Expert Says NWA Craft Beer Market Has Room to Grow
by February 16, 2015 12:00 am 89 views
News of yet another craft brewery coming to Northwest Arkansas made us wonder: Is it time to start thinking about boom and bust?
By our latest count, there are at least 11 — yes, 11 — breweries between Bella Vista and the Bobby Hopper Tunnel. They include full-blown outfits like Fossil Cove Brewing and Core Brewing, and restaurant operations like Apple Blossom Brewing and Foster’s Pint and Plate.
But 11 of them? Is that too much of a good thing? Perhaps not. There’s a growing body of research indicating that craft beer is not only here to stay, but that it’s in the process of claiming a big, generational chunk of the market. Just look at the numbers. In 2013, craft beer accounted for about 14 percent of the $100 billion domestic beer market. In 2003 there were 1,485 breweries, but by 2013 there were 2,822, and almost all were of the craft variety.
Northwest Arkansas, then, is in the middle of a national trend. Bart Watson, chief economist with the Colorado-based Brewers Association, explained.
“What you’re seeing is more catch-up than a boom and bust cycle,” Watson said. “This is not unique to Northwest Arkansas.”
It says a lot about the state of the industry when Anheuser-Busch, the country’s biggest brewery, takes a swipe at craft beer in a commercial during the Super Bowl. Hardly the act of swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, the Anheuser-Busch commercial was all about Budweiser protecting its turf in an unexpected and disruptive war over market share.
All this amid the recent revelation that the craft beer movement has turned its back on the man widely credited with birthing it — Sam Adams founder Jim Koch.
In Watson’s opinion, Northwest Arkansas might be able to handle even more than 11 breweries. For context, he referenced Boulder County, where a population of about 300,000 supports more than 30 breweries.
So what will it be, a Bud Light or a Miller Light? Increasingly, people are instead choosing the Raspberry and Orange Citrus Imperial Red IPA by Core, or the Hazy Morning Coffee Stout by Apple Blossom.