But that explosive growth came to a screeching halt in the late '90s when more than 400 pubs and breweries closed their doors. For Muller and the 1,500 other microbreweries and brew pubs who've managed to stay afloat, their resolve is paying off. Many prospective brewers weren't fully aware of the considerable expense involved in opening a brewing facility or the difficulties of the marketplace, said Tom Stevenson, president of The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild and the brewer at Triumph Brewing Co. in Princeton. There were a number of breweries, not just in New Jersey, but all over the country, who felt that simply making really good beer was all they needed to do. Craft beer is continuing to grow in terms of consumption, said Bill Metzger, publisher of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, a regional newspaper on the industry.
More people consume it every year.
That's never stopped. It's just that it went past that fast-growth stage. Brewing beer is an expensive venture. And many brewers tried to recoup those expenses too quickly. About half a dozen New Jersey breweries failed for just that reason, said Stevenson.