What do changing tastes mean for Grand Rapids’ craft brew industry?

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Side brewery has closed its doors, faced with an industry no longer in its golden years.

Broad Leaf Brewery & Spirits opened its West Side location on Bridge Street near Seward Avenue in November 2022, with its owners hoping to continue the brand and energy they had built up in the Kentwood location.

“We thought we could bring it into the city and get that same love that we got from out here (in Kentwood),” Broad Leaf CEO Jason Spaulding said.

Despite having offerings like an outdoor garden patio, Spaulding said the Bridge Street location “just didn’t pan out.” Owners tried adding more arcade games near the end of the 2023, which did bring an uptick in business, but Spaulding said the location still needed to double its business to remain open.

“We’re trying not to kick ourselves too much about it,” he said. “It’s hard. You can’t be successful at everything. Sometimes you’re going to fall behind expectations, and we tried something and it just didn’t work.”

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Several regulars braved the winter storm Saturday before the location closed its doors for the last time. It was an emotional day, Spaulding said, but one he had known was coming.

While he and his wife are still leasing the space, Spaulding is working with their landlord to find another business or restaurant to take it over.

Spaulding has been in West Michigan’s microbrewery industry for more than a decade. He and his wife, who co-own Broad Leaf Brewery & Spirits, opened Brewery Vivant on Cherry Street near Lake Drive in Grand Rapids around 13 years ago.

“Vivant is a pretty special place,” he said. “I feel like it’s part of the fabric of Grand Rapids at this point. … Most people are aware that we’re there and it’s still solid. It’s doing great.”

He said he sees a bright future at Brewery Vivant — which will offer things like elk on its menu this weekend for Wild Game Weekend — and Broad Leaf in Kentwood, and closing the third location “actually will help make these other places stronger.”

But there are certainly a lot more breweries in the Grand Rapids area now compared to when Brewery Vivant first opened, and Spaulding said the industry “doesn’t quite get the fame and fanfare that it used to.”

“It’s still a strong industry, but I wouldn’t want to be opening a brewery right now,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s worth trying to open something new right now.”

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE DRINKING LESS BEER

It’s a trend seen at beer cities across the country. Economic expert Paul Isely, an associate dean in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University, said he examined cities known for their microbreweries, like Portland, Oregon; Asheville, North Carolina; Milwaukee and Grand Rapids. He found that in every single city, there was a drop in beer output between 2014 and 2017.

“It really was stunning to me to look at the different cities that I think of as places where I go to have a beer, and to see every single one of those cities having drops in their total production was amazing,” Isely said. “The big deal to me is that major change in taste that’s happening U.S.-wide.”

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In Kent County, there was a “pretty drastic” drop in beer output. Measured in dollars, the county’s beer output dropped by nearly half between 2017 and 2020, Isely said. It has come up a bit since then, he said, and there were even bigger drops in places like Portland, Oregon.

“There’s been a generational shift in what people want to drink, and that might be a fact of wanting to drink less alcohol or might be wanting to drink different types of alcohol. Every generation wants to be a little different than the generation before it,” he said. “Millennials were so highly tied to the craft brewing industry that it’s not unusual to see this happen.”

It’s a trend Spaulding echoed.

“I think part of that is, ‘Craft beer, that’s what my dad drank. So I’m going to do something else,'” he said.

Young people are also starting to show more interest in becoming sober or ‘sober-curious,’ many partaking in ‘Dry January.’

“I think the stigma (of sobriety) has decreased,” Aaron Mowen, director of recreational wellness at GVSU, previously told News 8. “If you say that you’re sober, or I offer you a beverage and you say no, that’s cool now.”

BEER CONSUMPTION IN NUMBERS

A Gallup study found that between 2021 and 2023, 62% of those under the age of 35 drank alcohol; two decades ago, 72% drank alcohol. Those who are drinking are drinking less. The study found that fewer than 4 in 10 young adults are regular drinkers (measured by those who said they had a drink in the last seven days).

It found that one of the biggest factors is a more diverse population: white Americans are most likely to drink alcohol, Gallup says, and the amount of young people who are Black, Hispanic, Asian or another racially minority “nearly doubled over the past two decades.”

It said marijuana use, which has almost doubled in young adults since 2013, could also be a factor.

Overall, the percentage of Americans drinking alcohol has held about steady since close to the end of Prohibition, another Gallup study found, with 62% of adults drinking alcohol — about the same as the 63% average in data going back to 1939.

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The amount of drinkers peaked in the late 1970s, Gallup says, with a percentage of 71%.

The amount of beer, specifically, that Americans are drinking has declined in the last 40 years. he Pew Research Center, citing data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, found that people over the age of 21 drank an average of 36.7 gallons of beer in 1981, a figure that dropped by 10 gallons to 26.5 in 2021.

Still, it’s the favorite. A sum total of 37% of drinkers prefer beer, Gallup says, more than any other type of alcohol. But it’s not quite as dominant as it used to be, as in the late 1990s and early 2000s close to half preferred beer, and it’s far more popular among male drinkers (53%) than female drinkers (22%).

THRIVING MICROBREWERIES OFFER MORE THAN BEER

The microbrewery industry is starting to stabilize, GVSU’s Isely said. While there is still some fallout, he believes “a lot of the fallout that was going to happen really happened during COVID.”

Those that are doing well are those with a good “hook” outside of craft beer, he said, like a good restaurant or a good location.

Or a pickleball court.

Spaulding said at their Kentwood location, “business has been different, too.”

The building has a large warehouse for the business’ wholesale side, which saw some challenges after the pandemic. The team made the decision to pull down a 3,500-square-foot, 16-foot high cooler and put the space to better use.

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Spaulding came up with the idea for “kick pin,” bowling but with soccer balls, and his team suggested adding pickleball courts.

“We put a lot of work in this place, simultaneously closing one place, opening something new. It’s just been a lot of work,” he said. “So it’s fun to finally get it all done.”

The courts offer tables for people to sit and watch others play pickleball, fitting in with the brewery’s personality. He said mixing a restaurant setting with some form of entertainment goes together really well. And the pickleball courts, which have had their soft opening and will have a grand opening this weekend, have already proven to be popular.

“We’re seeing them bring in other activities that give people the ability to do something other than drink the microbrew, and that seems like it’s becoming important,” Isely said.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’s hard to say what the industry will look like in five or 10 years. Isely said what he does know is the area’s population is aging, and an older population tends to drink less beer.

“It also might suggest that people have enough income that they want quality over quantity,” he said. “So I don’t know which way it’s going to go at this point, but I know that it’s going to change. It’s going to be dynamic and the people who are running these institutions at this moment are going to have to keep their pulse on what the consumer really wants and be able to adjust and change in order to stay in business.”

Richard App, the retail retention and attraction specialist for the city of Grand Rapids, said they city is “going to continue to evolve.”

“We’re seeing businesses like Mammoth Distillery that opened their sixth tap room here in Grand Rapids,” he said. “There are other businesses outside of Grand Rapids … that have contacted me that are looking to come in. So I feel like we’re a strong food and beverage town and I believe that’s going to continue.”

He said he’s loving seeing more ‘mocktails,’ non-alcoholic cocktails, on the city’s menus.

“I think there’s a lot of people doing that innovation,” he said. “The better restaurants are always going to be innovative as far as what they’re producing… To me, innovation for any type of independent business is always going to be key.”

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App encouraged residents to patronize microbreweries and other restaurants in January, which tends to be a slow month for the industry. He also encouraged patrons who want to eat at home to pick it up, instead of having it delivered, as those fees can be lost for the businesses.

“I would ask people, especially when we’ve got this inclement weather … make sure that you are conscious of supporting those restaurants,” he said.

Spaulding said his team is working on offering more nonalcoholic options so nondrinkers can have more to drink than a soda. They’ve also shifted to start making spirits and seltzers, so that they can have something for everybody.

He said he also sees drinkers looking for craft beers when they go to other restaurants, which wasn’t true when he first opened Brewery Vivant.

“That’s a success in its own, that there’s a place that people are looking for craft beer,” he said. “It’s not like craft beer is over. It’s just, you can’t grow forever. So I think the growth is going to slow down, but it’s still a pretty tight-knit community. We get along really well with the other local breweries and we still love what we do.”

While there may not be opportunities to become as successful as, say, Founders Brewing Co., he believes there is still space for local microbreweries.

“I do think all these little neighborhood places, they’re just fun. They become personalities of their neighborhood and of the city. So I think there’s always a place for that … to make those gathering places that make their own food, make their own beer. It echoes what’s going on in the city.”

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