For the fourth straight year, U.S. sales of craft beers are soaring!
For craft beer aficionados, it’s not really news. After all, sales of craft beers have been consistently on the rise, despite the mutterings of mega-beer fans that it’s just a fad, or hype, or maybe just a marketing gimmick.
If it’s a gimmick, it’s a good one. 2004 was the “slow” year – in the first half of that year, craft beer sales increased 7%, compared to 1% for all beer. 2005 was even better, with craft beer growing 8% while beer sales in general actually dropped 1%.
Last month, the Brewers Association released the numbers for the first half of 2007, and the numbers look good. Growth this year has equaled the first half of 2006, with an 11% rise in sales reported. The U.S. beer industry overall so far has sold one million more barrels this year than last year. And 400,000 of those barrels were produced by craft breweries.
Even with these gains, the craft beer industry still has a miniscule share of the market when compared to the big brewers, but there are increases in that area as well. The Brewers Association was able to report that for the first time ever, craft beer exceeded more than a 5% dollar share of total beer sales.
Craft beer sales may be just a drop in the bucket, but the drop is getting bigger.
