The Cost Crisis: 2022 Onwards

If Covid was the first punch, inflation was the second — and it landed harder because breweries were already on the ropes.

The numbers are brutal. CO2 costs rose by nearly 73%. Energy costs — and brewing is energy-intensive — jumped more than 57%. Beer cans went up 20%. Cardboard packaging rose 22%. Trading grain prices spiked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and European heatwaves hammered harvests. Meanwhile, the Covid emergency loans that many breweries had taken on variable rates were suddenly far more expensive as the Bank of England base rate climbed from 0.1% in late 2021 to 5.25% by August 2023.

Every single input cost went up. The price breweries could charge barely moved.

Kelham Island Brewery in Sheffield announced its closure in May 2022 after thirty-two years. This wasn't some underfunded startup — it was a trailblazer. When Ed Wickett opened it in 1990, it was the first new brewery in Sheffield for over a century. Their Pale Rider won CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain in 2004. None of that mattered when the costs hit. Wickett blamed "a whirlwind of problems" — Covid, fuel surcharges, utility costs, and a brewery that needed investment he couldn't afford. It was later rescued by a group including Thornbridge Brewery's Jim Harrison, but the original business was done.

Buxton Brewery in Derbyshire entered administration in May 2024. They'd made a loss of £215,000 in the year to March 2023, swinging from a profit of £185,000 the previous year — a £400,000 turnaround in the wrong direction. The directors tried to refinance in December 2023 and failed. The brewery was sold in a pre-pack deal for just £120,000. A business that had been profitable and well-regarded, sold for less than the price of a modest house.

Tatton Brewery in Knutsford closed in February 2024 after fourteen years, blaming rising costs of living, fuel, and raw materials. Elland Brewery in Yorkshire faced liquidation in early 2024 — famous for their 1872 Porter, which won CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain five times. Five times. It didn't save them.