Authors: Marshall Schott & Andrew Bromley
In what I can only surmise is a sign of the times, this survey received the fewest responses of any of the 10 prior surveys. Each year, I receive several suggestions as to what I should do, or could have done, to increase those numbers, and the truth, I do all of it. I’m by no means complaining, as we still pulled over 1,000 respondents, it’s just impossible for me not to view the gradual decline as a sign of the times. Regardless, the data is what it is, and I still wholeheartedly believe it can be used to do some good in this awesome hobby.
| SOME THOUGHTS |
I don’t mean to overinterpret, as I’m sure there are several factors contributing to the fact this survey received nearly 50% of the responses as last year’s survey, which makes it a little more difficult to compare the results over time. Still, there are certain notable trends, one of the most telling being the stark shift in level of brewing experience – whereas in 2018, newcomers dominated the hobby with roughly 40% of respondents reporting brewing for 3 years or less and only 16% claiming 10+ years, this year’s data is essentially inverted. While it’s great that veteran brewers are loyal to the hobby, this highlights the paucity of new homebrewers entering the hobby. Moreover, despite the ongoing, industry-wide effort to diversify the hobby over the last decade, the baseline demographic data remains remarkably unchanged with modern homebrewers being mostly white (95%) men (98%), which I find it pretty discouraging.
Though still in its infancy, artificial intelligence (AI) made its first official appearance in this year’s survey data with 1.3% of respondents claiming to use it specifically for their water adjustment calculations. However, the tech hasn’t quite won over recipe designers yet, as less than 0.3% of those folks rely on AI for recipe design. Regardless of what anyone claims to think about AI today, I suspect we’ll see this number steadily increase over the next few years, particularly as popular recipe software integrates AI into their UI the way Brewfather recently did.
In terms of brewing methods and ingredients, this year’s data suggests the Kveik trend is cooling off a bit. In 2023, when the idea of using certain Kveik strains to ferment lagers warm really took off, 7% of respondents reported using it, though that number has declined year-over-year since then with just 3% reporting saying they rely on Kveik for their lagers on this year’s survey. The most divisive method based on these results continues to be lager fermentation temperature with nearly half of respondents believing cool temperatures are necessary when using traditional lager strains while the other half are cool with fermenting warmer.
I’m genuinely appreciative not only for all of the folks who took the time to complete this survey, but those who continue to read our articles, listen to our podcast, and watch our videos. The fact we’re still able to produce this content despite the current state of the industry is pretty rad, and we truly wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of our Patrons and sponsors. Now, we just need to figure out how to make this badass hobby more appealing to people who don’t look like the majority of us, which I truly believe is key to the growth of beer and brewing.
If you have any thoughts about these survey results or suggestions for future surveys, please do not hesitate to share them in the comments section below!
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16 thoughts on “2026 General Homebrewer Survey Results”
FWIW, I searched my emails and cannot find that I received the survey. Maybe there are more that also don’t get it, for whatever reason and this is contributing to having so few responses?
Same. I don’t remember getting any notice about this and I would have provided my responses.
Me too! This is the second year I have missed it! 🙃
Include a category with this question, are you a brewer that has decided to discontinue brewing as a result of the variety and the quality of commercial / craft brewed beer available today makes home brewing no longer necessary?
I am in this category. Been brewing since 1990. We have won multiple awards at prestigious brewing competitions. But today it no longer interests me.
Why? I can order a keg of my favorite beer on Monday, and have it here on tap by Wednesday. And with inflation, brewing at home is not saving any money.
I am pretty sure I’m one who answered the survey every single year except this one (I vaguely remember getting partway through, saying fuck it, and closing the browser). The reason? I used to read it all, but as time goes on I read the posts less and less. I really only care about the experiments, not reviews for equipment I’ll never purchase, not hop chronicles for fruit-forward hops I won’t use because I don’t brew IPAs, not the short and shoddy series anymore either. Experiments seem to come every two weeks now, and a lot are videos (which I refuse to engage with). A lot are also about things I don’t care about, like the impact of Koji rice on a lager. Intellectually interesting, but I’ll never use it in my beer. Brülosophy seems to have changed to chase the younger (video loving) richer (expensive gear loving) crowd; that’s totally fine, as the contributors have changed and the content should match their interests, but maybe some of the missing respondents are others like me who don’t really enjoy most of the content anymore.
I have to agree with most of what you wrote. I liked the experiments, but despise the long drawn out boring videos. While I do find some process and ingredient experiments interesting, I too will not likely adopt any of them, especially short and shoddy brewing. If I do not have enough time to brew, then it gets done on a day that I do. Cheers! Jim
I agree with articles are better and never watch the videos.
Would have loved to have responded, but while I got the original email regarding this on 30 March, there weren’t any follow-up reminders to prompt me. I’d recommend sending at least a couple of follow-up emails between the survey opening and it closing.
I am extremely supportive of Brulosophy and continue to enjoy and learn from the content. You have my attention and my financial support. But, this survey is probably my last. Data collection should be used to solve a problem. I’m not sure what problem you are trying to solve. In reading the “Some Thoughts” section, I can’t see what if anything is being done with the data, other than some lamenting. I don’t say this as a criticism, as I don’t see fixing the hobby’s decline as a core piece of Brulosophy’s mission.
Maybe you do have it as an element of your core mission. If so, in the last sentence of your write-up, you have more or less generated a hypothesis or at least a belief. What does Brulosophy know about testing beliefs? A lot I’d say…fundamentally it’s what you do. You test beliefs.
It’s fair to let us know what you’re doing with all this data.
This data gives an incredible look at how dedicated and dialed-in the core of this hobby is. With over 46% of respondents being 10+ year veterans (compared to just 16% in 2018) and 95% brewing all-grain, it’s clear the remaining community is highly skilled and deeply invested. Or at least the part that also saw and filled out this survey (so much survivor bias).
However, looking at this data through a strategic lens highlights a classic limitation: tracking a trend is not the same as diagnosing a cause. Because this survey inherently captures a snapshot of the people who stayed, it can show us the symptoms, like the shrinking number of new brewers, but it can’t tell us why newcomers left or never entered. Without data on those underlying friction points (whether economic, time-related, or rooted in shifting lifestyle barriers), we’re left guessing at what needs fixing, and top-down shifts risk alienating the loyal core without actually solving the pipeline problem.
That said, figuring out how to break down those barriers and grow the hobby past our current boundaries is something that serves every single one of us. Bringing new, diverse voices into homebrewing isn’t just about changing numbers on a chart. It’s the economic engine that keeps our local homebrew shops open, drives maltsters and hop growers to innovate, and ensures commercial manufacturers keep supporting our gear. A larger, healthier hobby means expanded offerings, better ingredient availability, and stronger industry support for the 10-year veteran and the Day-1 newcomer alike.
As Dave points our what’s your plan for using this data? Who do you plan on working with the help expand the hobby? I would much rather see the voices in the community working together rather than pretending like they don’t need each other in a time like this. The alternative, everyone rowing in different directions while the water gets shallower, simply doesn’t serve any of us.
I definitely would have taken the survey had I known about it, but it would not have changed any of your results. I very much represent your core demographics. Hopefully at some point there is an uptick in interest for homebrewing but with the loss of a lot of local homebrew stores I think it is harder to spark interest. I even tried to get some takers in my neighborhood to join me for Big Brew Day but didn’t get anyone to join me. Even my homebrew club membership is way down. Fingers crossed the next generation learns to appreciate the Joy of Homebrewing!
I don’t understand why it’s “discouraging” that a certain demographics enjoy homebrewing and will also take time fill out a survey. What percent does it need to be before you’ll be encouraged? Why does it matter at all? It’s not like there is anything holding anyone back. This is a hobby that you do by yourself, not a team sport. Morebeer doesn’t ask for demographics when making an order. Some people just enjoy doing certain things where others do not.
I’m proud/surprised to be able to say my home brewing club is approximately 10% female, with a minority participation from Latino and Asian members. We’ve tried to engage our LHBS customer base to increase the diversity of our club, and judging by the demographics represented in the survey results, we’ve been reasonably successful. As a whole, we try to make brewing as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible, but as VP of the club I try to bring in more demographics as much as possible. I and my other board members all love beer and want to make brewing available to our community.
I am curious how the demographics of home-brewing map to the demographics of beer consumption. I am as enthusiastic as anyone to broaden the participation of the hobby to demographics outside of white middle-class men, but I wonder how many non-white, non-middle-class, non-male people consume craft beer at all.
I started brewing beer at home in 1988 using a partial mash-extract method. Years later I joined a club and learned all-grain brewing. Later I learned my local homebrew store was ripping me off, selling me products I didn’t need, and bait-and-switching me with products on the website that did not match store inventory. Now I buy ingredients online.
In the future I hope more women will brew their own beer.
Hi Brülosophy team. First off, thank you for putting together the 2026 General Homebrewer Survey. As an European homebrewer and systems engineer, I always look forward to the data you gather.
However, I want to point out a significant methodological flaw in your Demographics section: the ‘Ethnicity’ chart.
Applying US-centric bureaucratic categories (like the rigid separation of ‘White or Caucasian’ vs. ‘Hispanic or Latino’) to a global survey where roughly 36% of your respondents live outside the USA completely breaks the data integrity.
Outside of the United States, these categories are essentially meaningless. For example, as a Spaniard from Southern Europe, the US system classifies me under the linguistic macro-category of ‘Hispanic/Latino’, forcing me into the same box as someone from Argentina or Mexico, while excluding me from my geographical neighbors in Italy or Greece. When forced to choose a single option in a drop-down menu, international users are left guessing which US-political box they are supposed to fit into.
Brülosophy is built on dismantling myths, controlling variables, and respecting empirical data. Using localized, politically charged taxonomy for a worldwide audience generates massive bias and corrupts the results.
For future surveys, I highly recommend dropping the US Census ethnicity model and adopting globally accepted, objective demographic standards. Simply asking for ‘Country of Residence’ and ‘Country of Origin’ (like the ISO 3166 standard) provides a much more accurate, respectful, and genuinely global picture of the homebrewing community.
Bad taxonomy yields bad data. Keep up the great work with the exBEERiments!
I have been brewing 30+ years and have learned a lot from this site. However, there is a lot less to learn as time goes by because you’ve gained some knowledge and you have learned what you like to brew and what you don’t care about. So I look at the site a lot less that I once did.
I will add that the awful videos with that guy bouncing around like he’s hosting a kids show can’t be doing Brulosophy any favors.