Voting with our taste buds
By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

You almost take it for granted now, don’t you?

It’s become a matter of routine to see locally, or at least regionally brewed beers in almost any establishment. You know that, whether you’re walking into the slimiest dive bar or swankiest cocktail lounge, there’s likely to be at least a passing nod to a craft beer style, a pale ale maybe, or a wheat beer.

We are in the midst of a full-on craft beer supernova. According to the Brewers’ Association, craft beer sales grew 12% in volume, and 16% in dollars during 2007. This is the third straight year of double-digit growth for this category of beer.

In a recent press release, Brewers Association Director Paul Gatze has been quoted (most likely by himself) as saying “Since 2004, dollar sales by craft brewers have increased by 58 percent. The strength of this correlates with the American trend of buying local products and a preference for more flavorful foods and beers.”

It’s true. You are the ones who have demonstrated a thirst for the products of entrepreneurial beer lovers. In a rare example of the market economy actually working for the benefit of and by the choice of the people, you’ve voted with your taste buds.

And you won. In 1978, within the millions of square miles that comprise America, there were only 41 brewing companies remaining, with a total of 89 breweries between them. Today, the number of American breweries has mushroomed to 1,449. And that number is still growing.

Craft breweries have turned the concept of American business on its ear. They thrive in some of the smallest, most out-of-the-way locations, as well as in run-down industrial districts. While several have morphed in to full-on national chain operations, most are content to operate regionally, secure in the knowledge that the beer market need not be dominated, or cornered, for everyone to share in the wealth.

That has a lot to do with the quaffing habits of the craft beer drinker, one of the least loyal customers on earth. According to a bunch of stuff we found on the internet, the typical craft beer lover is 30-39 years old, affluent, consumes a smaller quantity of beer than younger drinkers, but is willing to pay more for quality, and takes advantage of the variety of beers on offer instead of sticking to one brand or style.

While large national brewers can focus their tremendous advertising power to generate loyalty to their brands, craft brewers are unable to spend the money necessary to do the same, and, more telling, it wouldn’t work on their core customers.

Thus, we have sort of a national-level farmer’s market of beer, with customers going from stall to stall, finding new flavors, experiencing regional differences, truly appreciating goods produced on an artisan level. If we got to shop for furniture this way, the Amish would be all over the place and no one would be stuck buying those ridiculous disintegrating flakeboard Swedish bookcases unless they really liked the TV commercials.

Now bear in mind, dear reader, that although we’re talking about an enormous amount of craft beer, it’s still about 3% of the national beer market. And while that’s not a huge slice of the overall pie, it’s enough to make the big boys, whose sales have been stagnant, take notice.

Miller, Budweiser and Coors are not sitting idly back and letting craft brewers nibble away at the corners of their lunch. Each produces its own line of craft-oriented beers. But national-level companies lack the agility to compete well at the local level; the payoff is simply too small.

So the little guy has thrived in the shadow of (Macro Beer execs might say ‘under the refrigerator of’) the brewing giants. It seems the only way not to share the wealth is to make bad beer. As the American drinker grows more sophisticated and savvy, brewers of substandard micro-level beer teeter on a knife edge and quickly disappear.

And that’s fine. The craft beer industry is everything your eighth-grade social studies teacher taught you the capitalist system should be: Laissez-faire economics, survival of the fittest, and the resulting damn good product.

If only things worked this well in the insurance business.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http:://www.beercraftsite.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.