Culture Clash Complicates Craft Beer Market, Says the New Study on ASDReports

Friday 21 November 2014, Amsterdam

$ Target Audience

• Drinks Industries
• Suppliers to the Drinks Industry
• Drinks Researchers
• Trade body, academia or other industry observers
• Marketing and advertising executives

This report provides an overview of the market for ‘Craft Beer’ and the drivers behind the growth in the category. It…

• Provides readers with an excellent way of gaining an understanding of the dynamics and structure of the wider ‘craft beer’ category worldwide. Data includes volumes from 2008 to 2012, plus provisional data for 2013.
• Uses a wider definition of ‘craft beer’ that includes historical specialty beers as well as brands produced by larger brewers.
• Provides data and analysis of the performance of brands in the wider ‘craft beer’ category.
• Profiles the ‘craft beer’ strategies of the five leading global brewing groups.

This information will facilitate:

• Informed and effective business decisions that will help minimize risk and secure growth for industry players.
• A clear understanding of the present and future trends that will be driving the market, both in terms of product development, manufacture, marketing and distribution, and external consumer-driven factors.
• A precise identification and understanding of the key challenges and opportunities presented by the market, and the priorities that will help secure growth.

The Craft Beer Phenomenon provides an overview of the market for ‘Craft Beer’, and the drivers behind the growth in the category. Employing a wider definition of ‘craft beer’ that includes historical specialty beers as well as brands produced by larger brewers, this report provides the reader with an excellent way of gaining an understanding of the dynamics and structure of the wider ‘craft beer’ category worldwide, with data including volumes from 2008 to 2012, plus provisional data for 2013. In addition to providing data and analysis of the performance of brands in the wider ‘craft beer’ category, the report also profiles the ‘craft beer’ strategies of the five leading global brewing groups.

This authoritative blend of data and analysis from makes The Craft Beer Phenomenon required reading for those organizations seeking to secure growth with minimal risk in this promising sector.  


Major Brewer Responses
The US Association of Brewers defines a craft brewer as “small, independent and traditional”. Whilst this definition has proven useful in the past, there are some significant issues both in its applications to broader geographies, and to the rapidly changing face of the craft beer market. This is primarily due to the fact that, seeing the phenomenal success of craft products in an otherwise stagnant marketplace, major brewers have sought to gain a foothold in the category. Some have sought to do this through the acquisition of existing craft brewers, such as Anheuser-Busch’s taking stakes in Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewery; others have created ‘craft-esque’ brands within their own operations, such as Coors’ development of ‘Blue Moon’, which whilst not officially a ‘craft’ beer, clearly operates within the ‘craft’ space. This is complicating analysis of the market, as the considerable successes larger brewing bodies have had point a more complex set of factors driving the market’s growth. 

As a result, it can be seen that the initial reading of craft beer’s success as drawing from its independent, counter-cultural aesthetic is being made increasingly complex by the successes of major brewers in the segment. However, the core of the craft segment’s consumer base is unlikely to be swayed by these recent developments, and will continue to support smaller, independent brewers; meanwhile, it will fall on the larger brewers to continually expand the craft consumer base if they are to maintain consistent growth.


This report provides an overview of the market for ‘Craft Beer’ and the drivers behind the growth in the category. It…

• Provides readers with an excellent way of gaining an understanding of the dynamics and structure of the wider ‘craft beer’ category worldwide. Data includes volumes from 2008 to 2012, plus provisional data for 2013.
• Uses a wider definition of ‘craft beer’ that includes historical specialty beers as well as brands produced by larger brewers.
• Provides data and analysis of the performance of brands in the wider ‘craft beer’ category.
• Profiles the ‘craft beer’ strategies of the five leading global brewing groups.

This will facilitate informed and effective business decisions that will help minimize risk and secure growth for industry players.