I’m sure we all assumed this, given the fact that the craft beer scene has exploded in the last year, but now we have the data to prove it! Twin Cities Business magazine has a nice story on the burgeoning craft brewing scene in Minnesota. Thanks JS for the heads up!
MN Craft Beer Sales Boom Despite Recession
Minnesota craft beer brewers outpaced their national peers by nearly 70 percent in 2008.Are beer sales recession proof? That doesn’t appear to be the case now. Overall, U.S. beer sales were flat in 2008—they saw a meager 0.4 percent increase in sales, according to the Association of Brewers, a beer trade group based in Colorado. The beer industry typically sees healthy single-digit growth each year.
But there’s some good news on the craft beer front, which includes all of Minnesota’s beer makers. Nationally, craft brewers (defined as brewpubs, microbreweries, regional craft breweries, and contract brewing companies) saw their sales rise 5.8 percent in 2008. During that same period in Minnesota, craft beer sales were up a whopping 74.5 percent.
Why such a jump? One explanation is that there’s room to grow. Craft brewing is a small part of the overall U.S. beer industry—just $6.3 billion of the $101 billion beer market in 2008, according to the Association of Brewers.
Full story here.
