Abstract
Research background: Craft beer is becoming one of the most popular alcoholic beverages globally, during the last decade. Additionally, industrial beer producers started to offer some special craft beer types that prove the rising demand for differentiated beer products. Purpose of the article: Since one of our common fields of interest is the development of the brewing industry, we intended to provide an overview of a recent trend in this sector, which is the expansion of craft breweries. As the data reveals, this trend has been present in various European countries, as well. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show that the trend of craft brewing is present in countries with strong brewing history such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, or Germany, and in those countries which are not considered as typical beer producers because of their location and culture. Methods: The information provided in this paper was retrieved mainly from scientific papers that focus on the brewing industry and the craft beer revolution. To be able to offer transparent and understandable results, we retrieved data from the reports of Brewers of Europe, which is a European non-profit association. Therefore, the research methods used are the comparison of quantitative data and correlation. Findings & Value added: The paper provides an overview of the expanding craft beer industry in the selected European countries and how strong the relation between beer consumption per capita (l) and number of active breweries is.
Highlights
Consumption of beer is part of the European culture and gastronomy that finds its roots back in the Roman era (Swinnen et al, 2011)
The purpose of this paper is to show that the trend of craft brewing is present in countries with strong brewing history such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, or Germany, and in those countries which are not considered as typical beer producers because of their location and culture
It can be concluded that globalization has a considerable effect on the changes in consumer preferences
Summary
Consumption of beer is part of the European culture and gastronomy that finds its roots back in the Roman era (Swinnen et al, 2011). When it comes to the European alcoholic beverage preferences, it can be divided mainly into wine, beer, or spirits based on the location. The other important factor was the empowerment of industrial breweries that was supported by organizational, marketing, and technological improvements which enabled these organizations to minimize costs and maximize profits. Since all these improvements were present on the global market, a dominant oligopolistic market segment was created (Hunculak, 2004). Beer produced by giant multinationals became homogenized and consumers became open-minded to try new tastes with tradition and uniqueness
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