That’s a nice way to start the Fourth of July holiday weekend! The Beer Institute today released their estimated domestic beer shipments for May which were up by 5.8% versus May of last year.
The news follows two months of negative growth where March and April were down by 16.4% and 4.2% respectively.
Beer shipments for the year-to-date through May now stand at -1.4%.
After positive growth in January and February (2.6% and 9.5% respectively), it was hoped that 2024 would be a turnaround year for beer. Until March and April numbers came out. All eyes were on May to see if the downward spiral would continue or there was hope for a turnaround. Optimism returns headed in summer for a better year for beer.
Total estimated shipments for May 2024 are 13,500,000 barrels, compared to 12,756,757 barrels in May of 2023.