This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Beer War on American Soil
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Disclosure: I love beer. Particularly certain kinds of what the industry calls craft beer. I’m a sucker for a good IPA, or an amber, or a pale ale. For special occasions, there is the expensive stuff. If I’m traveling, I try to discover local brews. And the first swig is one of the simplest great pleasures in life. But for now, I’ll stick to the numbers. And they’re morose for the US beer industry. Yet there is an astonishing exception: craft brewers.
There are a lot of them in the US: 1,989 last year, up 11% from prior year, and up from one in 1976, according to the Brewer’s Almanac. They employed 103,500 workers. 250 new breweries opened and 37 closed—it's still dog-eat-dog out there, and just because you know how to brew a good beer doesn't mean you get to stick around. The phenomenal re-birth of an ancient industry:
“These numbers are poised to rise even more in 2012,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents small and independent brewers. “In February 2012, we already topped 2,000 operating breweries—a truly remarkable milestone.”
But before we get too tangled up in false euphoria about the American beer market, and the idea that it had somehow escaped the great recession, or has even emerged from it, let’s contemplate its possibly permanent misery.
Beer’s tragic fate: it used to be by far the favorite American alcoholic beverage. Even in 1992, long after wine had started climbing the popularity ladder, 47% of alcohol-consuming adults preferred beer; only 27% preferred wine, and 21% liquor. We know because Gallup began sorting out our alcohol preferences that year. Since them, beer zigzagged down and in 2005 plummeted to 36%, the lowest level of recorded Gallup history. Wine spiked to 39% to become America’s favorite drink. Then beer recovered but soon fell again, and in 2011, it was back at its record low of 35%, neck and neck with wine at 36%.
Preferences expressed in a survey don’t always translate well into gallons, barrels, and dollars. So here is a good swig of American reality: annual per-capita beer consumption. It makes mass-market brewers want to cry. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, no flattening out of the curve. America has been turning away from their product for over two decades:
In the good old days, US brewers fretted about imports, but over the last few years, imports have actually lost market share and are now down to 12.8%. For some astounding worldwide beer trends, read.... PROST! Germany Lost the Beer War, and China Won.
These days, what gives US brewers conniptions is the sheer terror of collapsing per capita consumption, an enemy they can’t shake. So far, they’ve had a powerful ally that helped obscure it on their income statements: population growth. A whopping 24% since 1990. But that is slowing down, and US beer production is getting slammed.
Three multinational corporations own most of the 20 gigantic, highly industrialized breweries that produce the vast majority of American beer. It’s been a great Wall Street bonanza, but the results are sobering. The largest brewer in the US, Anheuser-Busch, belongs to Brazilian multinational InBev, the largest brewer in the world. American number two, Miller, is part of SABMiller, headquartered in London, the second largest brewer in the world. Coors was acquired by Canadian brewer Molson, now the Molson Coors Brewing Company, fifth largest in the world. As if that weren’t enough deal-making, SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company formed the joint venture MillerCoors. However, Pabst Brewing Company is still independent.
But craft beer brewers operate in their own micro climate. In 2011, production jumped 13% to 11,468,152 barrels, for a 5.7% share of the US beer market in volume, according to the Brewers Association. With craft beers being more expensive, retail sales jumped 14.5% to a record $8.7 billion—for a 9.1% share of the $95.5 billion US beer market.
Despite the fundamental moroseness of the beer industry, it’s been an awesome year for craft brewers. What it shows is just how successful American entrepreneurs can be with their scrappy outfits in an industry of giants.
Beer’s archenemy wine got clobbered worldwide during the great recession and is still getting clobbered in Europe. But American wine makers are proving to be the toughest competitors out there, and they have prospered and grown despite the mayhem around them. For the debacle that old-world wine makers find themselves in, and for what they sheepishly consider an inexplicable American phenomenon, read.... Liquid Economic Indicators.
»
- advertisements -
Rheinlander Bock! Buyed by the fricken case(s).
Cripes I miss that stuff.
All I [regularly] drink now are the variant double bocks I encounter (look for "...ator..." somewhere in the trade name).
Kloster Andechs in Bavaria!
The monks at Kloster Andechs brew the greatest beer on earth, comrades.
... well worth a trip to the Fatherland!
Miller? You gotta be kidding me.
Miller is good.
Do this:
Get a quart, ice it, and enjoy the whole shootin' match after mowing the lawn.
Really
Damn, I think I'll mow the lawn after work tonight.
Does Miller give away free aspirin to go with that next day piss water headache???
I can comfortably digest 32 floz of 6% beer with no side effects at all. I hardly ever drink though. . . Liquor makes me sick the next day, and red wine gives me a heache. That thick, foreign stuff is OK, but I grew up in the 60's, and my palate was honed on LSD and American beer. So it's half a tab of windowpane, and Millers for me.
PBR
I'm from Milwaukee
And I oughta know
It's draft-brewed Blatz beer
Wherever you go
Or is it?
I am from Milwaukee originally and I always look for Blatz when I go back. My beer snob friends have evn gotten on board. Blatz is Americas Great Light beer. We have taste tested it against everything and Blatz is always the hands down winner.
Another classic is the Schlitz you can get in Milw and a couple other places. It is made with the real recipe from when it was the best selling beer in the world, not the shit the Schlitz kids began selling to cut costs. Fucking punks.
And of course PBR..... who can drink anything else as breakfast beer? Reminds me of being 15 again. It was also the first beer I ever bought. Eigth grade recess snuck off the playground and got a six pack that my friend and I chugged. Nothing tastes as good,
.
Have two kids in college, PBR has made quite a comeback. Also my first social beer, although we used to pilfer 16oz. Old Styles when the parents weren't looking starting at 12 years of age.
And none of the teachers noticed a thing, eh?
Hell, everyone did that back when. I grew up in a factory town. I knew who'd serve who. You just didn't get loud.
"I'm not drunk if there is a blade of grass to hang onto."
Taste great and less filling. Seriously!!
But you fuckers at ZH are too rich for my blood. Unlike you, I am not the 1% and can't spend 6 bucks a bottle for beer. SO for you poor fuckers out there like me, drink Miller Lite, Pabst, Stroh's, Fife and Drum, Meisterbrau, Schlitz, Colt .45, Milwaukees Best, etc. I remember back when we drank Fife and Drum, and Black Label. Shitty beer, but good times.
Ahhhhh, yes. The finest malted beverages. I, too am a cusomer of the basics.
Reminds me of the good 'ol days (1980s) in Duluth, MN.
You could drive over the bridge to superior, WI & get cases of Brewnigs in returnable bottles for $2.65 + deposit.
FAR cheaper than soda or milk. And not too bad, either. Once in a while you might find part of a mouse pelt or a raccoon turd in a bottle. No worries. Just check to see if the bottle was too cloudy before opening.
The main question of this posting is where has demand gone? Must be demographics. The aging Baby Boomers just don't swill as much suds as they used to. Those that aren't flying low on some sort of perscription meds are reaching for liquor.
Beer & wine don't make you forget arthritis & Zero interest rates fast enough.
Could get a case of Fox Deluxe for $4 in Eagle River in 1977. Throw in 1.50 and you had the start of an evening.
I could never afford that expensive, bankster, high-class Fox Deluxe.
You must have been RICH!
(Actually, I wonder if Fox Delux came out of a different spigot on the same barrel as Brewnigs)
Utica Club
Isn't Yuengling pretty good and not that expensive?
http://www.yuengling.com/over21/over21.php?referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yuengling.com%2F
How about Rolling Rock?
Yuengling is American family owned, is local (for me) and is reasonably priced for my New Reduced Budget Plan. I enjoy it - not the finest but after a vodka chaser, who cares?
Rolling Rock, on the other hand, is even more local but always tasted like spoiled spring water to me. Rolling Rock Light is a study in minimalism.
Lived 40 miles from Pottsville for 5 years. Yuengling is the best tap beer I have ever had.
In that part of PA they don't order a Yuengling. They order a lager and are served a Yuengling. I always thought that was cool.
So, where do you stand re: "Old Frothingshloss?"
@sun tzu
Hey, I'm not a beer snob. I like Chimay, I like Guinness, I like Maredsous, I like Dos Equis, I like Stella, I like Rogue Stout, I like Sam Adams Porter, I like the Real Ale Coffee Porter, the Sam Adams Imperial Series, I like Bass, I like St. Pauli's Girl, I like Fosters, I like Abita Amber, I like mixed beers, I like lambics, etc....And I like Miller High Life, so fuck off if you don't agree.
Hey, I'm not going to argue beer with a guy that shows up in a jockstrap. Just sayin'.
I like Miller High Life too, cheers.
It's the "light" beers that really suck, may as well drink seltzer water.
The brewers kind of shot themselves in the foot trying to use less malt to save money and calling it "light".
I want a beer, damnit, not a diet soda or less for my money.
After the yard work on a hot day, nothing goes down quite as good as an ice cold Fosters 'Oilcan'.
I like Guinness as well.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/miller-pilsner/15326/
@infiniti
"Beer" is an extraordinarily broad category. I doubt most of those responses were by people who understand the difference between a pilsner and lager. I'm not a fan of Czech lagers, so I don't care for Budweiser. Also, never underestimate the power that marketing has on people. This marketing stranglehold is especially powerful on beer drinkers.
Cursive, apparently you don't know the difference either. Pilsner is a Czech style of lager. Most lagers that Americans drink are German style lagers. What makes a lager is the type of yeast and fermentation process at cold temperatures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner
@Vampy
Like I don't know. From the article you quoted:
Lagers existed before Pilsners; they have separate names for a reason. Oh, and Josef Groll was Bavarian, BTW.
Do you mean the bikini commercials? I love those Miller Lite ones with the female mud wrestlers. Maybe that's why Miller Lite is my fav.
"Sam Adams Triple Bock,"
Shiner Bock for me, or Shiner Black!
Sorry. Hammered tonight - but on cheap Bourbon instead of great beer.....
While I lived in Texas, Shiner bacome a favorite of the missus and me. Of course, now that we're back home in Germany, almost ANYTHING is good. And even better, I rarely pay more than a Euro for a half-liter for my favorite wheat beers. Life isn't perfect here, but it does have its perqs.
Good to see you here, Gav. You know me as woody52 over on the MW boards. Taste in beer is one of those odd unpredictables that make life interesting. I've tried hard to like the Shiners (partly because I have property in TX), but find them only fair at best. My Romanian son-in-law loves Warsteiners and Czech pilsners, and they're good, but I lean toward stouts and porters, the blacker and smokier the better, and also doppelbocks and double IPAs.
But almost every locale has something good to offer. What breaks my heart is Baja Cal; as much beer as Mexicans drink, you'd think they would have a lot of grandes cervezas. Instead, you find whole towns with nothing but Tecate and maybe Corona. I've scoured every mercado in town to find a Negra Modelo or Dos Equis Ambar, and forced to settle for something that tastes like Bud Light, or worse.
Cheers!
Bohemia is good if at the right temperature -- not too cold. It comes from Tecate too.
@Iam_Silverman
I recently had the pleasure of trying Garrison Brother's Texas Bourbon in Hye, Tx. Very interesting. It's a wheated bourbon with little aging. If you want good AND cheap, there is no better than Evan Williams Black.
Belgium Kasteel is the best.
http://shop.belgianshop.com/acatalog/info_1_BB20297.html
A very strong and rich beer from the same brewery that produces Brigand. A deep dark ale, with very malty aroma and a sweetish palate. Definitely an after dinner drink!
Pours with a lovely cola colored brown with a mocha colored thick head and excellent lacing - going to have a tough time cleaning the glass tomorrow morning! Aroma has some sweet accents of baked brown bread, raisins and sugar. Flavor has many of the same notes with some cinamony-chocolate making a late appearance. Candy sugar flavor is prominent and makes this very enticing and hides the ABV of 11% oh so well. Good, thick mouthfeel, low carbonation - feels just right. All around an excellent Belgian.
Three Floyds Brewery makes a beer they named Gumblehead. Best beer on a hot Summer day, for my taste.
Boys, boys...
please...
Old Rasputin
Russian Imperial Stout... 9%
North Coast Brewing Co, Fort Bragg, CA
Pliny the Elder
Double India Pale Ale... 8%
Russian River Brewing Co, Santa Rosa, CA
Rasputin and Pliny are genuine beers of the realm... one of these are worth 10 beers of talk...