The old adage states that "nothing goes up forever," but the craft beer industry would prefer to have you think otherwise.
Since the late 1970s, microbreweries have been popping up like weeds across the country, with some eventually blooming into national brewers. In fact, the number of breweries in the U.S. has exploded from just 89 in the late 1970s to 2,538 as of 2013, according to the Brewers Association. At the current double-digit growth rate, we may have more than 6,500 breweries in this country by 2025.
With this rapid rise in craft beer interest, it has to be asked whether this growth is sustainable, or if we're entering a "craft beer bubble."