Inside The State Of Beer With NBWA Economist Lester Jones

Craft Brewery Financial Training Podcast · Oct 30, 2025 · 55m · transcript

Beer volumes are down, dollars are soft, and the usual playbook isn’t working.

We brought back Lester Jones, chief economist at the National Beer Wholesalers Association, to cut through the noise with data, plain talk, and a clear plan for getting back to growth.

Lester breaks down what’s structural—demographics, consumption occasions, and channel mix—and what’s cyclical—slower hiring, fewer hours worked, and sticky inflation—and shows how those forces collide to shape beer demand in 2025.

We unpack the Beer Purchasers’ Index and why distributor sentiment remains cautious, then dig into…