Brewer's Association Fifth Research Post

Brewers Association website explores a lot of different details about beer and craft beer. One thing I wanted to focus on was the history of craft brewing.  Being a member of the American Home Brewers Association I felt it important to know the history behind the craft. Craft brewing began in the 70’s after the country had been seeing most of its breweries begin disappearing.  People believed at that time that the country would only have 5 surviving breweries.  The purchase of Anchor Steam in California was a turning point for craft brewing, along with the upwelling of home brewing. Since that time craft brewing has had a huge turning point. In the 1980’s the industry experts refused to acknowledge the existence of this microbreweries, but by 1994 the number had increased from 8 to 537. Since that time there has been a steady 1-4% increase up till today, with the country having over 1600 microbreweries today.  With all this knowledge what defines a craft brewery. Well traditionally a craft brewery is small, independent, and traditional. With an annual production of less than 6 million barrels, less than 25% of the company being owned by a major alcoholic beverage industry member who is not a craft brewery, and uses malt to enhance the flavor of the beer rather than lighten it.  Usually craft breweries will be distinct, have some type of quality that makes them different than the rest.  They will also be small, but still have a pulse on the culture and the community around them.  They will also be the Avant-Garde of the beer industry, willing to take risks and try things out they may not sell well or be very popular, in order to maybe get that one beer that does amazingly well i.e. Arrogant Bastard, DFH 120min.