Drinking Habits by Generation: 26-40-Year-Olds
Continuing our deep dive into drinking habits by generation, we now look at when those aged 26-30, 31-35, and 36-40 years old are visiting taprooms. The bulk of this age range represents Millennials, born 1980-1994.
For those 21-25, we saw a lot of colors, all over the place, with nearly 50% of Gen Zers visiting taprooms on Fridays and Saturday. We begin to see an even greater trend toward Saturday visits with late Gen Zers and Millennials. Slightly over 30% of those 26-30 years old visit breweries on Saturdays, up 20% from younger Gen Zers.
Looking at 26–30-year-olds on Saturdays, the hot spots are 5-7pm, with 7pm slightly edging out 5pm as the most common time overall for this group to arrive. We also see a significant amount of 26–30-year-old traffic at 6 and 7pm on Fridays. This is slightly later than the Friday, 5pm arrival for younger Gen Zers.
The later Friday start? I suggest taproom owners’ two favorite audiences: children and dogs.
Let’s pause for a second and look at the rising median age of marriage. In 2021, the median age of first marriage for men was 30.5 and women 28.5. This same year the average age a woman gave birth for the first time was 27.3 years old. From a 2024 Forbes study on pet ownership, Millennials also make up the largest percentage of current pet owners (33%).
While Gen Zers may be able to go straight to a taproom when the clock hits 5pm, more Millennials may hurry home to care for children and/or pets, then head to the taproom.
It really starts to get interesting as we shift to Millennials aged 31-35 years old. Here, we observe a trend towards earlier visits on Saturdays. Those aged 31-35 years old are a ridiculous 268% more likely to visit a taproom on a Saturday 12-3pm than those a decade younger. Nearly 25% of Millennials in this age group who visit on Saturdays arrive at a taproom at 2pm. Notably, we also see a strong presence of this age range arriving at taprooms on Sundays at 3pm – marking the first instance we’ve seen “red” on this day of the week.
Despite the high percentage of 31–35-year-olds visiting over the weekend, we still see a decent number of this group visiting during the after workhours, 5-7pm, on weekdays. Compared to Gen Zers, we see start to see a decline as age increases in the number of Millennials likely to arrive on Saturdays after 8pm.
For our analysis, we wrap up observations with Millennials aged 36-40. Considering that the data is from 2021 and 2022, putting these taproom goers between 2 to 3 years older now, this age range will wrap up our look at Millennials. The behaviors of those in this range of Millennials are a mix of both prior sets discussed. I believe this may be a result of the presence of children. Those taproom goers with children are more likely to visit on Saturday afternoons. Those without are the guests visiting on Thursday/Friday 6pm onward, and Saturday later into the evening.
36-40-year-olds’ most common times to arrive are Thursdays at 6pm and Saturdays at 2pm. Why Thursdays at 6pm? According to a Craft Beer Professionals’ poll, Thursdays are the most common night for a brewery to host trivia. Trivia has become synonymous with brewery events and the high visit rate during this time I believe can be partially related to the success of promoting it.
What to do with all of this information?
The two big questions are:
How can you get guests currently visiting at these times to spend more money?
How can you better attract similar demographics to visit during these times?
What else do people do on Fridays at 6pm? Eat. If you’re not offering food, you’re losing your audience, who will have a beer and shift to nearby restaurants for a meal and more drinks. Adding food is also a win to attract and get families spending more. No longer can you appeal to just the beer nerd. You must also maximize the experience for everyone to the person who doesn’t drink beer, the guest who’s looking for a bite to eat, and the 4-year-old they’re bringing along with them. (Teaser: complete study on the benefits of food coming soon).
In addition to food, continue to offer strong after-work drivers to visit such as drink specials, entertainment, and events. They will attract Gen Zers and younger Millennials.
And lastly, one of my favorite strategies: ask questions. How about a flight? Want another drink? Would you like any to go? If you’re leaning into attracting families, something as simple as handing a child crayons and a brewery-themed coloring sheet or stocking the shelves with Candyland could be an easy win.
Continuing on the diversity of your audience, your business no longer is just out to spread the gospel of beer. You have so many things you want to say. It can be difficult organizing and successfully getting your messages out to the right people.
Idea 1: Is there a way to create activations that appeal to multiple demographics? Think Stranger Things trivia with a portion of evening sales donated to a specific charity. Pulling on the heartstrings of Gen Zers while hitting on a Millennial topic matter. Brainstorm ways with your team to create initiatives that appeal to multiple audiences.
Idea 2: With Saturdays being a common visit day for every age range, do you have the bandwidth to promote family-friendly events during the afternoon AND more adult activities in the evening? It could be worth creating weekly event calendars as one social image/post for easy reference for all potential guests. Your followers don’t want to see you post a billion times throughout the day.
Idea 3: As you (hopefully) build out your mailing list, consider segmenting your list to the best of your ability. You probably already have a special list for mug club, or similar, members. Are you segmenting via age, based on the birthday data you’ve collected? This could allow you to send email campaigns based on generation insight. Odds are your new 22-year-old signup isn’t interested in attending your bounce house and booze event on Saturday. This may be an email not worth sending them; however, targeting an email campaign highlighting after-work specials may be of interest. And then hitting your potential family Millennial demographic with relevant content to them.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy for taking what we’ve learned about drinking habits by age and translating it into successful marketing campaigns and taproom strategies. You know your audience best. Nothing beats taking the time to ask them what they’d like to see, when they’d like to see it, and even how they’d best like to be made aware of said ideas.
Once they’re in your taproom, give them the customized experience they came for. Something as simple as knowing the favorite times of your audience to visit can provide you insight into which type of music to play. My tip? 90’s nostalgia may just work well on Saturday and Sunday early afternoons.
Recap:
Those 26-30 years old are most likely to visit a taproom on Saturdays 5-7pm
The sweet spot for those 31-35 years old is Saturday at 2pm.
The Friday 5 and 6pm arrival time are popular for 26-35, but we see those 36-40 visit increasingly on Thursdays at 6pm.
Target activations to specific age ranges based on their interests.
We’ll look at the drinking habits of Gen X and Boomers in the near future.
From a data set of 2240 unique taproom visits from January 1, 2021 to November 14, 2022.