Comments on: In the U.S. craft beer keeps growing, but someone is not happy… http://www.beer-chronicles.com/opinions-and-trends/416/in-the-u-s-craft-beer-keeps-growing-but-someone-is-not-happy/ the craft beer world seen by an Italian beer lover Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:30:03 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Andrea Turco http://www.beer-chronicles.com/opinions-and-trends/416/in-the-u-s-craft-beer-keeps-growing-but-someone-is-not-happy/comment-page-1/#comment-557 Andrea Turco Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:45:18 +0000 http://www.beer-chronicles.com/?p=416#comment-557 Hi Bob, thank you for your comment and your interesting post. As Italian beer lover, I tend to apply your perspective to the Italian market, that is very different from the U.S. one. So my opinion is influenced by this aspect. In an emerging market like Italy, maybe the most important issue is to raise quality and consistency by the presence of several brewers. After the initial success, now the market need to find a "normal state" and maybe the competitivity is the best way to reach it. By my experience, I can say that so far most brewers that reached success are the ones with better skills. I hope this trend may continue... Hi Bob, thank you for your comment and your interesting post.
As Italian beer lover, I tend to apply your perspective to the Italian market, that is very different from the U.S. one. So my opinion is influenced by this aspect. In an emerging market like Italy, maybe the most important issue is to raise quality and consistency by the presence of several brewers. After the initial success, now the market need to find a “normal state” and maybe the competitivity is the best way to reach it.
By my experience, I can say that so far most brewers that reached success are the ones with better skills. I hope this trend may continue…

]]> By: Bob Mack http://www.beer-chronicles.com/opinions-and-trends/416/in-the-u-s-craft-beer-keeps-growing-but-someone-is-not-happy/comment-page-1/#comment-552 Bob Mack Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:35:03 +0000 http://www.beer-chronicles.com/?p=416#comment-552 I'm the author of the blog posting you referred to at www.worldclassbeverages.com and I want to thank you for your opinion and perspective. I agree with most everything you say and as far as I'm concerned, I don't personally want to see any beers go away. I love most all of them, certainly the American craft beers. My article was really inspired by talks with several brewers who see that there may be some "clutter" in the beer marketplace and I think their concern stems from the craft beer downturn in the mid-nineties when a whole bunch of craft brewers lost their businesses. Most of the problem back then was blamed on the proliferation of brewers, not all of them good ones. Of course, we don't really know where the market saturation point is until we get there, as you allude to. The marketplace will eventually sort this out, of course, but there are always losers in the marketplace. Are great brewers going to be among the losers? It's easy to say that the market will choose to keep the good ones, but quality of product is not the only factor in play here. Financial standing, including indebtedness and smart business decisions will play a role, perhaps a larger role than product quality and product demand. Most all craft brewers are relatively small businesses by any standard and even the great ones can be susceptible to a small backlash or downturn in the marketplace. Cheers to you and thanks for your great website! Bob Mack www.worldclassbeverages.com, bmack@worldclassbeverages.com I’m the author of the blog posting you referred to at http://www.worldclassbeverages.com and I want to thank you for your opinion and perspective. I agree with most everything you say and as far as I’m concerned, I don’t personally want to see any beers go away. I love most all of them, certainly the American craft beers.

My article was really inspired by talks with several brewers who see that there may be some “clutter” in the beer marketplace and I think their concern stems from the craft beer downturn in the mid-nineties when a whole bunch of craft brewers lost their businesses. Most of the problem back then was blamed on the proliferation of brewers, not all of them good ones.

Of course, we don’t really know where the market saturation point is until we get there, as you allude to.

The marketplace will eventually sort this out, of course, but there are always losers in the marketplace. Are great brewers going to be among the losers? It’s easy to say that the market will choose to keep the good ones, but quality of product is not the only factor in play here. Financial standing, including indebtedness and smart business decisions will play a role, perhaps a larger role than product quality and product demand. Most all craft brewers are relatively small businesses by any standard and even the great ones can be susceptible to a small backlash or downturn in the marketplace.

Cheers to you and thanks for your great website!

Bob Mack
http://www.worldclassbeverages.com, bmack@worldclassbeverages.com

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