Data from beer-centric social media platform Untappd, which tracks where and when users drink beer, shows that traffic at brewery taprooms has recovered to 117% of January 2019 levels.
“Brewery taprooms, which were allowed to remain open in many U.S. states (particularly if they served food), proved remarkably resilient as a check-in destination amongst our users during the pandemic,” Trace Smith, CEO of Untappd’s parent company Next Glass, wrote in his monthly Untappd Insights newsletter.
While Untappd check-ins at brewery taprooms may have surpassed 2019 levels, the same cannot be said for check-ins at restaurants and bars and pubs. Restaurants check-ins were at 75% of 2019 levels as of September 2022, and bars and pubs were at 72%. Those numbers are a marked increase over March 2020, when restaurant check-ins dipped to 18% of their January 2019 level.
Check-ins at other retailers – “a catch-all category whose largest constituents are off-premise retailers like groceries and specialty alcohol retailers” – have recovered to 109% of 2019 levels. Other retailers’ check-ins spiked in March 2020 (269% of January 2019 levels), when Americans were ordered to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19, and in January 2021 (197% of January 2019 levels) amid a surge in cases following the holiday season.
Untappd at Home, the check-in setting created in March 2020 to let users track beers consumed while social distancing, accounted for 83% of check-ins during April 2020, but has since declined to 25% of all check-ins in which users select a venue.
Why Have Brewery Taprooms Fared Better than Other On-Premise Locations?
Smith pointed to three reasons why brewery taprooms have more than recovered from January 2019, but restaurants, bars and pubs have not. Untappd data reveals drinkers may still be taking ventilation and outdoor space into consideration when selecting venues, Smith wrote. The August Untappd Insights report revealed that taproom attendance declined among users aged 31-50, who may be more likely to have young children.
“Even in this ‘new normal’ post-pandemic life, many user behavior changes persist and have not returned to 2019 levels,” Smith wrote. “I think a lingering post-pandemic preference for larger spaces with outdoor seating options will allow the brewery taproom category to hold onto this share gain for the foreseeable future.”
Another point in favor of taprooms is that they are growing in number, while bars and restaurants are not. About 90,000 restaurants permanently or temporarily closed due to the pandemic, the National Restaurant Association reported in May 2021. By comparison, 222 more breweries were in business in 2021 than in 2020, according to Brewers Association data cited by Smith.
Non-brewery on-premise establishments have been trimming their menus and, in some cases, deactivating draft lines as the result of pandemic-era unpredictability and, as Smith points out, wholesaler portfolio rationalization.
In a July report from on-premise data firm BeerBoard, only one of the 11 tracked states grew its average number of taps year-over-year. New York’s average number of taps per location increased +11.1% compared to July 2021. Nationwide, the average number of taps per location declined -5%, while Minnesota recorded the steepest decline at -9.1%.
“The shrunken on-premise assortment means craft enthusiasts are now more likely to visit a brewery taproom to find new releases and craft options that are now less present in the bars [and] pubs and restaurant categories,” Smith wrote.
European Untappd users’ check-in rates across the continent’s on-premise industry have bounced back stronger than their U.S. counterparts. In September 2022, check-ins at bars and pubs reached 80% of their January 2019 level, which were outpaced by restaurants (92%), brewery taprooms (97%) and all other retailers (129%).