Business Week had an interesting article in the beginning of the month on New Belgium Brewing entitled New Belgium and the Battle of the Microbrews. It’s lengthy — at four online pages — and features an in depth interview with Kim Jordan and the future of her brewery and the craft beer industry as a whole. [And thanks to Michael O. for sending me the link.]
Good article.
She will face a challenge, for sure, as more and more “craft” breweries come online.
It really is a shame that well established “craft” brands that are enjoying expansion and success have to worry so much about losing their ‘snob appeal’ as new products appear, and palates become more jaded (for example, by the fad of ‘extreme’ beers).
Anyway, I do believe that ultimately, the beer drinking public will gradually come around to focusing on “is the beer good?” instead of an out of hand abandonment of established “craft” favorites that have had too much success (an attitude propelled by the bizarre notion that success, expansion, and going national somehow constitutes “selling out”).
With the advent of more interesting beer slowly but surely becoming the norm, I still maintain that eventually the term “craft beer” will die a merciful death or at least be merely seen as a tired marketing term (which is practically all it is now anyway). Regardless of that, this is prime time for being a beer lover, isn’t it?
Just my opinions, of course, and as they like to say in the homebrewing forums: “your mileage may vary.” 🙂
“the good beer” is the term we have become jaded about. We’ve come so far from the “no choice” to today!!