A Small Piece of The Pie (Part Three of a Series of Five)

If you find ten "beer" drinkers at random you will find that eight of them drink the same brand of beer on a continual basis. Chances are they drink Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite, or Coors Light. They drink their beer because that is what they have always drank. It may be because that is what their parents drank. It may be because of what their friends drink.
My son in law, The Big Ranch used to only drink Coor's Light. He would not drink anything else. He would "go without" if Silver Bullets were not offered. Then he began to work as a rough neck on a drilling rig. He learned that all of his fellow roughnecks drank Bud Light so all of a sudden he had a new favorite beer. That certainly is his right to do so. Today, he seldom, if ever drinks any beer. That too is his right.
Some people are loyal to their brand. I even knew a guy who had the Lone Star Beer logo tattooed onto his arm. Right underneath the Rebel flag and a German swastika.
You can conduct your own survey. Find someone (at random) and ask them to name three "Craft Beers or breweries" Chance are they will not be able to do so. I submit a list below of the top 50 Craft Breweries. With that same person, have them name three custom motorcycle companies. Most will mention either West Coast Choppers, Paul Junior Designs or Orange County Choppers.

Of the ten people I previously mentioned, one would occasionally drink something other than, his brand. This person might even drink a "craft beer" on occasion, provided that it did not taste too bad. The remaining person would be open to exploring various brands and types of beers. What I essentially am saying however is that the "craft beer" market is limited to 10 percent of the beer consumer market.

It is pretty common knowledge that there are only a select few "major brand" beer companies.

Budweiser claims to be the Great American Lager yet it's produced by a Brazilian owned company. (AB-InBev)

Coor's still claims that it brewed from Rocky Mountain water. The question is where in the Rocky Mountains..Alberta? Coors is owned by Coor's Molson a Canadian company.

Finally we have Miller Brewing Company which is owned by SAB Miller, which is owned by South African Brewing Company hence the initials SAB.

There is a co-op (in America) called Miller-Coors wherein the later two share brewing facilities to produce their respective beers.

I find it amusing that slightly over 90% of all beers sales in America are from the three brewery companies mentioned above, yet they are still aggressively attempting to capture the remaining market by producing multiple brews that appear to be from "Craft Breweries" (i.e. Blue Moon Brewery which is actually Coors Molson, Linnekugel Brewery which is actually SAB Miller, and Widmer Brewery, Live Oak Brewery and Goose Island Brewery which are all actually AB-InBev) There are many more. The Big Three continue to buy out the smaller breweries. Who knows who is next.

Below is a list of the largest "Craft Breweries" in America.

1. Boston Brewing Company, (Sam Adams)MA*
2. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, CA*
3. New Belgium Brewing Company, (Fat Tire) CO*
4. Spoetzl Brewery,(Shiner) TX*
5. Pyramid Brewries, Inc., WA*
6. Matt Brewing Company, NY
7. Deschutes Brewing Company, OR*
8. Boulevard Brewing Company, MO*
9. Full Sail Brewing Company, OR
10. Harpoon Brewery, MA*
11. Alaskan Brewing and Bottling Company, AK.
12. Magic Hat Brewing Company VT*
13. Anchor Brewing Company, CA*
14. Bell's Brewery, Inc., M*
15. Shipyard Brewing Company, ME
16. Summit Brewing Company, MN*
17. Abita Brewing Company, LA*
18. Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, CA
19. Brooklyn Brewery, NY
20. Stone Brewing Company, CA*
21. Rogue Ales, OR*
22. Long Trail Brewing Company, VT
23. New Glarus Brewing Company, WI
24. Kona Brewing Company, Kahlua- HI
25. Dogfish Head Brewing Company, DE
26. Firestone Walker Brewing Company, CA*
27. Great Lakes Brewing Company, OH
28. The Lagunitas Brewing Company,CA
29. Flying Dog Brewery,CO
30. Sweetwater Brewery, GA
31. Bridgeport Brewing Company, OR*
32. Rock Bottom Brewery, CO
33. Odell Brewing Company, CO*(My favorite)
    
34. BJ's Restaurant and Brewery, CA*
35. Victory Brewing Company, PA
36. Mac and Jack's Brewery, WA
37. Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe, CA
38. Big Sky Brewing Company, MT*
39. Pete's Brewing Company, TX
40. Otter Creek Brewing Company, VT
41. Karl Strauss Brewing Company, CA*
42. Breckenridge Brewing Company, CO
43. Gordon Biersch Brewery, TN
44. Anderson Valley Brewing Company, CA
45. Boulder Beer Company, CO
46. North Coast Brewing Company, CA
47. McMenamins, OR*
48. Utah Brewer's Cooperative, UT
49. Capital Brewing Company, WI
50. Blue Point Brewing Company, NY

* Breweries I have actually visited.

So in summation the potential available market is small and very competitive yet I personally believe there is a huge potential to make a fortune on the "leavings. As much as I think it is wrong for the big companies to swallow up the smaller ones, I agree that it is the "American Way" Trust me, If I ever owned a successful brewery and one of the "big three" made an offer to buy me out, I certainly would listen to what they were offering. After all it all boils down to dollars and cents.

So.......... Even though the market is saturated and I am confident a fortune could still be made.....one way or another.


Stay Tuned


The Third