Week-long annual holiday focuses on supporting small businesses
Boulder, Colo. • April 28, 2020 — American Craft Beer Week®, the annual national beer holiday celebrated since 2006 by millions of beer lovers, breweries, and retailers, will be observed May 11-17. Hosted by CraftBeer.com, a website published by the Brewers Association, this year’s celebration will feel different, but the spirit of supporting craft breweries who have supported their communities and country remains the same.
American Craft Beer Week provides an opportunity for beer lovers to connect safely with each other while supporting – and possibly even saving – local microbreweries, taprooms, brewpubs, and regional craft breweries. These small businesses are undergoing unprecedented challenges due to the global pandemic. U.S. craft breweries are job creators and community gathering places—providing more than 161,000 direct full and part-time jobs1 and hosting nearly 68 million2 unique brewery visitors in 2019 alone. Additionally, craft breweries donated more than $82 million to local charities last year3, approximately $3.10 for every barrel of beer brewed.
“Independent craft breweries are an essential component in the important economic network of growers, distributors, supplier partners, beer lovers, and retailers,” said Julia Herz, publisher of CraftBeer.com and craft beer program director at the Brewers Association. “This American Craft Beer Week, brewers and beer lovers will connect in new ways during these challenging times. From May 11 to May 17, those who commit to giving independent craft beer will make a difference that reaches beyond the beverage to support and save thousands of hometown breweries who are instrumental in giving back to so many local communities and charitable causes.”
Here’s how beer lovers can help:
- Commit to #GiveCraftBeer at AmericanCraftBeerWeek.com: Stand up and be counted by gifting craft beer, gift cards, merchandise, or other food and beverage offerings from a U.S. craft brewery.
- Get Social: Use custom American Craft Beer Week social media posts.
- Sign up to become a supporter of independent beer at SupportIndependentBeer.com.
- Find your community: Use #GiveCraftBeer and follow @indiebeer_ for chances to participate all week
- Donate to the Believe in Beer Craft Brewery Relief Fund to help craft breweries and state brewers guilds weather this unprecedented financial storm.
Contact: Jenelle Scott (on behalf of the Brewers Association) jenelle.scott@backbonemedia.net, 970.963.4873 x224
Media: Click here for a media toolkit.
Notes
1 2019 Brewers Association 2019 Beer Industry Production Survey
2 Nielsen Craft Beer Insights Poll May 18-26, 2019
3 2019 Brewers Association 2019 Beer Industry Production Survey
About the Brewers Association
The Brewers Association (BA) is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. The BA represents 4,800-plus U.S. breweries. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol that differentiates beers by small and independent craft brewers. The BA organizes events including the World Beer Cup®, Great American Beer Festival®, Craft Brewers Conference® & BrewExpo America®, SAVOR™: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Homebrew Con™, National Homebrew Competition and American Craft Beer Week®. The BA publishes The New Brewer® magazine, and Brewers Publications® is the leading publisher of brewing literature in the U.S. Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com® and about homebrewing via the BA’s American Homebrewers Association® and the free Brew Guru® mobile app. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Brewers Association is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital/familial status. The BA complies with provisions of Executive Order 11246 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary of Labor.
