Is this the next and final push?

I would like to know the average pay and benefit package of BMC vs. small breweries. A good friend is a keg monkey at a local place and he gets paid barely above minimum wage with no benefits.

He agreed to the job, but it is more of how the brewery charges one hell of a premium for its product, then markets itself as "support local jobs" so "support our beer." I have a hard time believing they can't afford to pay him a bit more than working at McDonalds. I'm not saying he should be making $20 a hour, but their packaged beer costs more than he makes in a hour.

That whole situation has soured me on the idea of how they are pitching their beer to te public. This isn't pro BMC, just more of an observation.

 

The big oligopoly breweries that survived into the 21st century in the US- basically AB and MillerCoors - probably destroyed more "good paying union jobs" than they ever created during their relentless drive for more and more market share, wiping out hundreds of breweries in the process.

Looks like US brewing industry employment peaked, post-Repeal, in the 1946 with over 63,000 employees at 440 breweries, brewing 81 million barrels of beer. (AB and Miller at the time with probably 7% of the US market, and Coors much, much less).

By the late 1980's that was down to 24,000 employees at under 50 (pre-craft) breweries, but brewing 178m bbl. That's in 1988 - by which time AB, Miller and Coors accounted for 3/4 of the beer brewed in the US. So, more than twice the beer with less than half the employees in about 4 decades.

Modern Brewery Age and Brewers Almanac figures.​

 

Here's my take. I met a guy a year ago, husband of a friend of my wife. He drinks Coors Light, an occasional Blue Moon. Now he homebrews, drinks IPA's. His neighbors, full time ranchers, now drink stouts and are dabbling in pale ales and IPA's. My wife last week ordered and drank a Baxter IPA and wanted another.
These are all people(except my wife) who one year ago only drank BMC and really had no idea there was anything else, and they are all pushing 60 years old.
It's this slow, grass roots discovery and appreciation of better beer that will in time force BMC to come up with some quality alternatives to the dreck they sell now. BMC won't ever give up and go away, but hopefully they will at least start making drinkable beer. I know we're all supposed to hate them, curse them and howl at the moon about their business practices but as has been stated many times before they aren't going away.

 

That's it...I'm switching to nano.

 

I don't see how the craft brew revolution has won. I'll recognize that people are becoming more open to the idea. If anything it's overinflated and will have to die down a little over the next 5 years. Sorry, but there are only so many amazing beers out there, and I'm not about to try everyones' IPA to sift through them. There are only so many different ways to make a C hop beer before they're all the same and you go back to something like Two Hearted Ale. Not every time, but more often than not I'll buy the stuff I've tried before and it stood out as good craft brew.

 

The revolution is won when you don't have to call it craft beer anymore.

 

As a younger man I can tell you the love for drinking good beer is strong. Not many of my friends are talking anout how good anything the BMC puts out is good and when they do drink it they are aware of what they are drinking is watered down and "fake.". They started out with some gateway brews such as shock top and blue moon and now are drinking SNPA and weheinstaphner moving everyday further into the craft beer zone.

 

Wow cavedave. If you had a Flower Power flag you'd sure be waving it.
I'm still wondering if the Bagel Revolution has been won.

If the revolution succeeded then we must be in the era of the Craft Beer Regime, and then it's only a matter of time until the next revolution. Bourbon barrel blood will flow in the streets.

 

I live in Windsor, just across from Detroit, and went to Orion fest this past weekend. The only beers they had were bud lite, bud lite lime-a-rita, and bud, to be quite honest I was pretty disappointed because there is a LOT of good beer brewed in michigan. Eventually I caved and had a budweiser, same with my girlfriend and her sister. To be honest, while it wasn't bad, I was disappointed that they didn't have anything better - it went down fine, especially on a day like saturday, but it would have went down better if it were a hoppier pilsner with a nice peppery saaz bite. My girlfriend agreed, but her sister liked it well enough. If good beer is to become the "majority", it's got a long way to go, and I think that bud might have been better for the concert setting anyways - it's easier to serve and harder to spill beer right from a can, it's basically water so it'll go down just fine and be refreshing and drinkable, it's very large production scale means they will never run out, and it'll have a good profit margin, and at a concert most people don't seem to think about the beer they're drinking anyways. I don't see why they couldn't have added some local craft options alongside budweiser, but I don't think many craft breweries could cater to an event with this sort of scale without some serious planning ahead.

 

There will always be the budget consumer, who can't justify paying $2 more dollars a 6er because they just want to get drunk from their beer and not have much taste. That's the guy that you really can't win over.

People who want to enjoy beer, are convertible.

 

Success implies that it's over, and in my opinion it's only really beginning.

 

Numbers don't lie. 7% market share isn't anywhere near being done. Some people drink craft from time to time, but how many are converting to an all craft intake?

 

Yeah I'm kind of surprised they didn't throw in basic MI craft options like Oberon or something like that.

I'm not saying that all young people drink good stuff, I was just saying that a solid amount of us (more than 7%, like the overall craft beer market) are turning to craft brews and micro brews. Building a good consumer base with young people will expand craft's margins as we get older- our purchasing power as 20-25 year olds is pretty weak, but that will change as we get better jobs and more disposable income.

I would be curious to see an age group breakdown of the craft beer market, because I'm fairly confident that you'll see more people in the 20-35 year old age bracket buying craft than say the 50-65 year old age bracket.

 

Probably not. But I was arguing absolute number, which is what you brought up.

Then again, they may be better jobs. The employees of a craft brewery may enjoy that job better despite lower wages, benefits, etc. There are lots of factors that go into the quality of a job.

 

Sigh, you continue this BS.

Why cant bigger/darker/hoppier/more-flavor be the drink of the masses?

Of course, "More flavor" than Bud Light isnt a hard standard to reach.

 

I personally know a handful of brewers from the first wave of craft who, as they got older, got married, and had kids, were "forced" to exit the industry, as they simply weren't making enough money to support themselves and their families with any sense of security. I highly suspect that the same will happen with many of the young people who are leading the current push in craft brewing. $20,000 a year, a sense of community, and free(ish) beer sounds like a great deal when you're single and in your 20s, but when you add a spouse and/or a kid to the mix, it ceases to sound so appealing.

 

Don't ask me, ask the masses. From what I've experienced the world over, there is certainly room for beers that are bigger/bolder/have more flavor than BMC, but not for the biggest/boldest/hoppiest, to become a drink of the masses. Matter of fact, I advocate for the former quite vocally. If you want to place your bets on the latter, feel free.