When it comes to solutions one comfort may be that under Chris Anderson’s theory, if I understand it, the things keeping the large chain retailers in place, and therefore their ability to limit avalability to only the large suppliers will probably also be eroded. In my city I sometimes shop at stores that serve different market segments. I guess the variety I crave just isn’t able to be met by any large supermarket. So I sometimes shop at the Mexican, Chinese and Japanese ethnic markets, I sometimes shop at the market that caters to organic and health fanatics and often shop at the mainstream generic supermarket. The big breweries may not be the only ones who have to run as fast as they can just to stay in place, (Hey, isn’t that the “Red Queen” scenario as its known in evolution?) it may also be true of most of the big chain supermarkets and big box stores like Wal-Mart. After all, economies of scale work best when people’s tastes are very similar and there are also such things as dis-economies of scale, for example an inability to act quickly on new information, which may be much more important in the information age.

When I think of the regional breweries I favor, I realize that the one I know best I know because I’ve attended cultural events held at the brewery. St. Arnolds, Houston, Texas has 3 times in the last four years held a fund-raiser for the McTeggart Irish dancers. Letting the brewery be a cultural center like this or vending at local events might be a good strategy that it would be hard for national brewers to match. But I don’t buy their beer at the store anymore because I know from experience that the bottled version always has a very unfortunate extra-yeasty flavor and storing a keg would just involve too-much trouble for me. I often end up drinking Bud or Corona because that’s what they have in the convience store across the street at 11:40pm, when I decide that I’ve gotta have a beer.

Will we see talking lizards, whassups, et al sell trying to those with a developed palate (that’s you craft beer drinker)?

And where are the wild hops in the Wild Hop Lager — a bit of false advertising.

My experience is that niche players can use the web to create very place based brands; and that these brands will generate loyalty. Deschutes has been very effective with place-based branding, and my impression is that Full Sail was (before their recent identity change). Of course now Full Sail seems to have much larger distribution outside of the NW… Don’t know if those two facts are related.

My point is that I think there will always be opportunities for small niche market players to stay a step ahead of large corporations. It’s not that I’m anti-large corporations either, it’s just that they’re good at somethings, and not good at others. I don’t think large organizations are good at localization, or moving quickly to exploit emerging market trends.

Micros have been great at harnessing the ascendence of beer geek culture… but can they make the next step? I think that step needs to be local, and increasingly, organic.

So far I’m talking about products, and you’ve focused more on distribution. That’s obviously a big challenge, although my experience differs from yours in terms of what craft beers are commonly found in small shops. Maybe that’s just part of the San Francisco cultural bubble experience. Which leads me to my final point: communications technology.

Chris has done a fine job detailing how business have been able to tap into the long tail market, and maybe I’m missing something in his work, but my sense is that the big success stories are related to connecting consumers with niche products. The web makes a lot of niche products viable simply by making them findable. What does the web do for micro brews?

I don’t really follow the market very closely. I’m impressed by all the links you’ve assembled here. Maybe that’s what the web can do. It can potentially serve to foster relationships and ultimately connect people with the brewers in their community. Maybe it’s not happening much yet, and I don’t predict that online forums will replace the corner tap. But the IT dimension of Chris’ long tail is critical (otherwise what else has changed?). Learning to use some of that power is feasible, and in combination with local community engagement, it might be a great way to protect local micros against outsider forces like A-B.

Just one correction: in the first sentence where you discuss it, you\’ve got the 80/20 Rule backwards. The rule states that 20% of product will account for 80% of sales, which I imagine *does* describe the beer industry today. [thanks Chris, I did get that backwards and so have deleted that paragraph.]

Best,

Chris