What it comes down to is that homebrewing, as a hobby and a business, has changed. This is a niche hobby that has shifted from a very niche “low budget” hobby for DIY-types and eccentrics aged 18-80 to a mainstream hobby (briefly) back to a niche hobby for a certain type of “craft beer enthusiasts,” which is itself a semi-affluent and increasingly old demographic. What I mean is this went from a hobby suitable for people with free time and very little money to a hobby for people who enjoy the finer things in life and can afford to pay for them, and this happened just after a major boom and bust as millennials got into and out of the hobby in huge numbers in the 2010s. Those niche yeast manufacturers competing with Wyeast and White Labs were operating in a world where new breweries were opening every day and tons of new people were getting into home brewing and didn’t want to bother with a yeast starter. Now they are staying alive by selling a premium product at a higher price point, except it isn’t really any better than White Labs or Wyeast, so we are looking at an environment where customers have proven they will spend >$20 on liquid yeast where a similar dry yeast recently cost $1.99. This is just a new customer base changing the market by demonstrating a willingness to spend much more for a perceived slight better product, and it really has implications for how the economy of this hobby works.
We are now in a hobby that is geared towards millennials with some money (like myself). We mostly all went to college and none of us know how to weld (metal shop and auto shop were cut from shrunken school budgets before most of us got to high school). We barely own tools and we can barely use a drill, let alone a jigsaw or a router. We may have DIY spirit, but not construction/handyman skills. We may earn $150k+ per year, but still not own homes that have backyards or private garages. The same people who sustain grainfather, brewzilla and the anvil foundry will pay $24.99 for a single-use pouch of yeast if it makes the most thiolized haziest freshest NEIPA. Or alternatively, they will spend $150 to brew 5 gallons of German Pilsner that would cost them $100 to buy because it is fun and they expect to pay for things they enjoy.
The “save money brewing your own craft beer” purpose of the hobby might have died with the rise of IPA. Unfortunately so did many great styles of American craft beer. That’s not to say none of us are trying to keep the budget down or save money brewing our own, but the needle has moved in this cottage industry. Unless or until Gen Z decides they want to brew dry yeast lagers all day and demand the cheapest possible products (like they do for clothing and electronics), this is going to be a business built around an aging, affluent, shrinking demographic. Expect things to get better and more expensive.
Topic: Wyeast Raising Prices (Read 2311 times)
