Calagione — along with Brooklyn Brewery VP Dave Duffy, The BWC Company director of analytics Dave Williams and Lowes Foods senior category manager Charles Slezak — discussed the evolving craft landscape and more during a panel discussion on “Retail Strategies for Craft Brewers.
One week after being named the Brewers Association’s new diversity ambassador, Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham presented to hundreds of Craft Brewers Conference attendees about the challenges of diversifying the brewing industry. “We all want to diversify craft beer,” she said, “but why is doing this so hard?”
In today’s craft beer environment, it pays to be a startup. According to Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson, breweries founded after 2014 are driving the majority of segment growth. Those breweries collectively added 916,000 barrels to the category in 2017, which represents growth of 52.6 percent versus 2016. Breweries founded before 2014, however, added 285,000 barrels to the craft segment and collectively grew just 1.3 percent.
Next week, more than 13,000 beer industry professionals are expected to travel to the 2018 Craft Brewers Conference, held in Nashville, Tennessee. The four-day event (April 30 to May 3), taking place at Music City Center (201 Fifth Ave South), officially kicks off Monday evening with a welcome reception at Fifth Avenue of the Arts (201 Fifth Avenue). Brewbound has selected 11 can’t-miss talks to keep you engaged during the week.
