On 2012-09-09, James Silverton > wrote:

> They didn't say that a vast selection had suddenly become available
> but it's true that there is *now* a great selection of craft beers. 15
> or 30 years ago you'd have trouble finding very many on sale in one
> place.

Depends on where you lived and/or shopped.

If I recall correctly, an old article in the Celebrator claimed there
were over 800 microbrweries in the late 80s when the first
microbrewery trend peaked. That was back when you could buy an entire
microbrewery setup (a commercial system) for under $80-100K. The
industry had a major shakeout during the 90s, and now that the
mega-swill breweries have lost their death-grip on the market shelves,
microbrews have exploded once again. Regardless, I recall an upscale
sprmkt in the SFBA was selling at least 2 dozen different microbrew
ales (all bullets) way back in the late 80s. It was already getting
so crowded on what little shelf space was available to them,
microbreweries were giving their mediocre ales names aimed soley at
catching the eye of the buyer. Brands like Cat **** Ale. As if.

Granted, it has exploded, once again. Now, even the smallest hamlet
or township has a microbrewery/pub/pizza joint. We have one in each
of the two towns close to me, the smaller a one stop-light burg of
about 4K pop. The serious bottled microbrews --"craft" if you
prefer"-- have left the mega-swills in the dust. In fact, the big
boys are now doing craft beers. Blue Moon is an excellent copy of a
Belgian wit bier from Coors and is hugely popular. Michelob brand is
Anheuser-Busch's test line for new craft beers. Yes, real beer is
back with a vengence! OTOH, even in beer crazy/savvy CO, legions of
folks still drink mega-swill lite.

nb

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