16 Aug 2012 US: Craft beer trend continues to fizz
Craft brewing is so hot that tickets for this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver sold out faster than ever before, The Coloradoan reported. The Brewers Association expects about 49 000 people at the event, to sample beer from about 500 brewers.
Breweries aren’t the only beer-related entity on the rise. Scores of news outlets are blogging about beer, including the Six Pack feature on CNBC’s Consumer Nation blog, The Denver Post’s First Drafts and The Boston Globe’s 99 Bottles.
Interestingly, while craft beer is made in small batches and distribution typically is limited to brewpubs and retailers closest to home, US craft brews increasingly can be found in London pubs, according to CraftBeer.com. About 30 000 barrels of craft beer were exported to the UK last year, according to the Brewers Association, and demand is outstripping supply.
Canada also is a big importer of US brews. The country is home to Mirella Amato, whose passion for beer led her to become Canada’s first female Certified Cicerone, a designation similar to a sommelier, according to Canada.com. Amato has since branched out with beer-related business ventures, including the Girl’s Guided Beer Tour, and has been working with chefs to create the perfect beer and food pairing.
“Pairing beer with food is fun,” she said. “The great thing about it is that beer is not a huge investment. Especially now in Ontario you can buy single bottles, you can buy single cans, and you can even pick up three or four different beers if you’re with friends and sample each of them with your food to see which one you like best.”
Source: SmartBlog
And in South Africa?
The 1980s saw the country’s first contemporary microbrewery, Mitchells. It took a couple of decades for the trend to truly catch on, but in 2011 the Craft Beer Revolution finally arrived on African shores, according to The Craft Beer Project website.
There are now over 40 craft breweries across the country. Some feature plastic buckets in a rural garage, others brew their beer in shiny copper kettles, but they all have one thing in common – a desire to brew something different, be it a coffee stout or a buchu blond; a hop-laced IPA or just a lager more malty than most, says the website.