The Subculture Of Craft Beer

During the past 30 years, Big Rock has provided beer drinkers across the country with a high-quality product line consisting of reputable brands such as Traditional and Grasshopper Ale. Moreover, due to the continuous change in craft beer drinkers, Big Rock has provided a diverse variety of flavours to compete in the craft market segment primarily in Alberta. However, as the industry becomes increasingly more competitive due to the exponential growth of microbreweries, Big Rock must continue to develop its brand and spread awareness beyond Alberta and across the country in order to address the stagnated growth that currently exists within the business.

Brand plays a key role in the beer-purchasing process, along with taste, price, special occasion,

     In this paper I will be talking about the U.S. beer industry and in short an overview of the brewing industry worldwide. I will talk about the barriers to entry, economies of scale, government intervention, pricing, current market trends, product differentiation, and imports. The focus being mainly on the U.S. brewing industry oligopoly. The U.S. brewing industry has three major players: Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller, and Coors/Molson. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest brewer in the world, producing over 100 million barrels a year. Anheuser-Busch currently owns over 50% of the market in the United States, with Miller trailing behind at 20% and Coors at about 11% with the rest of the market occupied by imports and craft breweries. When analyzing any industry, how easy it is for newcomers to enter the market is a great importance. If there are high barriers to entry

In a world where large, corporate breweries rule the market, craft beer is created to please an audience that applauds the styles, techniques and flavors. Though craft beer can be purchased through several different outlets, the best place to thoroughly enjoy the entire experience of the specially made beer is in the brewery where it was made. The article titled, “In Lean Times, a Stout Dream” in The Wall Street Journal1 states that, despite the hard economic times and consequent consumer cutbacks, sales of craft beer, the industry 's fastest-growing segment, rose

Boston Beer Company (BBC) has enjoyed much success with their craft beers with Samuel Adams as their main focus. Being the leader of this segment, overtopping five of their competitors combined (Exhibit 1), the company now must decide how to take advantage of the light beer market. Boston Lightship, their current light beer, had been a small contributor in BBC’s product line. Currently, it is facing dwindling sales with product volumes down from 12 000 cases per month to 3000 cases per month.

In the Midwest we love our meat and potatoes, and our boring beer. These are both hold overs from another time, when goods could not move as far, or as fast as they do today. Although some craft brews are completely original, most of them are variations on classic recipes. These personal touches are what give breweries their own identity. In one way beer is a lot like food; ingredients and styles vary regionally, but it all starts out much the same.

New Belgium is, however, the third-largest craft brewery in the nation, with estimated sales of over $100 million, equaling approximately 700,000 barrels of beer per year. An analysis of the craft beer industry as a whole suggests that there is continued growth potential for New Belgium. Exhibit 5.1 of the New Belgium Brewing (B) case shows that craft beer is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. alcoholic beverage market, with an increase in market share of over 100 percent from 1999-2011. It is also an industry whose customers tend to be extremely loyal, making them less likely to view craft beer as a commodity. Consequently, craft beer has a higher probability of being immune to competition from inferior goods and substitutes. This is particularly applicable to New Belgium’s target market of “beer connoisseurs” that appreciate the high quality and taste of craft beer and who include “executives, lawyers, and accountants” with the continued ability to pay higher prices for craft beer, enabling the craft beer industry to achieve gross margins of up to 30 percent (Clark & Rogler, 2013).

As of June 2015, there are eight breweries in Huntsville, soon to be nine. This smallish southern city, population 180,000, has undergone a total transformation as far as its craft brewing industry is concerned. Like so many other American cities, beer has come into the vogue, but few if any can claim to have experienced such as a rapid, radical, city-defining seismic shift. In just five years, “old veteran” brewing presences have been established and a younger generation has come along to reap the rewards of a clientele that continues to refine its taste. It’s still very much a work in progress, but to compare the “before” and “after” statistics is shocking. Thanks to a timely repeal of some antiquated laws that held the brewing industry back-a home brewing ban, an ABV cap, a ban on large-format bottles-craft beer is now free to thrive.

The craft beer story is interesting because of how quickly the craft beer trend has caught on in the food service industry. The story would focus on how bars, restaurants, and grocery stores are adapting to the increased demand of craft beers. The first source for the story would be Frederique Boudouani who is the owner of Abu Nawas Beverage Company. The Abu Nawas Beverage Company is a craft beer wholesaler and sells beer from countries across the globe. The second source of the story would be the owner of Drew’s Sports Bar and Grille in Elkader, Andrew Armstrong. Armstrong would provide valuable information on how craft beer sells in small towns and insight into how bar owners decide what beverages to sell. The third source would be Zachary Ingles who works as a night manager at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. John’s Grocery has a wide selection of craft beer and Ingles regularly attends beer tasting events to help John’s decide which beer to stock. The fourth source would be an employee at an actual craft beer brewing company, Neil Blair. Blair would provide insight into how craft brewing companies operate and how the companies go about selling their

Most industry observers agreed that the key consumer segment for beer companies was younger drinkers, 21-27 years of age. This group represented the “ first time drinker demographic”, that had not yet established loyalty to any particular brand of bear. The adult population in 2005 but accounted for more than 27% of total beer consumption and was growing. In addition, this age group spent twice as much per capita on alcoholic beverages than consumers over 35 years of age.

This is direct competition, but with Anheuser Busch InBev being the largest brewery in America, they should expect competition and could embrace the idea of smaller craftsmen and women to create different products. The market for craft beer is nowhere near as large as the market that Budweiser has niched itself into.

From fancy beer to the lowest quality that you could receive, beer was presented in celebrations or events because this drink “brought people together since the dawn of civilization” and this bringing together allowed the exchange of cultures and traditions to be passed down from generation to generation just like wine (39). These interactions shaped the mind of man, and helped them have

Within the craft beer market, consumers have many products to chose. A product is anything offered within a market that which fulfills a want or need (Armstrong & Kotler, 2015). In 2012, over 1,750 breweries operated in the United States (U.S.), with over 1,920 the following year (Brewers,

Craft beer companies should focus more on young professionals, since they are in the target group of those identified to consume much craft beer. Furthermore, white Americans should be targeted as well.

The lucrative beer industry has attracted numerous foreign beers to vie for the market share in Singapore which is valued at S$562.7 million. As the beer industry in Singapore is reaching maturity, beer companies have to find innovative means to remain competitive to have a profitable share of the market.