News Quickies: Craft Beer Sales, Hops Shortage

So I’ve been thinking about the news.  There’s a lot of it.  Not all of it is worthy of a single post, but it’s still worth knowing.  So I’ll try to keep everyone up to date with a weekly (hopefully) rundown of what’s going on in the world of beer. 

Craft beer sales see double digit growth in 2007 (again) -  Craft beer sales reached $575 million in 2007, a 16.7 percent increase over the $493 million posted in 2006.  The Southeast saw the biggest regional increase, with a 31.6 percent increase.  Craft beer sales in that region totaled $41 million, so there is still room to improve.  I’ve noticed a lot of buzz coming from the South regarding beer lately, specifically Atlanta, so let’s see if this trend continues.  For 2008, sales have started off just as strong, but price increases due to the hop and malt shortage hit the shelves in February.  Let’s see how those increases affect sales.

Hop production increases - We all know there is a hop shortage.  We see it in the homebrew shop and now we see it in the beer aisle.  But fear not, help is on the way.  2007 saw a 5 percent increase in hop acreage and a 4 percent increase in production.  Washington was king of the hops in 2007 (surprised?) with 77% of domestic production.  Good news, Idaho’s production should be up in 2008 as 2007’s production was decreased to an increase in the presence of “babies.”

A-B loosening stranglehold on distributors - Anheuser-Busch is not resistant to the price increase within the brewing industry and as a result, things might be changing.  Seeing wholesale distributors steal some business from the brewing giant, Anheuser-Busch is looking to rework its “100 percent mindshare” program.  A-B is trying to looking to increase sales and strengthen its core brands of quality brews such as Budweiser, Bud Light, Natural Light and Busch.  Now that’s good drinking.