After a boom, Craft Beer is considering a new credo: Less is More

More than a decade ago, when Ryan Guererri was in his early twenties, he became obsessed with craft beer. As breweries launched new products non-stop, he bought hundreds of different beers, from bitter IPAs to strong Belgian ales.

“It was exciting to try everything,” says Mr. Guererri, who is now 35 and an HR manager in Geneva, N.Y.

But with more than 9,500 breweries in the United States, tasting every lager and pilsner is nearly impossible, and not all that tasty. “It's easy to get overwhelmed,” he said. These days, Mr. Guerreri keeps his refrigerator mostly stocked with just a small collection of tried-and-true brands.

His move to simplicity reflects a broader shift in the beer world. After years of offering a steady, often weekly, succession of new products, many breweries, bars and supermarkets have scaled back the amount they make, serve and sell.

In part, this is a concession to economic reality: Americans are buying less beer, opting instead for canned spirits and cocktails, or abstaining from alcohol altogether.

According to the market research agency, sales of beer in stores fell by 3.1 percent in volume in November last year compared to a year earlier. NIQ. Turnover at bars and restaurants fell by almost 4.7 percent. (For craft beer alone, the decline was even sharper: 5.3 percent in retail sales and 6.7 percent in bars and restaurants.)

“People don't wait with bated breath for weekly releases,” says Jacob Landry, the founder and CEO of Urban South Brewery, with offices in New Orleans and Houston. In 2020, Mr. Landry's team introduced eight new beers every week. Nowadays they produce three or four a month.

Whole Foods Marketwhich helped bring craft beer from smaller breweries to the mainstream, began gradually reducing its beer offerings about six years ago to accommodate drinks like hard seltzers.

While the company is no longer reducing its lineup, “we are asking more from brands,” said Mary Guiver, the company's top category trader for beer. (She added that Whole Foods is now prioritizing brands owned by women and people of color, as well as breweries that use traditional grains and champion carbon-neutral initiatives.)

Craft breweries and their complex beers emerged as an alternative to regular lagers that varied mainly in branding, but not in taste. And brewery taprooms became destinations for drinkers looking to try a variety of beers in small pour form.

Suarez family brewery in Livingston, N.Y., which opened in 2016, offered a single size (about eight ounces) of about eight beers, including fragrant pilsners and pale ales, which “caused a lot of pain in choosing,” said Dan Suarez, the brewer and an owner.

After the brewery closed its taproom during the pandemic, Mr. Suarez switched to the model of traditional European taverns and breweries that serve only one or two beers at a time. In 2022, the taproom reopened with one draft beer, and a second was added last year.

New releases are rare for Mr. Suarez, who produces only one original recipe annually. “For me as a brewer it is something special,” he says.

For a decade on Tired hands brewing in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, where he became head brewer, Colin McFadden made hundreds of limited-edition beers. But he wondered: wouldn't it be nice to go deep instead of wide?

In August, he teamed up with Keith Shore, a former art director for Mikkeller Beer, to open Meeting house, a bar and restaurant in Philadelphia. It offers five cocktails, four wines and five beers, including easy-drinking pale, dark and hoppy ales that Mr. McFadden brews nearby.

“Some choice felt necessary, but too much choice felt problematic,” he said. “I've had very few people say, 'Why are there so few beers?'”

Selling just a few beers is not a new phenomenon. McSorley's old beer house in New York City is known for offering only two house beers on tap: one light and one dark ale. Sacred profane brewing in Biddeford, Maine, follows that tradition by brewing only a pale lager and a dark lager poured from copper tanks. Guests can select the amount of foam and try the beers mixed or blended with lemonade.

“It's not about how much beer we can make,” says Mike Fava, founder and chief operating officer of Sacred Profane. “It's about how many things we can do with the beers.”

Focusing on two beers gives Brienne Allan, the brewery's brewmaster and president, time to refine them. And this selective approach suits the beer distributors who connect breweries with retailers. Overwhelmed by so many brands, “they are so happy to hear that we don't have that many” beers, Mr. Fava said.

Montucky cold snacks, in Montana, has found national success with its only beer, a light lager, sold in 36 states. “You're an expert at one thing,” says Jeff Courteau, the company's vice president of sales.

The downside: If the beer doesn't sell, “I can't come by a month later with an IPA,” he said.

Bars may not even have room for extra beer. Many are reconsidering how much beer to buy.

“I don't need five pilsners,” says Olivier Rassinoux, the vice president of restaurant and bar at Patina Restaurant Group, headquartered in Buffalo. At Patina Banners Kitchen & Tapa sports bar with 72 taps in Boston, the bar turned two taps last year on keg margaritas and plans to add additional draft cocktails and wine.

Max's Tap House, a Baltimore beer institution since 1986, is buying smaller barrels to fill its 113 taps and downsizing its extensive cellar of large-format bottled beers. They've fallen out of fashion and leftover bottles are “turning into nostalgic souvenirs,” says general manager Jason Scheerer.

Unlike wine, most beers do not improve with age. Bars and shops that sell a limited range are therefore attractive to brewers like Bob Kunz, the founder of Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles.

“Few retailers can keep beer fresh if they have more than 10 taps,” Kunz said.

In the Highland Park taproom, Mr. Kunz sees an increasing demand for a time-honored classic: beer jugs.

“No one has to think about what they buy,” he said. “Ultimately you have more collective experiences when you drink the same beer.”