With Craft Beer & Brewing magazine reporting $3 billion in revenue from 2019 DTC wine shipments, it’s time for them to catch up. Normally, craft beer lovers fly in from all over the world to wait in line literally all day to sample what’s usually a draft-only triple IPA. Instead of loading recipes up with expensive adjunct ingredients, they turned to what they figured would sell, sell quickly, and sell in any type of weather: familiar and easy-to-find flagships, hazy IPAs (because IPA) and easier-drinking styles like lagers and low-alcohol or low-calorie session ales. Personally, I’ve emceed, spoken at and attended virtual versions of the Brewers Association’s Craft Brewers Conference (originally scheduled for Austin, Texas), the Craft Beer Expo (normally held in Louisville, Kentucky), the Beer Culture Summit (usually in Chicago) and the always-online Craft Beer Professionals conferences, all without leaving the comfort of my basement office or my outside-the-frame yoga pants. But in the mostly whitewashed world of craft beer, they — and their interests and concerns — have remained largely invisible.

Source: Forbes December 31, 2020 21:01 UTC