Is craft beer in trouble? Yes. And no.

But perhaps most importantly for Charleston — craft beer is very much still here.

More than 10 breweries and brew pubs of almost 40 have closed since Charleston City Paper published its Hops master list in 2023. Across the nation, craft beer output fell 4 percent in 2024.

There are multiple contributing factors when it comes to the decline of craft beer and the closing of breweries — one could point to the oversaturation of the market or the change in consumer behavior (Gen Z, apparently, isn’t drinking as much).

The doomsday narrative surrounding craft beer’s recent decline, though, ignores the less exciting but much more heartening fact: plenty of breweries continue to thrive. Twenty breweries remain in the Charleston area. City Paper talked

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