The number of craft breweries is at an all-time high. Craft beer sales are . Thousands more brewers are waiting in the wings.
But this isn’t a time for complacency, the heads of the Brewers Association said Thursday during the State of the Craft Brewing Industry presentation at the 33rd annual Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia.
The colossal combination of and big breweries could limit access distribution. Gaps in quality could water-down the appeal of craft. And new federal Food and Drug Administration menu guidelines could be costly for small players, said Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based .
Through it all, craft brewers have to remain connected to one another and nurture the unique camaraderie that helped the industry grow to take a 12 percent share of the overall beer market, he said.
“We are different than other industries,” Gatza said during a teleconference. “It would be a shame if we lost that.”
Several initiatives, efforts and “marketplace endeavors” are underway to further the growth of small, independent and traditional brewers.
Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease, who testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the AB InBev-SABMiller deal, said he remains in discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice to reiterate a need for a “truly independent beer distribution system.”
Those discussions also come in the wake of AB InBev expanding its distributorship holdings and broadening a program that gives incentives to companies that get brews to restaurants and keeps retailers away from smaller craft products, he said.
Separately, the Brewers Association is translating its draft quality manual into Spanish and also is targeting a recently published book on quality management to breweries in planning.
“The beer drinker will weed them out if they don’t get better,” Gatza said.
The Brewers Association also is stepping up efforts to advance beer’s standing in the nation’s accredited culinary academies.
On Wednesday, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History announced a three-year initiative to document recent beer history and the industry’s effects in areas such as advertising, agriculture, innovation, business and community.
“Brewing has a long and deep connection to our country’s history, and the museum’s collections explore the history of beer from the late 19th to early 20th centuries,” museum director John Gray said in a statement. “The support of the Brewers Association allows our staff to collect the more recent history, including the impact of small and independent craft brewers who continue to advance the U.S. beer culture and inspire brewers worldwide.”
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace
