Irish types such as the various Stouts,
typical English types such as Bitter or
German such as Alt or unfiltered
Wheat Beers, which all could count on
masses of immigrants from Europe to
find its consumers.
We have thus gone from the price war,
the only permitted one, to a healthy
diversification. Charles Finkel of Seattle,
one of the pioneers, told us back in
the day:
“When I started importing wine, most
Americans couldn’t tell the difference
between a Chablis and a Cabernet,
now most of them have an acceptable
knowledge of wines. With beer, we
stopped presenting common products
and offer beers whose taste they were
not accustomed to, but we are certain
of their quality and present them cleverly.”
(See BBII 1/95 page 25.)
“Production percentage of beer brewed
by craft breweries and brew pubs has
increased a lot,” told us Bart Watson,
Chief Economist of Brewers Association
of Boulder.
“I don’t have a market share number of
craft breweries for 1995, as the oldest
data we have is from 1998, when share
was 2,6%. Production was 74% of the
1998 level in 1995, so share was likely
around 2% by volume. The total number
of craft breweries operating in
2020 was 8,764 (8,884 includes large
breweries**) in comparison to 794 in
1995 (858 is again total breweries).
There will probably be more than
9,000 breweries in the USA within the
year 2022.
Market share by volume was 12,3% in
2020. Production volume was down 9%
from 2019, when market share was
13,6% by volume. Dollar share dropped
more, down to 23,6% from 25,2% in 2019.
Total consumer spending (dollar sales)
were down 22% versus 2019, which was
primarily due to the slowdown of tap
beers.
138,371 people were employed in the
industry in 2020, which was down 14%
from 2019 due to the pandemic (so closer
to 160,000 in 2019).
The market in 2022 will likely look similar
to what we saw in 2021, with continued
recovery in the draught market
slowly returning to levels we saw in
Legend has it that García, who was
accustomed to every surprise and adventure,
when he arrived at the Grand
Canyon, got off his horse and knelt
down, saying that the sight of such
beauty made him believe in the existence
of God.
One of the reasons that brought me
here at that time, was the analysis of
the growing phenomenon of microbreweries,
just starting in those years.
The situation has evolved beyond the
rosiest expectations over the past
years, even if the recent pandemic has
left deep scars.
Many companies have been forced to
close due to Covid-19 restrictions, others
shifted from tap to bottles and especially
cans, despite a lack of aluminum.
The phenomenon of craft
breweries has generated a clear improvement
in the sector due to flavor
quality and also the expansion of the
product range. Flavorless “industrial,”
low alcohol/light beers or so called
champagne beers, have given way to
crafted specialty products with an alcohol
content typical of Belgian or
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BREWING AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY · 2/2022 17
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