The decade ends, and I’m filled with trepidation as to what will befall the craft beer industry over the next ten years. Small beer has now become big business. Brewpubs are becoming suburban chain concept restaurants, and hype is king.
Does brewing remain a labor of love for mavericks and iconoclasts who share a common vision and a comradeship? Or has the business matured into an overtly competitive numbers game that depends on the end user seeing a clothed emperor? Are the early adopters, the people who fell in love with craft beer, still important, or has distribution made craft beer so ubiquitous that many brewers find it more fiscally attractive to “brew down” to a greater, but less sophisticated, market?
I dunno. Come on, beer moguls, prove me wrong.
-Mark
December 31, 2009
lhmark
1 responses to “Happy 2010”
Joe McBane
January 7th, 2010 at 05:24
Come on Mark don’t be downbeat. The craft scene is flourishing and growing. People are getting excited about what is going on. The brewers have grown from hokey pokey clip art style operations into slick machines in a lot of cases. The old beardy image of good beer drinkers is fading and people are associating with products that they enjoy and want to think themselves part of. Just like organic and local is growing so is craft beer. While you might not like Brewdog (or maybe you do) it is companies like this that continue to shake life into what is going on. They attract new interest. As with anything that grows, corporate investment will come but that doesn’t mean that the true patriots of the movement won’t continue to lead and be strong. I think that while the craft beer scene is vulnerable in a lot of ways it also has a lot to feel very good about. The future is bright in my opinion.