With 10.5 breweries for every 100,000 beer-drinking adults, Wyoming’s craft breweries are a vital part of the Cowboy State’s tourism scene. They help add close to $200 million to the state economy every year.
But many brewers tell Cowboy State Daily they feel their industry has turned a corner, and they’re worried a crash is imminent.
“A lot of breweries are closing,” brewer Mitch Kunce told Cowboy State Daily. He is with The Library, a brewery in Laramie. “I think we had a huge growth period. Since about 2008, it’s been growing like crazy, exponential growth. And I think it’s sorting out now. I look to see a lot of breweries closing. They’re already starting to think the tide is turning.”
He’s not the only brewer expressing pessimism. At the recent Steinley Cup in Saratoga, Wyoming’s oldest brewfest competition, a number of the state’s old guard breweries said they, too, have seen a shift in the economy.
“The industry as a whole is definitely shrinking,” Eric Kilmer, with Freedom’s Edge Brewing Co. told Cowboy State Daily. “We haven’t felt any of that so far. We have a very good base in our community that supports Cheyenne.”
But he has seen that customers are becoming more sophisticated.
“If you’re not making a quality product, the consumer knows it and they’re going to let you know,” he said. “They’re going to support the ones who make a good product, and those are going to be the ones who survive.”
The Beer Killers
Margins have become thin for the burgeoning craft beer industry, Kunce told Cowboy State Daily, and that’s putting a squeeze on a lot of breweries.
“It’s just the price of the ingredients, water, electricity — I mean Pacific Power wants to raise our rates another 70%,” Kunce said. “All that just makes it hard to keep the beer affordable. I know restaurants are facing the same things. So I think there’s a lot of sorting out for the industry in the next 10 years.”
Kevin Tighe, with Blue Raven Brewery in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily, he too, sees the problem with escalating prices.
“The cost of everything is going up,” he said. “Everything from electricity to our water and our grains has gone up substantially, and unfortunately, we’ve had to pass a little bit of that on to our consumers, which is problematic. Everybody’s hurting right now, the cost of everything is going up.”
The other problem is that beer has more competition than ever.
“People are kind of switching to these ready-made drinks, liquor in a can, High Noons,” Kunce said. “The only growth is probably the seltzers, they’re considered beer.”
But it’s not just other alcohols that beer is competing with, Kunce added.
“There’s competition with marijuana now, particularly in Colorado,” Kunce said. “People are finding other ways to alter their state. So demand is just changing a lot.”
Reduced demand and increased costs are also meeting up with the emergence of ever more breweries, adding even more softness to the market.
“There’s so many breweries now,” Kunce said. “They are just completely over-capacity. Any economic model would tell you that ain’t gonna work. Some of them are going to fail. The ones that are efficient are going to survive.”
Eric Killmer with Freedom's Edge Brewing pours a sample for a customer during the Steinley Cup in Saratoga. Many brewers feel the craft brew industry is becoming saturated. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Mitch Kunce, brewer at The Library in Laramie, talks with a fan of his blueberry-pomegranate beer. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Altitude Chophouse & Brewery showing off their pilsner trophy at the recent Steinley Cup. The brewery is among those exploring things like non-alcoholic beer to remain relevant in the changing craft brew market. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Brian Evans and Anthony Asset from Fort Collins sample Wyoming craft brews during the recent Steinley Cup in Saratoga. Wyoming has had great success with its craft beer industry, drawing in tourists, but some in the industry feel the market is saturated. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A tasting flight at Accomplice in Cheyenne. Craft breweries have done a good job coming up with lots of different things to try — but the customers are becoming much more discerning. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Wyoming Not Tapped Out Yet
While some brewers were pessimistic about craft breweries in general, others felt that the Cowboy State is in better shape than other states where craft breweries are older and more numerous, like Wyoming’s neighbor Colorado.
“It’s crowded, it seems like a lot of new breweries are opening up,” Lander Brewing Co.’s head brewer David Morton told Cowboy State Daily. “Things are doing pretty well in Wyoming, though. I think nationwide trends are pretty down, but Wyoming is holding a little stronger. We’re doing a little better than the rest of the nation.”
Sean Minichiello, outgoing head brewer with Altitude Chophouse & Brewery, suggested that breweries need to respond to the trends if they want to survive.
“The past couple of years there’s been a little bit of a trend toward both sours and seltzers,” he said. “And, in the last, maybe year and a half, there’s been a trend toward low ABV or non-alcoholic beverages.”
Altitude doesn’t yet have a non-alcoholic beer, but Minichiello has already ordered the yeast for it. He and incoming head brewer, Jobiann Inman, are already working on formulating a new recipe for non-alcoholic beer.
“I think craft breweries will never go out of business, completely,” Inman said. “I think if you have good backing, like especially Freedoms, I know they have a lot of people who support them, as do we. But if people don’t have a lot of people who back them, then they might (fail) because there are so many competitors now, especially in Laramie.”
Wyoming is still at the stage where competition is welcome though, Inman added.
“That’s kind of nice,” she said. “In Fort Collins, I’d imagine that things are kind of cutthroat there. So, I think we’re pretty lucky here. We’re all kind of friends, and friendly with each other.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
