The last survey the AHA conducted was a while ago. I am not sure about the cross section of the brewing population that responded to this survey, but in a data void the AHA could use it to gain insight into at least a portion of its target audience.
Especially alarming in my mind is the data point of those not planning to renew their AHA membership. I can only imagine it’s a value based decision. I know I let my membership lapse until encouragement from Julia. Based on her influence I began competing and joined a club. If my club and competitions didn’t require I maintain AHA membership I probably wouldn’t. I can say my beer has improved due to the club and competitions. That has created the value for me.
Another issue is the age of the homebrewer. Welcoming younger adults and especially women into the organization may prove to be challenging as these are the same folks raising families, developing career paths, and are less likely to have discretionary income for what can be argued as an expensive hobby when balanced again life’s priorities. The economy may not support a discretionary surplus in a household budget to spend on a hobby or even a premium commercial beverage. I imagine sales have dropped at HomeBrew shops as well as bottle shops.
I know in my club all the members are white, we have two women that come: one works at the brewery where we meet and the other comes with her partner. I understand a cpl more women used to attend with their husbands but quit coming because it’s all guys. Of course, their absence just magnified the point.
I encourage the ladies to enter into the women’s only competitions but I don’t think they want the added expense of entry fees, packaging, and shipping on top of the expense of brewing the beer/mead/cider.
It might be that women are better judges. Some of my best feedback has come from women: they have improved by hobby. I even try to get my daughter-in-law to taste every one of my beers to get her perception(s).
Every monthly meeting I hear the stories of 30-40 yr old guys struggling to balance the hobby with life. Their kids are in sports, they’re traveling for work or with the family, they just don’t have time, etc. Us older guys can sympathize because we’ve been there, done that. I have the luxury of time. I can shoehorn a brewday nearly any day of the week, especially one of my small 1.5 gal batches. The larger 3 gal batches consume more time due to heating and cooling larger volumes of liquid.
As far as books are concerned: I think most younger folks read electronically. Few pick up a physical book these days. My granddaughter is in college and I’ve never seen a book. It’s all on her laptop. I am 62 and I even prefer reading on my iPad. I can carry my whole library on it. It’s easier to search for information and I can highlight and bookmark. If my brewing books aren’t available on the Kindle app I rarely refer to them. Even when traveling we use Audible to read to us. It’s great! The AHA needs to understand that and offer all their publications electronically as well as hard copy.
There are other suggestions the survey makes that could be used to direct attention. These are just a cpl. I believe the big takeaway is the AHA has to stay relevant or get left behind.