US craft beer production

Between 2007 and 2022, US craft beer production and hours of video uploaded to YouTube per minute both grew with the exuberance of two industries that believe there is no such thing as too much. The correlation of 0.9647 across sixteen years describes a world in which humanity simultaneously decided it needed more IPAs and more cat videos, and pursued both objectives with equal determination. Neither industry has shown any sign of acknowledging that saturation is possible. The average craft brewery and the average YouTuber share the same business model: produce more than anyone can consume and hope that passion compensates for oversupply.

US craft beer production grew from roughly 8 million barrels in 2007 to over 24 million by 2022, driven by the craft beer revolution, microbrewery openings, and consumer willingness to pay premiums for variety. YouTube upload rates grew from roughly 6 hours per minute in 2007 to over 500 hours per minute by the 2020s, driven by smartphone cameras, creator monetization, and platform growth. Both are volume-growth stories in industries where barriers to entry fell dramatically during the same period.

When two industries both experience democratized production and volume explosion during the same window, they will correlate regardless of domain. The craft brewer and the YouTuber are both beneficiaries of lowered barriers to entry, and their output curves reflect the same structural shift.