Beer is the New Wine
Craft beer sales are shooting through the roof in Britain and the number of brewers selling, buying and supplying is growing week on week
by ERIK HOFFMANN
There is definitely more brew where it's coming from. Here from Beavertown Brewery's stock.
Retail company Majestic Wine reported that their sales of craft beer and spirits rose by 164% in 2014 compared with 2013, and hailed craft beer as their most promising product.
2014 was a good year for the beer industry as a whole, at least parts of it. The British Pub and Beer Association could report positive growth for the first time in five years, with a 1.7 per cent rise in total sales in the year’s first three fiscal quarters.
On-trade sales numbers are still declining, though, as the positive numbers were entirely held up by off-licence sales. It is difficult to quantify how much growth is down to craft beer sales, as there is no clear distinction of what craft is and because there are no records kept separating craft sales (i.e. independently brewed beer) from other hard data.
However, there is no denying that the craft segment of the sector is experiencing a continuing boom, with 70-odd micro breweries now to be found in London alone and new ones added to the scene each month.
“I see this as the beginning of this beer movement, this isn’t midway into it,” says Tom Cadden, Group Manager of Craft Beer Co., a London craft pub chain. He argues that there is no established pattern and that innovative products and new events are being rolled out each week.
Southwark now hosts ten independent breweries, more than any other London borough. In Bermondsey, a part of Southwark notorious for its rich brewing history, manufactures are having difficulties keeping up with demand.
“Every time we spend more money to buy more capacity, by the time it arrives it’s already built out,” says Daniel Lowe, Co-Founder of Fourpure Brewing.
Mr Lowe now sees the need to move to a more spacious location to increase production, and says that off-sale are definitely looking to increase their current market share of the UK beer market, and that in America craft beer accounts for 10 per cent of beer sales.
“Consumers are willing to pay for a product they view as better,” he says.