For some beer drinkers of the Pilsner ilk, the thought of
cracking open a Raison D'Etre or an Unfiltered Wheat... well,
it just doesn't occur. Venture out to the fringe, however, and
it's different.
"The most heartening trend is that, while the beer industry
is essentially flat overall, there's rekindled growth in
hundreds of small, local breweries," says Sam Calagione,
founder and owner of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware, as
well as Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats in nearby Rehoboth Beach.
"Unique brand identities and product lines are really
thriving."
Indeed, the nearly 1,400 U.S. craft brewers--which include
brewpubs, microbreweries (those that sell less than 15,000 barrels
per year) and specialty brewers--sold 7 percent more beer in 2004
than in 2003, according to the Brewers Association, a trade association for
U.S. craft brewers. Craft beer is the fastest-growing segment of
the U.S. alcoholic beverage industry.
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Innovative product is key to success in today's craft beer
industry. "The beer business has changed a great deal in the
past 15 years," says John McDonald, 52, founder and owner of
Boulevard Brewing Co. in Kansas City, Missouri.
"Craft breweries really struggled in the mid-'90s because
there were so many. The past five to seven years, the breweries
that have survived are the ones investing in quality and good
product."
And when it comes to selling these unusual brews, standard
marketing tactics don't cut it. Boulevard, which sells in 11
states in the Midwest, gets 55 percent of its business through
on-site sales of draft beer in bars and restaurants, and the rest
through sales of bottled beer. The company does little marketing or
advertising, relying instead on its brewery's visibility in
Kansas City--and plain, old word-of-mouth. "We don't
market just a brand beer. We really sell the brewery," says
McDonald, who brought in more than $14.2 million in 2004 and
expects to end 2005 up nearly 17 percent over 2004.
Like McDonald, Calagione, who founded Dogfish in 1995 and
expects 2005 sales to top $10 million, wouldn't think of
entreating a mass market to drink his beer. Says Calagione, 36,
"We make our beer for the minority who care more about
what's happening inside the bottle than all the marketing
bullshit happening outside the bottle."