Surprise: Consumers Want Direct Beer Access

“The US beer sector has shown strong consumer demand for direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping.” Shocking? No.

This is a great article, helped by input from the Brewers Association and Sovos ShipCompliant. Consumers expect direct access, brewers want to sell direct – so who’s to blame for this quagmire? Once again, it comes down to the anti-direct selling group: wholesalers who believe the world needs them as a mandated middle tier. Funny, just like the wine industry, the beer industry will flourish whether they are there or not. There will always be a place for the wholesale tier, but not a mandated channel.

The survey, with data collated by The Harris Poll, unsurprisingly finds “substantial revenue opportunities for breweries”. 63% of Americans age 21 and older believe current beer shipping laws should be expanded to allow direct shipment of beer to consumers.

This sounds familiar “simply getting beer into the hands of the people who want it has become vastly convoluted and could be simplified”. My recent article hits on this exact topic. The pathway forward is simple: add the word “beer” to every piece of legislation that currently references wine in the DTC space. So simple.

Even Alex Koral of Sovos states “These findings indicate that DTC shipping could provide a meaningful and recurring revenue stream for breweries while meeting existing consumer demand.”

Over the years, we’ve had many discussions with those eager to run direct to consumer beer clubs, where they can go from fresh brewed to the consumer in under a week. How fun would that be? Getting fresh beer direct from the producer, letting people taste what real beer is. Who knows how long some of the big beer brands have been sitting going stale in the wholesale system.

The article is worth reading. It clearly states the reasons for modernization. The good news is that all the testing has been done over the past 20 plus years in wine. As we extend DTC to beer, we have the opportunity to remove the unnecessary limits and rules that cost our states and country more than it needs to. The blueprint exists. Let’s use it.