A report released this week by the Beer Institute, unofficially estimating the domestic tax paid shipments by U.S. beer brewers, identified 13.159 million barrels, a decrease of 7.3% versus October 2015 removals of 14.195 million.
The Beer Institute is a national trade association for the American brewing industry, representing both large and small brewers, as well as importers and industry suppliers.
The 7.3% decrease of October 2016 compared with October 2015 comes after a 2.4% decrease between September 2016 and September 2015. Last year that month the volume removal was 15.583 million barrels. This year that month, it was down 371,000 to 15.212 million.
August of 2016, however, was a bright spot. The volume was up 3.5% versus 2015, to 16.198 million.
U.S. beer volume overall is down 1.2% through October, compared with this time in 2015: 147.766 million barrels compared with 149.498 million in 2015, a difference of 1,732,096.