After years of substantial growth, craft beer is beginning to slow down slightly, while craft spirits are passing into a phase similar in scale to craft beer’s previous decade-long expansion, according to the Craft Breweries and Distilleries Machinery and Automation Trends white paper by PMMI.

The research notes that despite nearing its peak, craft beer continues expanding, albeit at a lesser rate. Sales volume still grew by 5% in 2017, accounting for 12.7% of the beer market by volume and 23 percent by revenue. 

Craft spirits, on the other hand, continues to experience a meteoric rise growing nearly 30% and exceeding $3.7 billion in total sales. With the benefit of craft brew’s accelerated blueprint to learn from, craft distilling is expanding at a more controlled rate to avoid overextending capabilities and budgets. Seeing the number of craft brewery closures picking up — with a five year high of 126 shuttering its doors in 2017 — craft distillers are keeping operations quaint and production goals modest.

Though craft beer and craft spirits are at different stages of growth and maturity in their respective markets, they are ultimately quite similar, with several overlapping industry challenges and needs. Download the infographic below.

To address these challenges, check out the solutions at PACK EXPO Las Vegas and the co-located Healthcare Packaging EXPO (Sept. 23-25, 2019; Las Vegas Convention Center). Registration, which includes access to both PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO, is $30 through Aug. 30 after which the price increases to $100. For more information and to register online, visit packexpolasvegas.com and hcpelasvegas.com.