Craft beer in five years...

Off the cuff, I see A LOT more pseudo-craft offerings coming from the major macro-brew companies and popular craft brewery buy outs. Anyone agree? Disagree?

 

My biggest fear is that craft will be more difficult to obtain.

 

Well, in addition to new breweries opening all the time, we are currently seeing so many breweries expanding their distribution. I don't see any sort of end or reduction in interest in craft brews. I do suspect that the macros will scratch and claw to maintain or grow share with their crafty offerings. Over several years I have seen many liquor stores expand their beer sections. I predict that eventually store managers will get sick of the long turnover times it takes to move stock on the broad selections of inventory they have been hurrying to build to keep up with demand. Eventually those managers will realize that all the trouble of the broadest selections isn't efficient when much of it just sits on the shelf.

Craft beer isn't going away, but right now anything released gets on a shelf or in a cooler, and that won't last forever. There will be streamlining, and for the breweries that choose not to sell-out and ramp up drastically the production of special beers like Dark Lord, Darkness, etc. we are all going to have to work even harder to get more than a bottle a year or something like that.

Just my $0.02

 

Limited edition, waxed top, barrel aged bud-lite titanium.

 

And I really hope this limited release/bennie baby fad dies. I predict in 2 years the craigslist resale market will crash because no one will pay their markeup.

 

Love the thread btw. Imo I see the macros following the way of inbev and going with the "if u can't beat them, join them" mentality by attempting to buy the distro rights. I would love to beleive that all of the good hard working craft breweries will thrive, but eventually the bottom will fall out and the strong will survive. In the mean time I will enjoy the ride the best that I can. I sincerely hope that beer market share balances out to support the craft beer and the people that brew it. Btw I'm from st louis and completely undersrand Augustus decision to sell out, but I will not support a foreign company when I can make a better product in my kitchen.

Cheers

 

Bourbon Barrel Aged and Transferred to Other Barrels Infused with Dog Poop Espresso Coffee Tea Imperial Imperial Imperial Stout

 

yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO! You are stretching it a bit much. Won't happen!

 

The whales stuff are annoying me. It causes too much chaos and I can't find any of them.

 

Bummer. I guess you will just have to the stick to drinking the hundreds of other solid year-round, non-whale options in the South-Western US. Sucks to be you.

 

Probably not that either.

 

Baseball cards

 

WOW! digging kinda deep aren't you? SO get the awesome reference!?(used to collect for a short time)

 

About the same as now just larger, about 7/8 % of the beer market.

 

Eventually craft beer will just become beer.

 

There will be close to 4000 breweries of all sizes.

Local beer will be the most popular way to get great craft for much of the country.

The large craft brewers will have to shrink their distribution.

High end offerings will be made increasingly more exclusive and expensive.

BCBS and variants will be in full production and easily available nationwide as the 130,000 SF barrel house will be in full usage.

American brewers will be making "Lambics" as fine, or better than Belgians.

Wild Ales/sour beers and Saisons will be the most popular styles, with IPA and hoppy beers falling to 3rd.

The best beer in the history of the world will be available fresh and easy for most of us all year.

Europeans will still shit on us (while secretly spending crazy money to get what we export to Europe).

 

Pretty hard to say, since the folks who will invent that future are busily working away some where out of sight and out of our imagining.

 

Mergers and aquisitions. Get used to these words because you're going to see a lot. Also I'm imagining the 'eternal september' of sorts craft beer is seeing will at least begin to level off.

 

More of the same as now. Five years isn't all that far off.

To be specific, more new startups, a few mediocre brewers disappearing, more local brewpubs, a few more acqusitions by "Big Beer" and no bubble bursting (much to consternation of those who keep predicting it.)