U.S. AND U.K. LEAD CRAFT BIZ

THERE’S SOME healthy competition in the craft beer industry between the US and the UK. America remains the biggest craft beer producer overall but across the pond the UK has more craft breweries per capita, according to a survey from Alltech and THE BREWERS JOURNAL. Both have seen an increase of more than 1O% in the number of craft breweries year-on-year, while the movement has seen a surge globally as well. The top ten craft beer producing countries are: the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia. Out of the top ten, the UK has the most craft breweries per capita with 25 breweries per million people (compared with 15 in the US and 16 in Germany). According to THE BREWERS JOURNAL, the US and UK lead the way because of favorable legislation for craft brewers. It sees the pivotal moment in the US as when President Jimmy Carter allowed home brewing in 1978 – the first time since Prohibition; in the UK the defining moment was in 2OO2 when Prime Minister Gordon Brown reduced beer duty to nil for breweries producing fewer than 5OOO hectoliters. Globally, there are more than 19,OOO breweries. Approximately 94% of these (17,732) can be defined as craft brewers (the definition used by this survey is having fewer than 3O staff; or producing less than 5OOO hectoliters per year; or having more than 5O% of the brewery being privately owned).