The number of beer brewing companies in the UK has fallen to 2,320 as of April, down from a peak of 2,594 in 2022, according to Companies House data.
Last year, 320 brewing businesses shut while only 170 opened, resulting in a net loss of 150 companies across the country.
The beer industry also estimates that around two pubs closed a day during the first quarter of 2026, compounding pressure on an already strained sector.
England’s total has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since 2018, with 1,965 companies remaining and 95 of those currently in administration, insolvency or liquidation.
Tim Webb from the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) identified market access as a central problem, particularly the control large breweries hold over draught lines in pubs across Europe.
“The big problem that breweries have got, and it is getting worse, is access to market,” Webb said. “Large brewery companies owning the draught lines in pubs” is making it worse.
Smaller breweries also face barriers in supermarkets, where larger producers undercut them on price, leaving independent operators with increasingly limited routes to consumers.
Hook Norton brewery in Oxfordshire, the South East’s oldest by year of incorporation, now brews half the volume it produced 15 years ago, though across a wider range of styles.
James Clarke, the fifth generation of his family to run Hook Norton, said UK beer consumption is now roughly half what it was in the early 1990s, when the brewery produced only three beers.
Webb noted that heritage beers, craft beers and experimental styles are holding up commercially, while the mainstream lager market continues a long-term decline that has lasted decades.
Andy Slee, chief executive of the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (Siba), said members are increasingly opening taprooms to sell directly to customers as a survival strategy.
“In order to survive, you just can’t stay doing what you were doing before,” Slee said, adding that demand for independent beer remains relatively strong despite the overall market declining.
Siba has called for tax reductions on draught beer sold in pubs, warning that breweries currently face a “suffocating level of taxation” that is squeezing margins across the industry.
“When a brewery or a pub dies, something in that community dies,” Slee said. “A place to meet, a place of employment, a place that pays local tax.”
Burton-upon-Trent, which once produced a quarter of all British beer and hosted more than 30 breweries at its peak, now has just eight, according to Camra data.
Emma Cole, brewery manager at Burton Bridge and Heritage Brewing Company, said rising costs including business rates and fuel prices are mounting while consumer expectations on pricing remain unchanged.
“There’s so many pubs we just cannot sell to at all,” Cole said, highlighting the access barriers that continue to restrict independent producers in the town.
London was the only English region that did not record a net loss of brewing companies last year, while the West Midlands saw 21 dissolved against just nine newly started.
In Sheffield, Triple Point Brewery operates within a cluster of ten brewing locations within a mile radius, with co-founder George Brook crediting the city’s culture of supporting independent businesses.
“We just accept that it’s going to be harder next year to make the same amount of money as we did the year before,” Brook said of the ongoing commercial pressures.
The government recently reviewed the beer market to identify barriers blocking small breweries from accessing pubs, and launched a £4.3 billion business rates support package aimed at the sector.
A government spokesperson said the administration recognises “the vital role independent breweries and pubs play in local communities, supporting jobs and growth across the UK.”