More than 70 craft breweries and 1,200 beer aficionados gathered at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis on Saturday for the Autumn Brew Review.

With summerlike temperatures, the event gave fans of craft beer and brewers a chance to connect for one of the last sunny days before the changing of the seasons take hold.

Matt Holton is co-owner of Wandering Leaf Brewing in St. Paul and was at the event. He said attendance this year was solid, but noted the struggles the industry has been facing over the past few years.

“It's a weird time in craft beer. We're seeing more closures than openings, and there's a lot of doom and gloom out there, just with changing consumer preferences. Debt got expensive,” Holton said. “But events like these are [a] really good time for us as brewers to meet with our our peers because we don't often get out of our own tap rooms.”

Holton said he's noticing a return to a collaborative spirit amongst breweries that he felt around the COVID-19 pandemic, although resources and funds continue to tighten.

Jeff Zierdt is co-founder and president of Lupulin Brewing Company in Big Lake, Minn. He's also on the board for the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, and he said the industry has faced a lot of challenges lately, dating back to the pandemic.

“It goes back to COVID. I mean, people hate to keep hearing that, but you know what? Everyone was on an upward momentum build within the industry, and, all of a sudden, COVID hit,” Zierdt said. “Things changed, habits changed, and since then, we've all been hit — whether it was a turn down in the market from restaurants, a turn down of liquor stores, the entry of THC products into the mix.”

Zierdt says breweries will lean in to some revolutionary ideas, like developing THC products or sharing business operations through collectives — allowing different businesses to support each other, similar to how Fulton, Finnegans, Bemidji and N*RC Sparkling THC joined together to form True North Beverage.

But Zierdt says the biggest thing that will help the local craft brewers is customers showing up.

“You need to keep supporting your local breweries that are local. You need to support them both at their tap rooms, in the liquor stores, at bars, restaurants,” he said. “Because that's what's going to keep a lot of people around, is supporting local.”

The Autumn Brew Review is the brewery guild’s oldest event, celebrating 25 years of bringing craft beer and customers together.

Bob Galligan with the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild said the event is often subject to weather, and with the summerlike conditions, people attended, but passed on traditional fall fare like s’mores and bonfires.

Tim Engelstad of New Brighton and Mandee Lewandowski of Minneapolis went to the event to support local breweries and enjoy the weather.

Englestad was impressed by the vast number of breweries at the event, even though he was aware of some businesses struggling and even shuttering.

"The peak was probably 2012-2016 of breweries. I think it's a little bit of market correction. There were so many about a dozen years ago, but it's still thriving. Obviously, I'm seeing breweries from Austin, Cannon Falls, Chisago City."

Lewandowski said she loves how local breweries support the community, and she wants to return the favor.

“If you can get people out of their house to raise money for good things, and beer’s involved, it's just so smart,” she said. “I think that local organizations and businesses partnering with brewers is just the way to do it. So you feel good. I love drinking for a cause.”

She’s trying not to keep alcohol in her home as much nowadays, but when she does buy beer, she says she focuses on local breweries first.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.