With the Craft Brewers Conference drawing the beer industry and fans to Denver, the Brewers Association also extended their reach via the old-fangled telephone to broadcast a state of the union as it were.
After the call ended, I went through my notes and pulled what I thought was important out for craft beer going forward. All opinions are mine own.
~ California is the top state for brewery openings and nationwide there were 413 new breweries in operation.
I am sure that is still sustainable but I think the next generation of breweries are going to have to look a lot harder at WHERE they open. The rent cost is no longer the only factor or majority factor anymore.
~ The Brewers Association supports state guilds (which are now in all 50 states, thanks to the last to the party, Wyoming) but only if it doesn’t contravene the national goals.
This may lead to some uncomfortable, we are going to have to agree to disagree moments over issues like big box stores and what constitutes craft beer.
~ Breweries that use adjuncts in their flagship beers will be welcomed back into the fold
Frankly, I don’t know why that hasn’t happened earlier. A small, community based brewery that uses all organic ingredients but has a corn or rice beer as their mainstay is not craft? I am glad that law is out.
~ Export is a growing line item on the agenda.
The BA is playing matchmaker (their words) with those breweries that pony up cash to be part of the export program. Hopefully they will not send over IPA’s because that may dim the view just like the hop aroma gets dimmed during travel. I was surprised to see that Canada, Sweden, the UK, Australia and Japan are the top 5 destinations for our beer.
Next year, the conference will be in Portland. I may attend next year to hear even more scuttlebutt.