I continue to read about the terrific growth in both volume and sales dollars for the craft beer market. The fact is, the number of actual breweries are also increasing as well as beer brands, and this is good for the beer drinker.
The count is now slightly over 1,700 operating breweries in the USA, which means there are almost 10% more breweries than a year ago and the growth continues. Furthermore, as of June 2011, there were over 530 breweries in planning, which translates into more than one start up every day for the next year! Did you know, there were 1,751 breweries just before the prohibition occurred? A number we are quickly approaching. Back in the early 1900, most towns and cities enjoyed a brewery in the center of town - this is quickly becoming the case for 2011. Together with these new breweries, there are also a lot more diverse brewing styles being offered today, particularly by the micro craft brewers, and the quality of today’s craft beer is fantastic!
There are several conversations on defining the segments of today's beer market, allow me to outline the ‘official definition’ as outlined by the Brewer’s Association-
Microbrewery: A brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels. When Nor'easter Brewing Company is operating, this will be the segment the operation will fall into.
Brewpub: A restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of its beer at the restaurant The beer is often dispensed directly from the brewery's storage tanks.
Contract Brewing Company: A business that hires another brewery to produce its beer. It can also be a brewery that hires another brewery to produce additional beer. The contract brewing company handles marketing, sales, and distribution of its beer, while generally leaving the brewing and packaging to its producer-brewery
Regional Brewery: A brewery with an annual beer production of between 15,000 and 6,000,000 barrels. Note, the BA just increased the output to 6,000,000.
Large Brewery: A brewery with an annual beer production over 6,000,000 barrels. Generally referred to as BMC – for Bud, Miller Coors.
The large breweries are always filtered out of articles and comments on the craft beer market. Mainly due to the automated brewing process and their lack of ‘hand crafted approach’. Clearly, the devoted craft beer drinkers divorce even the breweries that are owned by BMC and never consider them as a craft brewer. Breweries such as Goose Island, Redhook, Kona, Widmer and Leinenkugel are every bit a craft brewery, but the fact they are owned by the biggies negates most purists from including them ….. is this fair?
