According to the Wyoming Craft Brewers Guild, craft breweries are struggling due to many different factors.
"This is a very challenging time for the craft beer industry across the nation, even the world, but especially in Wyoming," Michelle Forster, board president of the guild and director of sales of Black Tooth Brewing, told Wyoming News Now.
Forster said increased supply costs, less revenue coming from consumers and staffing issues due to a "challenging economic time" are creating unprecedented times for craft brewing companies statewide.
In addition, Forster added the up-and-coming "new" young adults in Gen Z and beyond are making different choices, opting for other alcoholic drinks rather than beer, if drinking at all.
"We're seeing generational shifts. The upcoming generation is drinking less. They're choosing different activities besides drinking. And when they are choosing alcohol, they're not choosing craft beer. So all of this combined provides a really challenging atmosphere for these breweries," said Forster.
Forster is also Black Tooth Brewing's director of sales. She said it takes effort daily from the company, which includes evaluating intentions, actions and how they take care of the communities they are in.
She is encouraging Wyomingites to look towards their respective breweries as "third spaces," places to take loved ones and interact with others.
"These aren't just bars," she said. "They're places that serve up experiences and opportunity to interact with a variety of people. So in the meantime, we're just going to keep standing strong, finding resources we can find to keep people alive and going as long as they want to, and we hope that the Wyoming community will join us in that effort."
Forster said Black Tooth is "lucky," as having four taprooms across the state makes revenue generation easier. But that is not the case for others.
"It's important to note that there's not a single brewery in Wyoming who's owned by an out-of-state entity," she said. "These are all Wyoming businesses."
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
