Is the Homebrew hobby in decline?

[Chippy_Tea]

Searches have been on the decline since 2011

 

[Rwilts]

Funny really, if true, given the cost of commercial beers these days ! I am sure a lot of us were brewing long before YouTube homebrew channels (which I do enjoy) flourished and will probably carry on.

 

[White Rose Al]

It's one of those hobbies that you can come back to over and over again.

I think the main issue (taking cost out if it for the time being), is getting through the beer but at the same time enjoying the brew day.

I like a drink as much as the next person, but brew minimum of 19L at a time. If I brew every weekend that is an awful lot to get through

 

[soupdragon]

There's always the possibility of the younger generation not needing to ask so many questions on the internet. I would imagine there are a higher proportion of newer brewers with brewing parents they have watched as they were growing up

Cheers Tom

 

[jambop]

Have you seen some of the half wits on youtube demonstrating their brewing skills? I admit they are not all the same but some of what I have seen borders on wierd. I saw a video of one of our merkin cousins sparging his grains while standing on a chair with the malt basket hanging by a rope over the kettle! Talk about dangerous and this was a Bz gen 4 the malt basket does not reduce the pre boil volume what was his idea?? Other than that many videos are just ........ titles showing you nothing!
Some are very good especially when the subject is about a particular method for a particular brewing system BUT there is only so much anybody can learn from youtube videos and personally I do not watch brewing videos for entertainment.

 

[MashBag]

Is the bigger question the decline of alcohol drinking on the younger generation?

If you don't drink it, you don't need to make it.

 

[White Rose Al]

Is the bigger question the decline of alcohol drinking on the younger generation?

If you don't drink it, you don't need to make it.

That's a really valid point.

I am in my 40s and love to try different beers went out in pubs, occasionally finishing on my regular favourites.

The younger drinks are all about variety, go to any of the now called 'modern craft' bar in towns and City's. It's a massive list to which I have seen younger drinkers work through halves and thirds.

Difficult with home brewing to quantify so many small batch brews

 

[Clint]

Need to compare with pre covid. I bet nearly all the new home brewers from the covid years don't brew any more.

 

[JockyBrewer]

I think possibly things have declined since the home brew boom as younger people are increasingly drinking less or not at all, but also I'd not put too much faith in Google search trends.

Google has been pretty terrible at finding useful stuff for the past decade thanks to procedural/AI written pages that are very well optimised to get a high ranking but are a terrible experience for the user.

More and more beginners that need to search for 'home brew' are using social media instead. They're generally younger (early 20s) so have had Facebook, Youtube, Reddit etc for the majority of their lives, while Google has been garbage for most of that time.

 

[Leon103]

Only skipped bits of the video, instantly found the guy annoying. I never watch youtube for brewing, just find most people annoying. I subscribe to the hapless ginger - or something like that but he hardly posts. He is **** head that brews.

Where do google trends get their data from? The younger generation don't use google and certainly wouldn't use youtube to watch videos, it would be TikTok and Snapchat etc.

 

[jambop]

Personally I think forums such as this one are very relevant and once you have found a forum you like you stop net searching for information and ask questions on the forum. Youtubers have largely ran their course with regard to brewing. Newcomers want information not to watch someone make a batch of NEIPA .

 

[old dog new tricks]

surprised by this tbh yes there was the lock down spike that will have fallen away, but things like turbo cider are so easy and accessible from supermarket ingredients.

perception that its an old mans hobby and you need lots of expensive key also put some off I think.

On the plus the Scottish Govt keep raising minimum unit alcohol pricing, that may drive a few more home brewers haha

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised how easy the kits are these days

 

[Rodcx500z]

Both of my kids only drink on occasions and very rarely at that

 

[Clint]

Future nanny state government will ban smoking,drinking,eating meat,driving your car...get it while you can.

 

[Rodcx500z]

on tv this morning some minister woman was saying, vapeing changes dna in the lungs similar to smoking good choice of word, thats like saying Indian style curry or fresh ale is similar to cask, mean while millions of teeth are falling out because you can't get in the dentist, have you seen them new steaks tesco are selling they are similar to wagu

 

[Pavros]

Need to compare with pre covid. I bet nearly all the new home brewers from the covid years don't brew any more.

This!!
I remember that all the online retailers were running short of kits during the first lockdown. I suspect all the new brewers from that period stopped as soon as they could go back to the pub.

Also, the younger generations don't drink anywhere near as much as I did when it was a normal routine to go out on a Saturday night 'doon the toon'. We used to start at 7pm but last orders were 10.30 - it almost killed us when it changed to 11pm as we tried to fit 2 more rounds in! Now, it seems that people tend to go out for 9pm or so after having a couple of cheap supermarket drinks at home while getting ready.

 

[old dog new tricks]

to be fair its a lot more expensive now to do a session in a pub

the overly sweet alchopops have a lot to answer for as well

 

[Clint]

Yeah...what in the name of Jesus are PRE-DRINKS???
Everyone before the last one?
Going out AFTER 10pm....its kebab time then!

 

[jambop]

to be fair its a lot more expensive now to do a session in a pub

the overly sweet alchopops have a lot to answer for as well

I have just got back to being able to brew again after having had a wrist operation. Now I did a big stock up of beer to hopefully see me to the end of my recovery but it ran out. So I had to buy beer... dear oh dear! You do not realise how poor beers like Leffe , Affligem, Grimbergen and the like are until you have to drink them, compared to homebrewed beer they are just so sterile. The only thing the have is high alcohol content IMO and these are suppoed to be higher quality than the Stella, 1664 and the like.

 

[MickDundee]

Need to compare with pre covid. I bet nearly all the new home brewers from the covid years don't brew any more.

When I first started going to my local Homebrew Club in 2022 (I’d been brewing for 7 years at that point), it wasn’t unusual for meeting attendance numbers to be in the high teens.

In the last 6-12 months we are down to about 10 “core” members and there have been months where we’ve only had 4 of us able to make it.