The Rest of the Century
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Beer Here
by Erika Goedrich
Beer Trends
Trends of Today Cheers. L'Chayim. Bottoms up. Slainte. The language and the country matter not. We all understand the language of beer.
"Once
people get a taste of quality beer made with quality ingredients, they
rarely go back to what they had been drinking before." Jeremy Brandt
of American Homebrewers Association
(AHA) says this is the reason homebrewed beers and craft
beers 
made by microbreweries,
regional breweries
and brewpubs
have become so popular, and why he expects this trend to continue.
The numbers support what Brandt says. The following statistics were provided by AHA and are explained in further detail on the Craft Brewing Industry Fact Sheet. The numbers were updated as of January 1998.
AHA estimates that one million to one-point-five million people are homebrewing in the United States alone.
There are 1,306 microbreweries, brewpubs and regional specialty breweries in the U.S. In 1996, 209 brewpubs and 108 microbreweries opened in the U.S. The 1996 total U.S. annual dollar volume for the craft brewing industry was almost three billion.
Despite the rise in popularity and a point-five percent increase in market share from 1995 to 1996, craft brewing only controls 2.8% of the market share, while large brewers like Coors, Bud, Miller and Anheuser-Busch dominate with 90.5% of the market share. The marketshare for imports is 6.7%. (Figures for 1996)
Rob Dillon, homebrewer and former owner of a homebrewing supply store, says the large brewers have realized the potential for the specialty and craft beers. They are buying a stake in or buying out many of the regional breweries, taking them to a national level. For example, Leinenkugels is now controlled by Miller while Anheuser-Busch owns Red Hook.
Brandt says both homebrewing and craft brewing have become "global phenomena," with Canada, England and Germany leading the way. "The trend really took off in the early 1990s, hitting the big time around 1994," he says.