 5,000hl in 2017 (see Table 2.2).
Some of the 31 microbreweries that were in the 500hl of beer or less category,
produced only very small amounts, so that this group accounted for 6,500hl
in aggregate or just over 4% of the total output of the sector. In contrast, the 8
microbrewers that produce more than 5,000hl accounted for 84,000hl in total or
56.3% of the output of the sector. Thus, the output of the microbrewing sector is
dominated by relatively few microbrewers.

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