musing

12% craft beer gain? Is that possible?

In still another story about gloomy beer sales that focuses on the largest brewers BusinessWeek provides this eye-opening number:

“One segment of the beer industry that has resisted the recession is craft breweries, increasingly popular for flavorful beers made in smaller batches. According to data from the Nielsen Co., craft or microbrew sales rose 12.4% in 2009.”

Nielsen also reports that craft beers now account for 5.8 percent of the overall beer market.

Granted, Nielsen and the Brewers Association define “craft beer” in different ways (the BA is more exclusive) but a gain of more than 12 percent for 2009 would be stunning. The Wall Street Journal has reported Boston Beer production was up 1.6 percent in 2009, and we know traditionally total craft sales seldom differ much from Samuel Adams (in no small part because Sam Adams accounts for more than one bottle sold out of every five). In 2008 the category was up 6 percent, Boston Beer 6 percent. In 2007, Boston Beer 14 percent and “craft” 12 percent. You get the idea.

Additionally, at mid-year the Brewers Association reported “craft” gains of 5 percent for the first six months. It would take one heck of a second half to hit 12 percent.

 

 

Local beer, diversity and balance

Exhibit A

Porter City Tavern in Raleigh will now serve only North Carolina beers on tap (tip of the hat to Geistbear).

Exhibit B

Artisinal Imports current newsletter makes a case for diversity. In case the link quits working or you don’t want to take the time, a few highlights:

  • “In Minneapolis there has been a lemming-like migration toward US-only beer lists in new bars/restaurants and some older, well established beer bars are contemplating the elimination of imports.”
  • “It is a very rare bar in Europe that offers beers from other countries. In Germany you drink German beers. In Belgium you drink Belgian beers. Period.”
  • “When bars or restaurants limit themselves, and their customers, to beer only from the US or only from one state or region, the result can be a narrowing of focus which over time will diminish the vibrancy of the US beer market.”

    • I’ll leave the thinking and concluding up to you.

     

     

    Lessons learned from a ‘pisshead anecdote’

    Not long after Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing returned from a trip to Germany in 1997 during which he was able to buy a beautiful copper clad brewing system because consolidation squeezed some breweries out of business he made an interesting observation.

    He suggested that perhaps the United States was simply ahead of the curve in the middle of the twentieth century (in 1950 the top ten breweries accounted for 38% of production and by 1980 for 93%, with seven of those ten breweries soon to disappear). As America underwent a brewing revival other countries felt the pain of consolidation that had already swept through the U.S.

    I thought of what he said this morning when I read this:

    . . . the brewery’s owner told how today’s big brands took advantage of the situation to to expand in such a brutal way. They had a huge advantage, they were able to guarantee consistent quality. Many of the regional breweries weren’t in a position to do that. During the previous four decades hardly any investment had been made on their equipment and technologies. So people got used to drinking the brands that to this day enjoy an enormous popularity without realising the gradual drop in their quality.

    Today, regional and micro breweries are slowly gaining more market share . . .

    The country in question?

     

     

     

    The Czech Republic.

    Thoughtful commentary about beer culture that could be applied in how many different countries? From Pivní Filosof-Beer Philosopher — go read it.

     

     

    Germany and Rate Beer 2010

    German beer sales were down again in 2009, continuing a 20-year trend.

    I think I finally figured out why. They brew shit beer.

    There you have it. Pretty simple.

    The Rate Beer Best 2010 list is out and not a German beer made only one German beer in the top 100.

    Pardon my flipness. That German beer consumption has declined 30 percent in the last 20 years is not something to laugh about, and I’ve rambled on enough about lists like Rate Beer’s. (That said, it might take some restraint to resist commenting on Beer Advocate’s Beer in Review.)

    British blogger Mark Dredge, a Rate Beer contributor, provides an excellent perspective on the Rate Beer Best:

    For me, as it’s a collective opinion, it’s largely a guide as to what geeky beer drinkers (you need to be a geek to want to rate – rating is hard work and takes real dedication!) like to find in their pint glass. It’s not a list of the best beers to drink in a pub on a Sunday afternoon, it’s a list of some of the most esoteric flavour experiences possible, dominated by imperial stouts, barrel aging, IPAs and sours.

    A couple of years ago Sylvia Kopp wrote a fine article in All About Beer magazine about the challenges German brewers face. Go read it.

    Georg Schneider, owner of the Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn in Kelheim, doesn’t mince words: “The German beer market is deadly boring,” he says. “It is all very much the same. The tendency towards sameness is encouraged, for example, by our domestic beer tests rating beer only by its typicality and flawlessness. Creativity is only acted on in the beer mix category.”

    Since then a group called Bier-Quer-Denker, selected by the brewing publication Brauwelt and the Association of Small Private Breweries, has presented beers beyond the usual in Germany at a couple of seminars. One was a “Reinheitsbegot tripel” (passing on sugar commonly used by Belgian brewers), using two hop varieties from New Zealand and yeast sourced from the Westmalle Trappist monastery brewery.

    Of course they’re probably going to have to brew an imperial stout if they want to make the Rate Beer 2011 list.