the craft beer revolution
Steve Hindy, Palgrave Macmillan, 244 pages, $25
America still purveys some of the worst beer in the world, but it also brews much of the best. Walk into any of the thousands of craft-beer bars or brewpubs that have sprung up in recent years and choose from an array of taps, perhaps a hoppy IPA, a delicate lager in the Pilsner style or an imperial stout with a hefty slug of alcohol.
In three decades, microbreweries have gone from nowhere to 10 percent of a market worth $100 billion a year, though Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors still dominate. In "The Craft Beer Revolution" Steve Hindy, co-founder of the Brooklyn Brewery, one of the most successful small beermakers, tells of the struggle to "bring down the Goliaths."
Microbreweries and brewpubs laid the foundations in the 1980s, spurred on by a tax break for small breweries and the lifting of a Prohibition-era ban on home brewing. A decade ago a new bunch added a more businesslike approach, caring as much about margins and distribution deals as hops and malt.
The revolution has much further to run, according to Hindy's thorough dissection of the business and portraits of the people at its core. Around 1,500 breweries are in the planning stage in America. But the giants are fighting back. They have invested in craft brewers to learn their tricks, if not to make money. Some beer lovers fear that large brewers could eventually use their power to beat the microbrewers at their own game.
Canny boozers are unlikely to be fooled by mainstream beers masquerading as microbrews. Exclusivity is part of the appeal as much as the beers' complex, sometimes unusual flavors. And it is a trend that is spreading worldwide. Britain, whose ales inspired many American beermakers, is witnessing a microbrewing boom. Beer buffs can prop up a bar, craft brew in hand, in unlikely outposts such as Azerbaijan and North Korea. As Hindy rightly points out, "Once you taste a craft beer, there is no going back."
THE ECONOMIST
