tion with regional identity, Goose
Island ran a “Live Like a Local” pro-
motional contest, which brought a
winning couple on an expenses-paid,
Labor-Day-weekend trip to Chicago,
its home town, and included a visit to
the brewery.
Teaming Up
on the Bandwagon
The nation’s beer distributors have
also ramped up their artisanal beer
efforts. John Dannerbeck, president of
San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing
Company, says: “Distributors have
stepped up their capabilities to sell
craft beers. Today, it would be unusual
for a medium to large distributor to
not have a sales team managing their
craft portfolio. This was not the case
two years ago.” The brewery’s full
complement of on- and off-premise
promotional materials—from tap
handles and bottle openers to posters
and books—are designed both to
educate and keep the brand on
distributors’ and re-sellers’ minds.
Rhett Orem was hired only this
past June as a “specialty beer salesman”
at Guiffre Distributing, an Anheuser-
Busch wholesaler in Springfield, VA.
Orem says, “Guiffre really wants to
focus on selling more craft beers, tak-
ing these brews everywhere from small
pubs and shops to local diners and
pizza parlors.”
An important sign of craft beer’s
arrival has been the ability of some
artisanally oriented national brands to
retain their small-brand feel. Sales of
Boston Beer Company’s Sam Adams
accounted for an astonishing 1% of
the U.S. beer market. And Jim Koch,
founder and CEO, thinks America’s
embrace of artisanal beer is just get-
ting rolling: “In our consumer track-
ing, for the first time a majority of
beer drinkers drink craft beer either
regularly or occasionally.” As in past
years, Boston Beer is readying a host
of seasonal on- and off-premise brews
and promotions this fall, including
the 24
th
edition of its Octoberfest
and a new Double Pumpkin Ale. For
on-premise customers, Boston Beer is
hosting stein-hoisting competitions—
customers hold one-liter steins (filled
with Sam Adams, naturally) with
their arms fully extended to see who
can hold on longest.
Sierra Nevada, partnering with
its local distributors, hosts a year-
round calendar of beer and food din-
ners at pubs and restaurants. For its
off-premise accounts, Sierra Nevada
sponsors consumer and trade com-
petitions to attend its much-admired
Beer Camp at Sierra Nevada’s brewery
in Chico, CA. Founder Ken Gross-
man says, “We’ve seen a lot of growth
in the last few years. More retailers
have jumped on the craft beer band-
wagon. It’s been a win-win, as we have
higher-margin beers.”
Summing up the changes in the
U.S. beer market since Sam Adams
was first launched 25 years ago, Boston
Beer’s Koch comments, “Craft beer has
entered the mainstream; we are seeing
the arrival of mega-crafts.”
n
Photography by Eddie Arrossi
CRAFT
BEER
A
rrowine’s Nick Anderson confirms
that along with quality, food is
on the mind of today’s American
beer fan. He reports that customers come in
daily asking which beer they should try with
this or that dish. And thanks to regular staff
tasting sessions—importantly these sessions
include servers in the store’s deli and food
departments—customers leave happy with
one or more beers from among the 200
brews the award-winning store stocks.
Savvy restaurateurs are climbing on
the artisanal beer bandwagon, too. At
Birreria—a beer garden in New York City, 15
floors above the Eataly Italian food arcade—
domestic craft beers, hard-to-find imports
and their own proprietary beer exist happily
all atop one roof, so to speak. Peter Hepp
Jr., head brewer and beer program director
at Birreria, says, “There has been a bursting
of styles in the craft beer category in just
the past few years. We pride ourselves in
brewing beers that go extremely well with
our menu.”
Just as wine marketers have sponsored
wine dinners for years, brewers and res-
taurants are collaborating more. Cigar City
Brewing in Tampa, FL, for example, happily
hosts dinners at Fleming’s Steakhouse,
where their beers are matched up with varia-
tions of both surf and turf.
At Rudyard’s British Pub in Houston,
Texas, bartender Robert Gay, senses a
dynamic between on- and off-premise beer
popularity. “Our most popular craft beers
are St. Arnold’s, which is the state’s old-
est continuously operating brewery, Devil’s
Backbone [from Blanco, TX], Dogfish Head
[
from Milton, DE] and Anchor Steam from
San Francisco.” Gay adds that “customers
have become more savvy about what’s out
there,” thanks in part to specialty brands like
Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams and Blue Moon
becoming more widely available.
Food Factor
The tilt toward
experimentation
is
motivating smart retailers to offer
a healthy variety while growing the
premium
category.
