Tag: Industry

Lenox Mercedes was raised in New York City during hip-hop’s golden era. Years later, he’s tapping kegs while Atlantans dance to classic beats at one of the beer festivals hosted by his company, High-Gravity Hip-Hop.

Once an industry staple, Pale Ale has ceded shelf space to the popular IPA and its Imperial and Session cousins. Has the former flagship style seen its last days, or can it be reborn with a renewed emphasis on hop and malt varieties?

If craft brewing wants to extend its audience beyond the traditional market of youngish, wealthy dudes, it needs to grow up a bit.

In Evan Rail’s latest Kindle Single, he explores the linguistic and non-linguistic meanings of a phrase many Americans use without thinking: craft beer.

Once a tight-knit community, beer has grown into big business—and the nearly 13,000 attendees at the Craft Brewers Conference is proof.

There is now a plethora of companies and people who are more than willing to offer their services and resources to help nearly anyone succeed. But it’s apparent that far too many brewers aren’t utilizing them as the same issues that everyone has bitched about for years still persist.

It’s time for small brewers and beer enthusiasts to stop taking cheap shots at Big Beer and instead focus on their own products.

There’s a disturbing trend in beer journalism. In fact, unbeknownst to most readers, it’s lurked in the global beer scene for decades.

A look at the beer industry post-2015, the year that Big Beer acquired successful craft breweries left and right and infused mind-boggling amounts of money into the business. Their plan? Buy more shelf space.

While Anheuser-Busch’s spree of brewery acquisitions makes headlines, its wholesaler purchases have spawned a war at the distribution level that could be one of craft brewing’s most important fights yet.

Although fruit styles only make up 1.5 percent of the total sales in the craft IPA category, the number of brands has increased, according to Chicago-based consumer insights company IRI.

In Blood, Sweat & Beer, filmmakers Chip Hiden and Alexis Irvin capture the nuances of the craft brewing community with honesty and humor.

While nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, standing in line for beer is too often about following the masses rather than one’s own palate—or curiosity.

Many craft breweries are cults of personality. But when these icons eventually fade, we’re left with the next generation to think about, as the brewery must go on. Craft brewing has always been a business.

Looking back on the industry in 2015, we’ve learned that no one cares if a brewery sells out, and now everything is “craft.”

This Brewers Association predicted that the US will soon exceed the record of 4,131 breweries set in 1873. That’s a big number. And it’s sparked the whole “When will the beer bubble burst?” debate again. But let’s not forget: 1873 and 2015 are different times.

It’s our collective responsibility to create a better beer culture by challenging ourselves, having those hard discussions about our community, naming names and remaining open to constructive criticism.

At least a dozen beer documentaries have premiered around the country since early 2014. For many filmmakers, the decision to turn the lens on brewing comes from personal experiences and observations of beer culture.

Amid the introduction of hundreds and thousands of new brewers—some small, some unbelievably large—we are witnessing a massive changing of the guard. America’s oldest breweries face a host of challenges ranging from demographics to succession.

Gary Fish founded Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Ore., in 1988. Twenty-five years later, the brewpub became the sixth-largest craft brewery by volume in the country.

Largely the province of beer marketing companies in the past, today’s contract brewers take myriad forms, and with the vast expansion of craft breweries comes new creative opportunities. It’s time to rethink our once strong dislike of contract or guest brewing.

Instead of targeting a seemingly endless stream of macro tap handles, as they once could, craft brewers find themselves reluctantly attacking the established marketplace achievements of their so-called craft beer brethren.

UK-based author, journalist and beer somm“ale”ier, Melissa Cole is as strong of a beer advocate as they come. She shared with BA what it’s like to be “taking the beard out of beer” these days.

Two new hop processing operations—one in Washington’s Yakima Valley and another facility-in-planning in Virginia—seek to provide brewers with a quality product and a shorter turnaround time.