While beer sales are up, and just barely, there was a good point made at CBC this year that macro brands are losing more drinkers than craft beer is gaining. Many of them are turning back to spirits and some are venturing into alternative beverages like cider, malt beverages, etc.
And the argument that Kim, Jim, Larry, et al. are making is that their breweries, some of the largest breweries by sales volume in craft brewing, spend lots of $$ each year to not only promote their specific brands but promote craft beer in general. Some of the new small breweries are riding the coat-tails of that movement, and when they make bad beer, that negative experience blows back and impacts the big craft brewers too. And it impacts other breweries in the same local market too.