| EDITORIALS & LETTERS
2013 » BACK
TO EDITORIALS & LETTERS INDEX |
| |
 |
 |
April/May
2013
Craft Beer is Expanding!
Tom
Dalldorf |
|
| |
Our craft beer world is expanding — and in a big way. The Brewers Association, the Boulder, Colo., group that puts on the Great American Beer Festival, the Craft Brewers Conference and quite a lot of other things beneficial to our industry, recently had to move the goal posts on what defines a “small” brewer from two million barrels of annual production to six million barrels. This was done to accommodate the increased production of some of our top producers. Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams should make it there first, but you never know with this rapidly expanding industry.
The world’s equipment producers are working feverishly to produce the tanks, kettles and related gear necessary for established and up-and-coming breweries to increase brewing capacity for a demand that never seems to be filled. Social media was recently atwitter with pictures of huge tanks on an oceangoing freighter — tanks destined for Sierra Nevada’s new location in Asheville, N.C. A similar sight will follow not far up the road at New Belgium’s new facility. Plucky Green Flash is proving not to be in a pan (flash-wise) by announcing its new East Coast location in Virginia.
Lest you think all this expanded craft beer production is destined for domestic consumption, the Brewers Association also released data showing that the American craft beer industry set a new record for exports in 2012. Based on results from a recently completed industry survey, craft beer export volume increased by an astounding 72 percent from that of 2011, with a value estimated at $49.1 million. Consider that American beer was once considered déclassé and was to be avoided, if not mercilessly ridiculed.
According to the BA, Canada remains craft beer’s largest export market, with shipments increasing 140 percent by volume (up to 68,180 barrels) in 2012. Significant gains have been made in Ontario and British Columbia, and American craft beers are now gaining distribution in other provinces. Not very long ago, American beer geeks sought out Canadian beer mainly because of the higher alcohol found in ales. What’s up with that, eh?
Consider also that, in 2012, Western Europe accounted for 56,204 barrels of American craft beer, valued at $14.6 million, a 5.6 percent increase over 2011. Exports to the Asia-Pacific region increased substantially, with shipments to Japan jumping some 57 percent by volume! Thailand, Japan, Australia and China are now among our industry’s largest export markets.
With the American craft beer industry running at full speed and the rest of the world drinking up all we can make, the future for good beer looks promising indeed. Those who are nervous about all the new breweries opening can be assured that American beer drinkers and their international kin will be spreading the news of good beer far and wide.
As we at the Celebrator Beer News begin our next quarter-century of covering the good-beer movement, the future looks bright indeed. Introduce a friend to the fabulous flavors of craft beer and pass it on. We’ll make more. |
|
 |
|
|
February/March
2013
Craft or Crafty?
Tom
Dalldorf |
|
| |
“No other section of the supermarket offers as many choices as the wine aisle.” That’s the conclusion reached by a new report called “Concentration in the U.S. Wine Industry.” The surprising news to the wine world? Just three companies account for more than half of all wine sales in America.
The three firms are E&J Gallo, The Wine Group and Constellation Brands. Together they represent 51.5 percent of the wine market. The study points out that consumers might not know they are buying wine from the same producer when they purchase a bottle of Turning Leaf, William Hill or Edna Valley. However, they are all Gallo-owned wines. Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyard and Inglenook brands are all owned by The Wine Group. The wine blogs are atwitter over this recent “revelation” that a huge number of obscure wine labels are so concentrated in the hands of only a handful of big wine groups.
Welcome to the beer world, where 75 percent of all beer brands are in the hands of only two foreign-owned brewery groups — Belgium-based ABI (Anheuser-Busch InBev) and London-based SABMiller (Molson Coors). Add Heineken and Modelo and other imports, and you have 94 percent of the beer industry. The remaining 6 percent is the 2,700 or so “craft brewers” that seem to be getting all the attention these days for producing richly flavored, assertive beers in small breweries.
Compared to the wine business, the beer industry’s continuing consolidation is a bourgeoning monopoly of historic proportions. But the Big Two aren’t satisfied with their stranglehold on the beer biz. ABI is trying to buy the remaining shares in Modelo (Corona) to obtain an additional 5 percent of the beer market (nearly the size of the entire craft beer segment!).
Not content with this huge slice of the beer pie, the big guys are also benefiting from brands that appear to be craft-style beer without putting their names on the labels. The nearly ubiquitous Blue Moon Belgian White Ale is made by SABMiller (Coors) in Colorado and elsewhere. Shock Top comes from the fermenters of Anheuser-Busch’s 12 breweries. Craft or Crafty?
The Brewers Association in Colorado has stepped up with a publicity program to point out this subterfuge. The Craft or Crafty? message is starting to get some notice. This, of course, has been going on for some time. This publication coined the term “stealth brewer” back in 1993 to call out big breweries that were then marketing craftlike beers without acknowledging corporate ownership. Clearly, the Big Two want to own as much of the whole pie as they can. Our government’s Department of Justice, charged with breaking up monopolies, is clearly disengaged on this issue.
Celebrator readers are steadfast in their support of honest, locally owned and independently brewed beer. Let your less discerning beer-drinking companions know (politely, of course!) that some of their choices may not be what they seem. They might think they are supporting independent brewers by drinking Blue Moon, Shock Top and Pabst, but they are actually drinking BudMillerCoors instead. Life is about choices, and beer drinkers have never had such a wealth of great local beer from which to choose. Even if we have only 6 percent of the beer market, we choose 100 percent real beer. Spread the word…
Celebrator at 25
The Celebrator turns 25 years old with this issue. Our 12-page tabloid hit the streets for the first time in January 1988, dedicated to covering the then-called microbreweries of California (all 20 of them). Very quickly, we expanded territory by taking over the defunct Cascade Beer News in 1990 and moving eastward in just a few more years.
The Celebrator Beer News can now be found in every state in the nation, and our esteemed writing corps covers the beer scene firsthand across the nation. Thanks to our loyal readers, the Celebrator continues to expand its circulation around the country. Thank you for supporting the Celebrator and getting us to this point. We are looking forward to the next 25 years and the many changes to come. The future can bring only more great craft beer to enhance your level of beer appreciation. What a long, strange sip it’s been… |
|
 |
| Tom Dalldorf is publisher
and editor of the Celebrator Beer News. |
