Vermont’s craft beer industry shifts from booming to 'maturing'

This story originally aired on “Marketplace” on May 22. Listen to Marketplace each weekday at 6:30 p.m. on Vermont Public.

Pour one out for the craft brewing industry.

What was once a booming market, adding breweries by the hundreds every year, has now stagnated.

Last year, for the first time in two decades, more breweries closed than opened in the U.S and craft beer production fell by nearly 4%, according to the Brewers Association , an industry trade group. That’s pushing surviving breweries to rethink their business models as they navigate a changing market.

A decade ago, the craft beer boom was solidly in the cultural zeitgeist. When Avery Schwenk of Brattleboro, Vermont, quit his job as a paramedic to start a brewery with his friend, he said his sister sent him a car