From The Economist
Who knew worldwide beer consumption provides goggles through which we can view the global economy? It seems the emerging nations of Africa and the Far East are drinking more brew, while the struggling advanced economies of the West are cutting consumption (and sitting at home on the couch drowning their sorrows rather than going out and indulging in social drinking – apparently all bad news for corporate behemoths of the bevy biz). Of course, with the West’s head start of centuries of over-indulgence, the up-and-comers still have quite a way to go to match us drink for drink.
One fascinating factoid floating about is that of the 1,800 micro-brews currently flourishing in North America (you know, the ones producing the only brews worth imbibing) still account for only 5% of the domestic beer market. To me that means two things:
1. Most beer drinkers are still satisfied with swill, and
2. The corporate giants can’t really view snatching up the microbreweries as much in the way of a solution to their bottom line woes. And that, in my book, is a good thing. We don’t need more deals like ABI’s recent gulping up of Chicago’s Goose Island.
See this report from The Economist to get to the bottom of the proverbial barrel on this one.
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I'm too much of a beer snob to even touch domestic brews. Luckily here in Greensboro we've got plenty of local breweries. There's even a restaurant downtown (Natty Greene's) that began as a brewery and is about to expand.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Jeanette. I have admit to beer snobbery, too. It's great that there are so many good local choices these days. Years ago it was imports or abstinence, now its practically an embarrassment of riches beer wise.
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