If you’re in the craft brewing business, these are (pardon the pun) heady times. While beer sales in general are, well, flat, craft brewers’ goblets runneth over, and there appears to be no end in sight.
According to a report released at the end of March by the Brewers Association, craft brewers saw beer volume rise by 13% in 2011, while retail sales increased 15% from 2010 to 2011. That allowed craft brewers nationwide to carve out a market share above 5% for the first time ever, continuing a trajectory that has them feeling their oats, their hops, their barley, and anything else they can think to put in a new designer brew.
“I think bars and restaurants ignore craft beers at their peril,” said Bill Rogers, owner of Madison’s Malt House and one of the chief organizers of Madison Craft Beer Week, which will hold its second annual slate of events from May 4-13. “We’ve only got about 5% of the market in craft beer in Wisconsin. In the state of Oregon, it’s 30% of the market. And nationwide, craft beer is the only segment of the beverage alcohol market that continues to grow – and it grows double digits every year and has done so for the last decade.”
Rogers, the former chairman of the Great Taste of the Midwest Festival, organized last year’s event along with Robyn Klinge, beer education manager at Madison’s Vintage Brewing Co., and Jeff Glazer, editor-in-chief of Madison Beer Review.
Both Rogers and Klinge say they were inspired by other cities’ craft beer weeks, and thought a springtime launch would work well because it would correspond with the sale of Great Taste tickets.
“I used to work for Epic, and I traveled around the country a lot for my job, and wherever I traveled I encountered a lot of other beer weeks, in cities such as New York, Cleveland, San Francisco,” said Klinge. “Every one I went to I thought, ‘Why doesn’t Madison do this?’ And then it kind of turned into, ‘Why doesn’t Madison do this? We could do this. I’ll do it.’”
That initial spark led to Madison Craft Beer Week 2011, which featured more than 100 events at 40 different venues, a level of participation that surprised even the event’s organizers. This year, the number of events has already topped 150, and is still growing.
“Last year, we were definitely surprised at the high levels of participation both from the venues and breweries as well as just the patrons that came out,” said Klinge. “We were basically hoping and crossing our fingers for one event every day, and ended up having close to 13 every day. So that was quite a surprise and really quite awesome. So this year, because of the positive reception last year, we did expect it to increase.”
Fertile ground in Mad Town
While the 5% market share craft brewers enjoy in Wisconsin is about in line with the rest of the country, Madison is, not that surprisingly, something of an outlier – at least to hear industry insiders tell it. While organizers were a little surprised at how quickly Madison Craft Beer Week has caught on, in retrospect, they’re not terribly shocked that it found its footing in just its first year. While Milwaukee remains the Beer Capital of the World, Madison could easily lay claim to the title of Craft Beer Capital of Wisconsin.
“Madison has an extremely educated beer-drinking populace,” said Tom Porter, owner and founder of Arena’s Lake Louie Brewing, and a participant in Madison Craft Beer Week. “I don’t want to say it’s unique, but it’s certainly much appreciated by craft brewers in the Midwest. Obviously, that’s why everybody in the Midwest that makes craft beer wants to sell it in Madison, because you don’t have to take people by the lip and make them drink craft beer. They already get it.”
According to Rogers, that discerning palate is perhaps an extension of Madisonians’ appreciation of restaurant fare in general.
“Madison is a foodie town, maybe more so than many of the other cities in the state,” said Rogers, “and because of that, we’re more apt to go looking for more flavorful beverages, and that includes craft beer. Craft beer pairs so well with many different kinds of foods, and even a lot of wine people are starting to see that there are foods that are difficult to pair with some wines and are easier to pair with beers.”
Among the events scheduled for Craft Beer Week are a number of food-pairing demonstrations. Not only could such events help gin up interest in craft beers, they might also help restaurant owners see the opportunities presented by the meteoric rise in craft beer sales.
“I think the more that we do that, the more restaurants will see that, ‘hey, that restaurant is full tonight, and I’m only half full. What are they doing that’s different?’” said Rogers. “And what they’re doing is having craft beer events. So that’s part of the focus, part of the impetus for why we wanted to do this, is to drive more business to support craft beer in a bigger way.”
Of course, craft brewers aren’t simply interested in converting restaurant owners – they also need consumers to hop on the bandwagon. That’s a process that’s ongoing, and even has some wine drinkers joining the party.
“One [of the events] that’s pretty near and dear to my heart involves the Females Enjoying Microbrews group that I run at the Vintage,” said Klinge. “We’re doing a Beer for Wine Lovers night the first Monday, on the 7th. Part of our goal of Craft Beer Week is to convert the Miller Lite drinkers, but also to draw in the people who think that they don’t like beer but probably just haven’t found the right beer yet. So I think that’ll be a fun one, to kind of convert some wine drinkers.”
But whether or not wine drinkers join the party in significant numbers, it’s clear that sales of craft brews are on the upswing, at least for the foreseeable future.
“Yeah, we’re up, up, up,” said Porter. “I don’t know of a small brewery that isn’t. All of us are up. I think I could sell as much beer as I could make, and we are. … I’m in my 13th year, and it used to be that you had to talk people into trying it, putting it on tap in their bar, and now they pretty much call you. And so I think it’s a flash in the pan that’s still burning. It’s legitimate now. It used to be a novelty, and now it’s in everyone’s fridge at home.”
For an updated list of Madison Craft Beer Week events, click here.
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