Craft Brewers Conference sniggers at Big Brewers’ Corngate

USA | As AB-InBev continues to air Bud Light commercials saying that it is brewed without corn syrup, and its lawyers prepare to defend its case in court against MillerCoors, the Brewers Association is taking a backseat in all this.

“It’s not our fight”, Bob Pease, the BA’s President and CEO told a crowd of thousands of craft brewers in Denver. Craft beer is about independence, authenticity, collaboration, transparency and community-mindedness, he reminded delegates.

With over 7,300 craft breweries operating in the US today, fierce competition has become the “new normal”, he said. There were 1046 brewery openings in 2018 compared with 219 brewery closures. The BA believes that there are still 2,500 breweries in various stages of planning.

In 2018, craft brewers – or rather those deemed craft brewers by the BA – sold 30 million hl beer. That is an increase of 4 percent over 2017, and all the more remarkable as the total beer market contracted 1 percent last year. Craft beer’s market share is 13.2 percent.

More than 4,200 craft brewers have already signed up for the BA’s independence seal, which was launched in 2017.

The 36th Craft Brewers Conference, which was held in Denver from 9 to 11 April 2019, attracted over 14,000 delegates.