Authors: Marshall Schott & Andrew Bromley
The collection of personal information has gotten a pretty rap lately, and understandably so, as it’s often used for less than noble purposes. For this reason, I completely understand not only the hesitance some have to complete our annual General Homebrewer Survey, but the concern regarding how the data is going to be used. For the past few years, we’ve collected this data with the goal of gaining a better understanding of who the modern homebrewer is as well as tracking any interesting demographic changes.
Why is this important?
For some, it’s not. It’s just that simple. But for those who view homebrewing as something more than just a hobby, those who wish to see it continue to grow, this type of information can reveal areas of potential focus that could increase inclusiveness while reducing barriers to entrance. At least, that’s our hope.
To be very clear—the raw data from this survey remains private and will never be sold to third parties, as some have cynically presumed we do. The only time it gets shared is in these articles. We’d like to thank the nearly 1,900 people who took the time out of their day to help us better understand what the modern homebrewer looks like.
After processing this year’s data, Andrew Bromley did a comparative analysis with prior years and noted a few interesting points. It’s important to note these comparisons are between cohorts and should not necessarily be interpreted as individual or community trends.
Rise Of Electric Brewing
In 2021, nearly 33% of respondents who brew using all-grain methods reported brewing on an electric system, more than doubling the 2018 rate of 13%. Electric brewing systems also overtook Brew In A Bag (BIAB) as the favorite brewing approach in 2021.
Water Is Where It’s At
It seems homebrewers are taking their water chemistry more seriously with 79% reporting they make adjustments compared to 71% in 2019, and nearly 85% of respondents said they somewhat or completely agree that it’s key for producing great beer. When it comes to calculating water additions, Brewfather wins the award for attracting the most users with nearly 15% of respondents endorsing it as their preferred software, more than doubling last year’s rate.
Convenience Over Thriftiness
There appears to be an upward trend of brewers using fresh yeast with each batch, as 54% of respondents said they don’t harvest yeast at all, which is nearly 8% higher than 4 years ago.
Just Beer
Anyone who has the gear to make beer can also make various other fermented beverages, and while a majority reported doing so, nearly 40% of respondents said they only brew beer. Curiously, the number of people who reported making cider fell from 36% in 2020 to 31% this year.
Rethinking Drinking?
Compared to 2020 where about 56% of respondents said they went days without drinking their homebrewed beer, nearly 63% of folks reported the same for 2021. While there’s no way to know, we presume these numbers were influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, as numbers from 3 and 4 years ago are more similar to this year’s data. When you’re working from home with a keezer nearby…
Huge thanks to Andrew Bromley for analyzing this data a putting it together in a way that’s nice to look at. And again, cheers to all of those who took the time to complete the survey, we appreciate it!
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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15 thoughts on “2021 General Homebrewer Survey Results”
Thanks for the info. What software do you use to create/present your graphs? Very nice.
Infogram
IMHO, one reason for the fresh yeast shift is you don’t emphasize overbuilding a yeast starter, to save yeast for the next batch, like you did 5+ years ago. Now you have yeast sponsors giving you free yeast (the most expensive yeast BTW), so you use fresh yeast. Newer readers don’t know about how much cheaper it is to overbuild a yeast starter.
I was thinking the same. There are definitely trends in the survey l results eaning towards what the Bru crew use and do. Electric brewing on the rise, less use of yeast starters and more emphasis on water additions all align.
And that’s not a bad thing. Just a thing.
Might I suggest a few additions:
-Add Seltzer to the types of fermented beverages
-Add a new question to track use of liquid vs dry yeast.
With brew shops adding seltzer recipe kits I think it would be interesting to track. Also, the dry yeast stigma perpetuated by early homebrewing literature seems to be finally fading so that would be an interesting datapoint.
Great suggestions, added both to the 2022 draft survey. Thanks!
Always interesting. The $1M question, how do we make progress as to diversity? Thanks for survey report out and all of the information this site provides!
The greatest “diversity gap” is with women. Why don’t we make progress by acknowledging that men and women can be interested in different things and there is nothing wrong with that.
Really interesting data.
I would suggest adding information about brewing software (it is only mentioned here as the tool used for water profile adjustments). It would also be interesting to know what all-in-1 brew system people are using.
Again, like previous years, rich heterosexual married white collar, white skinned American home owners dominate the respondents.
I’m still amazed by the high salary range for homebrewers with the most common bracket being $100k+. It doesn’t reflect the spread of income for the people I know who brew beer, which makes me believe that only rich people visit Brulosophy (or at least complete their surveys), but maybe poor people like me only know other poor people.
One thing I’ve noticed since 2018 surveys is that the $100k+ bracket has been steadily increasing. It could be that information presented here appeals to a certain profession that also happens to pay well, I’m not sure. I guess in the wider world, first time brewers would dwarf all other categories, but ultimately 99% of them would either never brew again or visit this site.
Any idea how this reflects other surveys?
Could also be that this type of experimental and statistical content appeals to homebrewers who have more formal STEM education – correlating to income. In the professions category of the survey engineers and computer scientists are the top two which supports this. I doubt the true population of homebrewers is so disproportionately wealthy.
I agree. I was a PhD biochemist in academia, and while I’m no longer in that field It’s probably why I’m here and still brewing. Still I never came close to that pay grade and neither did any of my colleagues. I’m UK based but I’d be surprised if the US was that different. Of course academia can’t pay what private business can. My goodness, I if I had that sort of expendable income I would be running a big shiny brewery by now….one can dream…
Interesting stuff; thanks for analyzing it all and sending it out. One small point: I find it difficult to match the small colored circles with the plot lines. The colors are only slightly different in some cases. An arrow pointing to each plot line would be a lot easier to match.
It would be interesting to see what brewing software people are using for their recipes and calculations. e.g. own excel, beersmith, brewtoad, probrewer, brewersfriend etc.
Already added for 2022