Big boring beer still rules, despite the rise in craft brews - Marin Independent Journal

For all the hype over how fast the craft beer industry has grown and stolen market share from the Big Beer sector in the 2010s, one fact remains about craft beer: people don’t drink much of it. For every pint of craft beer that consumers buy in this country, they still buy about six pints of Bud, Coors, Miller and the like.

Brewers, economists, reporters, bloggers and just about everyone with their finger on the pulse of the craft beer industry marvel at its growth, and on a myopic level, the craft beer boom has truly been remarkable. In 2010, about 1,500 breweries made beer in the United States. Most of those companies were tiny craft breweries, which together made about 11 million barrels of beer that year. By 2019, the American beer industry consisted of more than 7,000 breweries, with craft production hitting 26 million barrels. That’s amazing, say craft beer devotees, who often declare that there has never been a better time to be alive for those whose hobby is drinking good beer.

But, when we back up and look at the greater lay of the landscape, the storyline weakens. In 2010, craft breweries produced 5% of all beer purchased in the U.S. Nine years later, craft breweries are making about 14% of all the beer in the country. That’s not much. Moreover, craft beer’s rate of growth is slowing, indicating a market plateau ahead.

All of this seems to fly in the face of what we see and hear of new breweries, beer bars and taprooms popping up left and right. In Marin County, places like Pond Farm, Adobe Creek, Libation and the soon-to-open Fieldwork location in Corte Madera reflect the expansion of the industry. Downtown San Rafael is now peppered with craft beer hotspots, and around the state, a new brewery opens every few days. Most breweries produce minuscule amounts of beer.

While the latest hazy IPA or a barrel-aged sour can generate hype and media attention, little mention is ever made of the people who walk out of supermarkets everywhere, daily — people by the millions — with cases of Bud, Coors, Corona and Miller. These are the beer sales that drive the market.

To me, this is the big craft beer story of 2020. Not the fact that so many more people now drink the stuff than before, but that so few do. Even after 20 years of exuberant craft beer hype, most beer drinkers remain loyal to their go-to brands of light, watery lagers made by giant, uninteresting global companies. (Who are these people? Why do they opt against beer with flavor? Are they cheap? Or do they prefer their beverages flavorless?)

You know what? It’s fine. Craft beer geeks talk about the ongoing growth of the craft beer sector as though it matters — matters for them personally and for brewers already established in the industry.

But it doesn’t matter, and if anything, a retraction of the craft beer market would help existing players, and for consumers there is so much diversity already that it would make no difference, because every new brand at this point is almost redundant. If you want a craft beer, go get one, and if California’s brewery population doubles in the next decade from its current level of 1,000, it will make not really affect your personal experience. There could be 50 hazy IPAs on a supermarket shelf, or 100, but all you need on any occasion is one.

Craft beer only amounts to 14% of the market because, believe it or not, most people don’t want it. It’s weird but true, and at this point, with great options everywhere, it doesn’t really matter.

Alastair Bland’s Through the Hopvine runs every week in Zest. Contact him at allybland79@gmail.com.

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Big boring beer still rules, despite the rise in craft brews - Marin Independent Journal
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