How the trade wars are impacting American craft brewers

America’s craft brewers already have enough problems. Hard seltzers and cocktails are muscling into beer sales. Millennials and Gen Zers don’t drink as much as their elders. Brewpubs still haven’t fully recovered from the shock of COVID-19 five years ago.

Now there’s a new threat: President Donald Trump’s tariffs, including levies of 25% on imported steel and aluminum and on goods from Canada and Mexico.

“It’s going to cost the industry a substantial amount of money,” says Matt Cole, brewmaster at Ohio-based Fat Head’s Brewery. Trump’s trade war “will be crippling for our industry if this carries out into months and years.”

The tariffs, some of which have been suspended until April 2, could impact brewers in ways big and small, says Bart Watson, president and CEO of the Brewers Association, the trade group for craft beer. Aluminum cans are in Trump’s crosshairs. And nearly all the steel kegs used by U.S. brewers are made in Germany, so a tariff on finished steel products raises the cost of kegs. Tariffs on Canadian products like barley and malt would also increase costs. And some brewers depend on raspberries and other fruit from Mexico, Watson says.

At Port City Brewing in Alexandria, Virginia, founder Bill Butcher worries that he’ll have to raise the price of a six-pack of his best-selling Optimal Wit and other brews to $18.99 from around $12.99, and to charge more for a pint at his tasting room.

“Are people still going to come here and pay $12 a pint instead of $8?’’ he says. “Our business will slow down.’’

For Port City, the biggest threat comes from the looming tariff on Canadian imports. Every three weeks, the brewery receives a 40,000-pound truckload of pilsner malt from Canada, which goes into a 55,000-pound silo on the brewery’s grounds. Butcher says he can’t find malt of comparable quality anywhere else.

Trump’s tariffs also hit Port City in a round-about way: The levy on aluminum, which went into effect March 12, is causing big brewers to switch from aluminum cans to bottles. Port City, which bottles 70% of its beer, found itself unable to get bottles.

“Our bottle supplier is cutting us off at the end of the month,’’ Butcher says. “That caught us by surprise.’’

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