Today’s infographics has the engagingly entertaining title Earth: As Seen Through Beer, showing a global perspective of the biggest beer companies.
American Beer Sales Continue To Climb: BA Releases Mid-Year Numbers
You probably saw this last week, but just in case, the Brewers Association released the preliminary mid-year numbers on how beer sales are going so far in 2013. It’s probably no surprise to most that the news is good, with double-digit growth once more, a common story these days.
During the first six months of 2013, American craft beer dollar sales and volume were up 15 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Over the same period last year, dollar sales jumped 14 percent and volume increased 12 percent.
During the first half of 2013, approximately 7.3 million barrels of beer were sold by small and independent craft brewers, up from 6.4 million barrels over the first half of 2012. American craft beer continues to grow despite decreased overall beer sales, which were down two percent through the first six months of the year.
It’s nice to see the steady increases over the last five years.
The number of breweries also continues the meteoric rise of late, with latest count standing at an amazing 2, 538.
There are 2,538 breweries operating in the U.S. as of June 30, 2013, an increase of 446 breweries since June 2012. The BA also lists an additional 1,605 breweries in planning at the year’s midpoint, compared to 1,252 a year ago. As of June 30, 2013, the count of craft breweries was at 2,483, showing that 98 percent of U.S. brewers are craft brewers. Craft brewers currently employ an estimated 108,440 full-time and part-time workers, many of which are manufacturing jobs, contributing significantly to the U.S. economy.
“More breweries are currently operating in the U.S. than at any time since the 1870s.” [Director of the Brewers Association, Paul] Gatza added. “With each new brewery opening, American craft brewers are reinforcing the U.S.’s position as the world’s most diverse brewing nation. It’s a very good time to be an American beer lover.”
Amen to that.
Where People Buy Their Beer
Today’s infographic is a pie chart showing where people buy their beer. The chart was originally used with an AdAge story, Stat of the Day: Where People Buy Their Beer, using statistics from February of last year. By dollars, most people buy their beer at restaurants, but imagine how much more would be sold if more restaurants actually paid better attention to their beer list. Second was bars, followed by convenience stores in third place. By volume, the most beer is sold at convenience stores, followed by supermarkets/grocery stores and “other” in third place. In both measure, concessions comes in last place; I wonder if the often-gouging price has something to do with that?
Click here to see the chart full size.
Costco’s Craft Beer Sales
I just saw this interesting item on Drinks Business, a European news organization covering … well, the drinks business. When I think of the beer Costco sells, I tend to think of those ginormous 30-packs of megabrand cans or bottles. Many of those multi-packs were created just for Costco, Sam’s Club and other warehouse chains. But according to the article, “Costco has announced that craft beer now accounts for 30% of the company’s total beer sales.” That’s over 4-1/2 times the national average and over twice California’s market share. Impressive.
The Alcohol Industry
Today’s infographic is about the Alcohol Industry, and whether or not it’s recession-proof. It was created by Total DUI’s Check Points blog. I’m not sure what their angle was, but they pretty much came to the same conclusion most analysts did, which is that it’s more recession-resistant than recession-proof.
Click here to see the infographic full size.
Beer Consumption Worldwide 2009 Vs. 2008
Today’s infographic is a map of the world showing the change in worldwide beer comsumption from 2008 to 2009, when Asia became the biggest consumer of beer. The chart comes from a 2010 story in the Economist, All Pints East.
U.S. Beer Imports In 2007
Today’s infographic is entitled U.S. Beer Imports in 2007 and was created by Matthew Bambach for, I believe, a newspaper article about beer imports. But I like how it neatly shows the flow of the beer from different places into America.
Click here to see the map full size.
Is Beer Really Cheaper Than Gas?
Today’s infographic answers the age-old question, Is Beer Really Cheaper Than Gas? Created and investigated by Keg Works, who came to following conclusion, which is that the claim only works for homebrew. I guess we won’t see any beer-powered cars anytime soon.
Click here to see the infographic full size.
Orchestrated Beer
Today’s infographic is from Orchestrated Beer, which is business management software for craft breweries. They created the infographic below to visually show what their software can help breweries do, showing the supply chain from farm to consumer.
Click here to see the infographic full size.
There’s also another version of the graphic, only slightly different. And the graphic design website Behance, features yet a third version of the infographic, this was designed for a brochure.
Click here to see the infographic full size.
CrowdBrewed: A Kickstarter For New Breweries
Here’s an interesting development. In hindsight it’s probably inevitable, especially given the sheer number of breweries in planning. There’s a new crowdfunding website that just launched. It’s called CrowdBrewed, and as its name implies, it’s specifically aimed at helping potential brewers and brewery owners raise the money they need to get started. It appears to work like Kickstarter, just with an emphasis on breweries.
Personally, I love Kickstarter. So far I’ve backed well over 100 projects through the crowdfunding website, and a few more on other similar ones. I find the idea of crowdfunding appealing, though I’ve spoken with plenty of people who feel otherwise, and they’re welcome, of course, not to participate. But if you like helping others or feeling like a small part of something you find worthwhile, take a look. Kickstarter is the king, at least for now, but there’s also Indiegogo, RocketHub, GoFundMe and many more.
As for beer, searching for it on Kickstarter reveals 311 results, so there’s certainly a ready base of potential folks for CrowdBrewed. I’ve sponsored more than a few brewery and beer-related projects, and since I’m drawn to them, it might be nice to have a single place to see what people are trying in the world of beer. Will it work, catch on, and help get some breweries started? Only time will tell.
