| Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen Denmark is one of the worlds largest and oldest running breweries of whose famous lager beer is distributed across the world. Today Carlsberg is just one brand of the four hundred and forty seven brands of the Carlsberg Group that produces and distributes. The Carlsberg Group headquarters are located in the city of Copenhagen Denmark at the historic location of the Carlsberg brewery. I was lucky enough to have had visited the historic brewery in Copenhagen during the cities science festival this past year. The brewery has a compound of buildings in the city that take over a dozen square city blocks. The old Carlsberg brewery is open to the public and welcomes locals and international travelers to visit. Visitors can take a self guided or guided tour through the old brewery that is a modern brewery history museum for the Carlsberg brewery and its modern diverse brands. The Carlsberg Group distributes to Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Asia and owns just over 6% of the global beer industry based on sales in 2014 (Statista). With the current AB InBev and Miller Coors deal in the works, that organization global market share will amount to over 30% from statistics from 2014 (Statista). The Carlsberg Group has focused the efforts more in the Asian beer markets and far less in the America's. The Asian beer industry is expanding and Asian consumers are increasing the beer consumption at a high rate every year. With a general lack of locally sourced beer in Asia and the average consumer more attracted to low cost lager beer compared to expensive craft beer or other imported beer, the Asian market will continue to grow. In the world of macro brewery market shares, future projections will follow the current trend of macro breweries losing more and more market share to regional craft breweries. In addition, regional sized craft breweries will have to distribute to less local markets in micro brewery saturated regions as more micro brewery, 15 barrels in production volume or less, start in those regions. What we are witnessing in the current beer industry in the United States is a reversion to a more traditional beer market. In traditional beer markets villages/cities will have several local smaller scale breweries that will meet the a segment of the local populations beer demands. In the United States currently this is what is happening. Large scale macro breweries are losing market share to larger regional craft breweries and larger scale craft breweries are losing local market share to micro breweries. The future of the US beer industry in regards to market share will look much more like the beer markets in Germany, Czech Republic and Belgium where the ratio of micro breweries to population are closer. The traditional beer markets that exist in Europe are structured with multiple small micro breweries in a high population area, most often villages or cities. The close proximity of micro breweries in Europe originated hundreds of years ago when beer had a shorter shelf life do the the lack of modern refrigeration, brewing technologies and the overall higher consumption rate per person. The modern beer market in the united states before prohibition looked very much like a traditional beer market. Multiple micro breweries were in operation across higher population areas. After prohibition the regulations and legislation of the US did not allow small micro breweries to come to market and be self sustainable. With the deregulation of the federal government in the later 20th century micro breweries were able to start again and start to developed the craft beer industry in the US. With the several decades of increasing population and a cultural need for self expression higher population areas of the US are hosting more smaller scale craft breweries that are in turn taking market share from large macro and regional scale craft breweries. As the population continues to grow and government regulations continue to allow more breweries to come to market we will see larger scale macro and regional sized craft breweries loss more market share and shelf space across the beer markets of the world. |
0 Comments
Munich Germany is one of the cultural hubs of the world beer industry. Many of the modern brewing practices and brewing ingredients standards can be traced back the city Munich and the Bavarian region of Germany.
In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria passed one of the brewing industries most important brewing regulations in the Reinheitsgebot law, also known as the Purity law. This restricted breweries to only use water, hops and malted barley to produce beer for consumption on market. This was pass before the knowledge of the existence of brewers yeast and that is the reason as to why it is not included in the list of ingredients. This law not only protected the consumers in the bavarian markets from low quality beer, the law also protected the other regions of Germany and through the following centuries, the territories of the Prussian empire. The Purity law is still in effect today and restrict all breweries in Germany to process their beers with only water, hops and malted grains with the exception of yeast being allowed. There are many innovative breweries in the German beer market are producing beers that include not allowed ingredients by the Purity law. These breweries are not allowed to sell their products as 'beer' but under some other product description such as malted beverage, etc. The current beer industry consumers in the German market are a diverse mixture of traditional beer consumers that will only consider drinking beers from breweries that brew under the guidelines of the Purity law and innovative brewery consumers that will consume beer brewed not under the Purity law. The German market is experiencing a fast developing market segment that is constantly demanding craft beer styles from across the United States and international innovative brewing markets. This developing market segment in Germany is encouraging more start up breweries to disregard the Purity law to meet the new local interest in innovative foreign beer styles. Breweries are now brewing instead with a selection of ingredients that are not allowed under the Purity law, by brewing with ingredients such as spices, herbs and other fermentable sugars. The new interest in international craft beer and other beers brewed not under the restrictions of the Purity law has inspired bars, restaurants and bottle stores to start up business in some of the more international cities across Germany. The growing demand for what many local breweries consider American craft beers has made a gap in the market for local craft breweries to make Germany their home. There is currently over 1300 breweries in Germany mostly brewing traditional beer that meets the standards of the Purity law and with a small percent that brew outside the confines of the Purity law. The overall number of breweries in Germany can be expect to grow, with the increase of breweries be started brewing beers without the confines of the Purity law. This is in part due to the local consumer support of locally made products and an increased interest in foreign craft beer market brands. Traditional breweries that brew under the Purity law will not start to lose popularity locally however and will continually find support by local consumers and regional tourism. These traditional breweries will be able to supply an ever increasing demand for traditional beer brands in innovating craft beer markets through exporting their products. The major six breweries of Munich Germany are a perfect example of how traditional German breweries brewing under the Purity law will continue to grow through business by supplying foreign markets with their brands. Spaten, Lowenbrau, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Augustinerbrau and Hofbrauhaus have all found lucrative demand for their beer in foreign markets and have a good deal of the brands sold in those non-local markets. This Lucrative exportation of traditional breweries brands from across the separate European markets will continue to be embraced going into the development increasing demand for craft beer to the traditional beer markets of Europe. As local consumers tastes change to a more diverse range of beers from multiple breweries traditional breweries will start to lose local market share and will have to subsidize foreign sale to make up for lessening local sales. While smaller nano and micro international craft beer inspired breweries will start to brew starting in more international cities and develop consumer followings in the coming years. These small breweries have already started to make their presence known across large German cities and their increasing embracement from local consumers will continue to improve their market share in the German beer industry. Even in the oldest of markets with the higher concentration of breweries the craft beer industry will continue to have a consumer market to support it. From the Czech Republic I drove through the Hallertau region of the Bavarian territory of Germany during the height of the hop growing season. This region of Germany is renown for the growing of the hops and a hop variety named after the region Hallertau. This hop is used across the world and many other hop growing countries use Hallertau to cross breed with local hop varieties to produce craft brewing popular highbreed hop varieties
. Germany supplies the worlds brewing industry with around one third of the hops demand and from that one third 80 percent is grown in the Hallertau region of Bavaria. So as you might imagine, driving through the major hop growing region of the world during the height of the growing season was much like driving through hundreds of thousands of acres of hop vines standing anywhere from 5-15 feet tall with the floral aroma of fresh hop cones floating through the air. It was only about 50 degrees fahrenheit outside, there was no way that I was going to have the windows of my rent-a-VW rolled up. A week before traveling to Munich I emailed the breweries and brewery organizations of Munich to ask to meet with them while I was in the city. Munich is has for the past centuries and had the predominant six large breweries that are known through out the world for their Munich lager beers and for their collaborative organization that bring the industry together for the famous Oktoberfest. A couple of the predominant six breweries did return my emails welcoming me to the city though Bayerisches Bier is a brewer organization in support of Bavarian breweries and beer culture and are the organizers of the Bavarian Brewers Federation. They work to promote beer brewed in the bavarian region and the reputation of Bavarian breweries. Bayerisches Bier as part of their continuous support of the Bavarian beer industry researches and produces annual market reports. These reports assist in the federation's mission to address potential and existing risks to their current member breweries to support their healthy continuous development. I had emailed Bayerisches Bier before arriving in Munich and through several back and forth emails attempted to organize a meeting. Due to the large membership and organization needed the only time in which we could have met was later in the month of June. Though due to my business traveling and networking schedule that had me in Belgium at that time for several organized meetings we were unable to meet. The support that Bayerisches Bier gives to the the one of the worlds most important historical regions for the brewing industry is more than admirable. They support the common interests of the Bavarian brewing industry and assist in collaborative works that make their membership breweries as successful as they are. Connect with Bayerisches Bier and support their efforts to promote Bavarian breweries and beer culture through the links below, http://www.bayrisch-bier.de/wir-ueber-uns/philosophie/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bayerisches-Bier/357104708085
How many devils do you see?
If you see more than he one devil you have had too much and might want to consider making your way back to your hotel room. This little devil is plastered on the wall of the outdoor beer garden of U Fleku and makes up one of its many venues. Venues including dining halls, restaurants, museum, bars, brewery and even a cabaret event hall that has held important events and have seen the who's who of the worlds most famous people for the past several hundred years. Beer halls rich in decor and beer gardens ringing with the sounds of Czech cultural music and the buzz of happy patrons makes the U Fleku experience a truly unique cultural experience. When you visit Prague and the rest of the Czech Republic be sure to make your way to U Fleku for an amazing Black Lager beer, Czech food and culture and more importantly a great time. Visit U Fleku in Prague at; Pivovar a Restaurace "U Fleků" Křemencova 11 Praha 1 110 00 Visit U Fleku online at: http://en.ufleku.cz/ |
AuthorStarting working in the craft beer industry several years ago in Scotland UK, while research the marketing and management of craft breweries, Schuyler Ward continues to work in the craft beer industry while networking building the collaborative network to improve the beverage industry. Archives
June 2015
Categories |