I want to emphasize that excise is a manufacturer's tax. It is the obligation of the producer to pay that tax once the product is produced. So if excise increases every year, it will increase the cost of a brewer being in business. That leaves less money for employees, employee training, trucks, brands, and development in any kind of way.
Every producer will try, as the government anticipates, to try to recover by pushing that tax increase onto the consumer via higher prices. Consumers react as they react to higher prices.
The brewers, especially the small producers, live in a very competitive market place. They don't get to set the price. The price is dictated to them as it is in everybody else's sector, and we compete against wine and spirits. They are not always going to be able to push that price onto their consumers. Consumers are not always going to pay that price, which means you have raised the costs of producers, and that will leave less money on the table for them to invest in their business.