Beer trends to watch in 2022

OKLAHOMA –  In 2021, the Oklahoma Beer Alliance and its beer distributors saw the stabilization of many industry indicators that had been impacted by supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic in 2020 and were prolonged in 2021. 

“As with other industries, the supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic in 2020 set the stage for growth across the board in 2021, and particularly among imported beer products,” said Lisette Barnes, president of the Oklahoma Beer Alliance. “Up 15% year-to-date, imports were the biggest industry category winner. This is largely due to supply chain issues creating out-of-stocks, which drove import volume down in 2020, ultimately creating room for big improvement in 2021.” 

For the upcoming year, the Oklahoma Beer Alliance anticipates market stabilization to continue. Overall, consumers continue to trade up into more premium mainstream brands like Michelob ULTRA, which is up almost 17% year-to-date. Hard seltzers and ULTRA beer brands continued to drive sustained growth in the industry throughout the year, while craft sales were down slightly compared with 2020. The Oklahoma Beer Alliance expects post-pandemic craft sales to continue to remain down compared to pre-pandemic sales. 

“Seltzer popularity continues to grow, up 36% year-to-date from 2020,” said Jason Hall, senior general manager of AB One Oklahoma. “However, it did slow some in the second half of 2021, meaning we may see this trend stabilize in 2022. Meanwhile, post-pandemic craft sales continue to struggle as consumers that navigated back to mainstay brands in 2020 seemed to have stayed there.”

As market trends begin to normalize in the next year, Oklahoma Beer Alliance member distributors will continue to work diligently to meet consumer demands and any shift in trends.