With a maturing market and mounting economic pressures, the question of whether hiring will become easier or remain a defining hurdle for the next decade can draw sharply varied responses from industry leaders.
For some, the challenge has little to do with labor supply and more to do with alignment and culture. Wesley Keegan, founder of Nashville’s TailGate Brewery, said compensation and treatment are foundational but insufficient on their own.
“Treating people well should never be a challenge. It is the only way to operate. And businesses say thank you by paying you great,” Keegan said. “That said, you need a team that has bought into your mission. They have to love what you do. They have to align. The best wages for the wrong people don’t mean a thing.”
Keegan said hiring conditions have not materially shifted for his company.
“I don’t think hiring has changed at all for us,” he told Brewer during questions emailed out for its 2026 Expert Outlook. “Our ability to show who we are? That’s the challenge. Always has been.”
For Las Vegas’ Beer Zombies, Chris Jacobs sees the next decade defined less by recruitment and more by retention and development.
“We’ve learned that culture is everything,” Jacobs said. “When people believe in what you’re building — the art, the story, the energy — they’ll go all in. That takes leadership, clear communication, and giving your team the tools to grow, not just grind.”
Jacobs expects staffing pressures to center on long-term career pathways.
“The next 5–10 years will be about retention, empowerment, and building careers in craft, not just jobs,” he said.
Others point to structural pressures that complicate that outlook. Chad Heath, beer division COO at Karl Strauss, said talent remains both the most valuable and the hardest asset to secure.
“Overall finding people, qualified, passionate and talented people are not only your most valuable resource, but also the hardest to find, retain and afford,” Heath said.
He also noted that warehouse and logistics roles are particularly competitive.
“This difficulty compounds in warehouse and logistics where the competition is massive and the pay range is severely compressed,” he said. “Once you find people that fit your mold in warehouse and logistics, do all you can to hang onto them.
“Having less than qualified people in these areas can be damaging to a company in so many ways.”
In high-cost states, wage pressure intensifies the issue. Jerry Siote, director of brewhouse operations at Lone Tree Brewing, said turnover is difficult to avoid when compensation struggles to keep pace with living expenses.
“For us, trying to pay sufficient wages/benefits in a high cost state such as Colorado will increase the rate of turnover, no matter how passionate/devoted the individual employee may be,” he said. Siote added that passion has long functioned as an informal benefit within craft beer, but that dynamic has limits.
“The craft beer industry relies heavily on staff retaining the drive, ambition, and creativity as a net ‘benefit’ outside of what employers can offer,” he said. “Once someone loses this, then the overall Employee ‘ROI investment’ goes down with it. It’s incumbent on the leadership of every brewery to find those people with that passion-factor — and do everything you can to keep them.”
Some report more encouraging signs, though often with caveats. Ryan Bandy, chief business officer of Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, said his company has experienced strong applicant flow in recent years.
“We’ve been fairly lucky in the last few years — our taprooms remain really strong in our neighborhoods and we get a lot of applicants,” Bandy said. “We’ve seen the same with our warehousing and packaging roles.”
Still, he described staffing as a constant balancing act.
“I think a good business is always building relationships around the city and the industry to help with the more complicated roles, to keep staffing as easy as possible,” he said. “But it’s always a bit of a challenge at our size to be able to balance pay, experience, and have a good training program.”
In Montana, the picture is mixed. Travis Peterson, founder of Meadowlark Brewing, said hiring conditions can vary sharply by location and season.
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“Staffing is a hard one to predict,” Peterson said. “This spring and summer (in 2025) was the easiest time we have ever had in finding employees at our Billings location.
“But our original location suffers because of the inability to find reliable staff.”
Peterson added that economic strain has not necessarily translated into larger applicant pools. “Surprisingly, as the economy stretches budgets more we have seen a decrease in applicants. ‘Young kids just don’t want to work these days,’ seems to be a cliché that is becoming a reality.”
Others anticipate that broader market forces could ease pressure, at least in production roles. Jack Dyer, founder of Topa Topa, expects consolidation and closures to expand the available talent pool.
“Especially on the production side of things,” Dyer said. “With more market consolidation and unfortunate brewery closures, there will be people with skill sets looking for work in their discipline.”
