AUGUST 1, 2008

Beer Goes Local

A new Gallup poll shows that beer - not wine or spirits - has again become America’s favorite alcoholic beverage for the first time since 2002.

And while a weak dollar enticed Belgian mega-brewer InBev to pick up Anheuser-Busch this month for a cool $52 billion (the second-biggest international acquisition ever), sales for the company are up only 1.8 percent over last year. Don’t get me wrong - that’s still a crisp, refreshing $689 million Q2 profit. But stagnation in the market, like the taste of a skunky pint, doesn’t bode well for the big brewers. (In the UK, known for its pub culture and beers that taste, well, more like beer, sales are way down - to the lowest level since the Great Depression.)

Enter the age of the American microbrewery.  A recent story that appeared in Time shows that U.S. citizens are beginning to develop a more sophisticated palate for the sudsy stuff:

Craft brewers are grabbing more of the market as they reshape the image of beer. They posted 17.1 percent growth last year over 2006 and accounted for 6.5 percent of the $9 billion in supermarket sales of beer in the U.S., up from 4.5 percent in 2003. (…)

It is uncertain how fast craft beers will continue to grow, but Herz said the indicators are good. After a shakeout in the mid 1990s, the nation’s remaining 1,400 craft brewers have a stronger hold on shelf space and restaurant menus. Anheuser-Busch and Coors are making their own line of full-flavored beers. And the Brewers Association’s book Start Your Own Brewery has sold more than 1,000 copies.(…)

Their small size gives craft brewers the freedom to explore the outer limits of beer, and they are being rewarded by consumers who value good flavor, said Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Del.

“This hasn’t happened because of some half-billion-dollar advertising campaign on behalf of the big brewers,” he said. “It’s truly the consumer becoming self-educated.

Self-educated consumer. Local product. Innovation. Professional amateurs. Really good beer, according to my own personal tastes.

I could get used to this.