Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/353654
42 and guess what, it's not the craft brewers losing volume. "As the weather begins to heat up this summer, so will beer sales, said the Beer Institute…more than 38 million American households will spend upwards of a collective $11 billion on beer this summer." (www.brewbound.com) Agreed, we are in a tumultuous time. Brewing beer for the first time and opening a brewery in 2014, I would say you've missed the boat, it's already been sailing for years. That's the beauty of it, craft beer doesn't die but it ebbs and flows just like the brew kettle it's boiled in (it's not beer till yeast is added, but you get the idea). Brewers will come and go but there still will be a growing market for flavorful, full bodied beer and the line will be long. As I type this 15,000 tickets are being bought and sold for a local beer festival here in Boston. Each brewer excited to offer their seasonal favorites to the thirsty young 20-30-40 something's waiting in that same long line for a taste of their best. Their best better be the best because today's consumer is on their "A" game--they've done their research and they are ready to be wowed. Where does this leave us? New craft drinkers are immerging each day, learning and teaching others about the double IPA that tasted like mangos they drank last night. Breweries are opening each week, fighting for the same market share as the 20-year veteran brewer. It's like you watching a band opening up in your hometown, buying CD's and chatting with the lead singer after the show. Then the band starts playing bigger shows and you can't see them in their trailer like you used to, can't get that t-shirt signed. The band becomes harder to attract and you wonder why, why have we grown so far apart? Maybe it isn't that you have grown apart, but all the bands on that same stage fighting for the same microphone. Small brewers today aren't in tune, they could care less about the mic or even if it's plugged in. This is a generational change and as the Millennials take over, so does the pale ale they brewed with mosaic hops aged on cedar planks they found washed up on a beach on Cape Cod. We Millennials have a sense that "it'll all work out in the end, even if I'm poor now." I'd say a lot of new brewers today feel the same way. We are saddled with student loan debt and they are saddled with the 100,000 dollars-worth of fermenters they just installed last week. The goal isn't to be the biggest, but to be the best. Brewers today have a challenge: "brew beer better than the consumer expects." Which is essentially an exam in mind reading, but some brewers get it just right. Those are the brewers that will survive this craft beer tornado we are all a part of, this whirlwind of flavors, ideas and hops that we all call the craft beer movement. Hold on, it's going to be bumpy. Life is hard, beer is easy. Cheers.