Microbrewery
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A microbrewery, or craft brewery, is a term used to describe a small commercial brewery.
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[edit] Origins and philosophy
The term and trend originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s to describe the new generation of small breweries which had a focus on producing traditional cask ale. Though originally used to reflect the size of the breweries it gradually came to reflect an alternative attitude and approach to brewing of flexibility, adaptability, experimentation and customer service. The term and trend spread to the United States in the 1980s where it eventually was used to indicate a brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer annually.
Microbreweries have adopted a different marketing strategy than large, mass-market breweries, offering products that compete on the basis of quality and diversity, instead of low price and advertising. Their influence has been much greater than their market share, indicated by the fact that large commercial breweries have introduced new brands intended to compete for some of the microbrewery market, and when this failed, they have invested in or bought some microbreweries.
[edit] Microbreweries in the United States
In the early twentieth century, Prohibition drove many breweries in the U.S. into bankruptcy because they could not rely on selling "sacramental wine" as wineries of that era did. After several decades of consolidation of breweries, most American commercial beer was produced by a few very large corporations, resulting in a very uniform, mild-tasting lager of which Budweiser is a well-known example. Consequently, some beer drinkers craving variety turned to homebrewing and eventually a few started doing so on a slightly larger scale. For inspiration, they turned to Britain, Germany, and Belgium, where a centuries-old tradition of artisan beer and cask ale production had never died out.
The popularity of these products was such that the trend quickly spread, and hundreds of small breweries sprang up, often attached to a bar (known as a "brewpub") where the product could be enjoyed. As microbrews proliferated, some became more than microbrews, necessitating the definition of the broader category of craft beer - high quality, generally all-malt, beer.
American microbreweries typically distribute through a wholesaler in a traditional three-tier system, others act as their own distributor and sell to retailers and/or directly to the consumer through a tap room, attached restaurant, or off-premise sales.
The Association of Brewers estimated in July 2003 that there were 366 microbreweries in the United States. Portland, Oregon has more breweries than any other metropolitan area and is popularly known as Beervana because of the tremendous variety and quality of craft-brewed beers and ales available. Colorado is said to be the state with the most breweries per capita[citation needed].
The last decade of the 20th century saw the emergence out of the microbrewing phenomenon of microdistilling with California and Oregon again leading the way in this new development. Microdistilleries have also opened in the, Rocky Mountains, Midwest, Southeast and Northeastern United States.
[edit] Microbreweries in other countries
Microbreweries are gradually appearing in other countries (such as New Zealand and Australia) where a similar market concentration exists. For example, microbreweries are flourishing in Canada, which has a large domestic market dominated by a few large companies. Britain also has a large number of small commercial breweries making cask ale, the smallest of which are known as microbreweries and can be found in spaces as restricted as a single domestic garage. There is less of a divide between these and the giant companies, however, as breweries of all sizes exist to fill the gap.
[edit] Definition
Definitions [1] of Microbrewery vary. "In common-sense terms, a microbrewery is a small craft brewery which seeks the support of informed beer consumers." / "A beer maker with limited capacity whose products are typically distributed within a restricted geographic region." / "By definition, a microbrewery was originally considered to be a brewery with a capacity of less than 3000 barrels (2500 hectoliters), but by the end of the 1980s this threshold increased to 15,000 barrels (12,500 hectoliters) as the demand for microbrewed beer doubled and then tripled." / "Breweries and brewpubs producing less than 1,500 barrels per year." / "a small brewery; consumption of the product is mainly elsewhere." More: "A small brewery, generally producing fewer than 10,000 barrels of beer and ale a year and frequently selling its products on the premises" [2] / "The great chicken or the egg question in the Brewing industry has always been: What defines a microbrewery? The Institute of Brewing Studies does a good job of bringing some sense to great mystery -- and it puts those at less than 15,000 barrels in the micro category and makes the designation of craft brewery very important. I feel any brewery producing less than 50,000 barrels per year could fall into this category." [3] / "There is also the whole issue of the definition of microbreweries. In the United States, a microbrewery is a brewery producing less than 1 million hectolitres per year. In Canada, a microbrewery is defined as a brewery producing 300,000 hectolitres of beer. Therefore, in the United States a brewery producing less than 1 million hectolitres is by definition a microbrewery and, as such, is entitled to a more preferential tax rate, 9 cents, whereas in Canada, the threshold and the definition are, to a certain extent, a disadvantage for microbreweries." [4] / "A microbrewery is a small brewery with a limited production capacity which, of necessity, produces labour intensive hand-crafted beers." [5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Stack, Martin H. (July 2003). "A Concise History of America's Brewing Industry". Economic History (EH.net) Encyclopedia.
