[ynotbrusum]

It seems to me to be a function of available time and degree of enjoyment derived.  I have weekends available and while I have many pursuits, Homebrewing has risen to be one of my most favorite - I prefer it over golf, but probably just behind fishing, but fishing involves travel (I like to fish at certain Northern Wisconsin lakes, so I go to those places maybe 5-6 long weekends per year).  So, Homebrewing is what fills one of my weekend days usually at least twice a month.

Dave is right, though.  Only a few young adults are willing to carve out the time to home brew (for example, my son grew up around my Homebrewing and loves my beers, but he and his buddies prefer to go golf and then to one of several microbrew/brewpubs where he lives.  He says when he gets a house and a garage he may pick it up as a hobby, but for now he has little space and too many other options availablefor his time and money.

[Footballandhops]

I have been wondering for a while if maybe the popularity of homebrewing is beginning to fade a bit.  I only say this because it seems like many of the popular homebrewing forums are not nearly as busy as they were 3-4 years ago.  It would seem that if there are more homebrewers the forums would be busier than ever with various questions/issues. Not really seeing it.....

There are multiple homebrewing facebook groups that serve as a "forum"...there is a rather large and very active one just for the city I live in...

Internet hobby forums are a dieing breed IMO

[Footballandhops]

Also, I know of multiple "generation X" and "millennial" homebrewers...it is more common than you would think

As I said before, the facebook brewing "forums" are much more popular with this age group

[klickitat jim]

I'm anti Facebook. When this forum dies I will just read the paper in the morning I guess.

[HoosierBrew]

I'm anti Facebook. When this forum dies I will just read the paper in the morning I guess.

Same here. People look at me like I have a third eye when I tell them I'm not on Facebook. I can only find two thus far.

[flbrewer]

If you think the hobby is down, take a gander at the roughly 112K members of /r/homebrewing on reddit, or the 190K members of homebrewtalk.

I think local homebrew stores may be struggling for a number of reasons (similar to many other brick and mortar shops).

[S. cerevisiae]

I have a Facebook account for family only.  It's bad enough that a major data harvester knows that much about me without giving them complete insight into my life. 

[Phil_M]

I don't know about everyone else, but I try and support my LHBS when I can. The nearest one to me is about 1.5 hrs away, but thankfully they ship.

They're usually a little more expensive than Northern Brewer/Midwest/Etc, but I want to keep them in business.

But if they struggled to keep inventory in stock, I'd switch back to Northern Brewer and not look back. As much as I want to support a local LHBS, if they aren't reliable I'll look elsewhere. That could be the cause of OP's LHBS woes.

As for millennials, like every other generation there's a mix. While it's true many seem to buy into the social media culture, not all do. I've had more than a few ask me about home brewing, especially mead.

[flbrewer]

I have a Facebook account for family only.  It's bad enough that a major data harvester knows that much about me without giving them complete insight into my life.

That's funny. I finally broke down and got a FB account recently. I ONLY use it to follow breweries as many of them only update information there compared to a website.

[gymrat]

We have had 2 LBHSs fail in Topeka. Both for the same reason. Bad business practices. First one rarely had anything in stock and rarely was open during his business hours. Second one carried stock he thought was cool rather than items his customers wanted. He lasted almost a year.

[denny]

Our LHBS owner came by our club meeting this month and talked to us about how his shop is down 60% from where it was last year.  He seemed to suggest that this is a hobby-wide trend and not just affecting his shop, but I have my doubts as he always seems to be out of common items like base malt and liquid yeast.  I'm curious if he is right about the health of the hobby, or whether he has just isn't a financially sound business owner.  Moreover, could he be both right and wrong and the drop in business is only a problem with brick and mortar stores as internet competition grows?

Based on info I've seen, the meteoric growth of homebrewing the last few years is starting to level off.  But AFAIK it's not going down.

[phunhog]

Also, I know of multiple "generation X" and "millennial" homebrewers...it is more common than you would think

As I said before, the facebook brewing "forums" are much more popular with this age group

I am a member of some of those FB forums.  I don't find them nearly as useful as this or other brewing forums. Mainly because they are broken down in various sub forums (fermentation, DIY, etc...).  If anything I find the FB groups to be a bit tedious....the same questions being asked by different people.  Plus you can't really do a search and find the answer yourself like you can in a traditional forum. 

[dmtaylor]

I find FB less than moderately useful, but not so useless as to not be a part of it at all.  But when it come to intelligent and deep discussion about interesting topics.... FB is NOT a very good place for any of that.

Millennials tend to be a fickle bunch.  But they are young yet.  We might see very good things from them in another 10-15 years when they grow up.  Probably.  For now they just can't find the time to focus on any one thing such as homebrewing for longer than 2 minutes.  MHO YMMV

[dilluh98]

When I recently told a friend of mine that I started homebrewing last year the first question he asked was how long it took to get to the final product. I told him, "It depends. For an entry level homebrewer who is still bottling (me) and maybe waiting a bit longer for their beer to clean up in a fermentor because they don't have the most excellent temperature control (also me, still) - you're probably looking at a month to six weeks before you crack open that beer. For a more advanced brewer, brewing beer that should be consumed 'young' and throwing it in a keg - you could probably go grain to glass in as little as two weeks." He told me that there's no way he has the patience for either of those scenarios. Clearly not the hobby for everyone. Glad I didn't tell him about sours or brett beer.

[santoch]

The best things in life are worth the wait.