Diversity in the World of Craft Beer (video in description)

The craft beer community has become extremely popular and seems to grow every year. In the U.S. craft beer market, a $101.7 billion industry, not only has the number of breweries grown in recent years but so has the consumer demographic. Previously dominated by the white consumer, the industry has seen increasing strides including the acquisition of a more racially diverse crowd. One man who has seen this trend and perhaps explains it better than anyone else is Kevin Blodger, Co-owner of Baltimore's Union Craft Brewing and member of the Brewers Association diversity committee. He explains how the African American and other minority communities, though not intentionally, have been excluded from marketing efforts and thus never really were able to become a key demographic. He sees the reason is because of the lack of adversting budgets and how the industry is more word-of-mouth, thus if originally more caucasians consumed craft beer it is more likely that through word-of-mouth more caucasians would try it which resulted in this group becoming the overwhelming demographic.

According to new surveys taken in the year 2016, African Americans make up 12% of the weekly craft beer market, while still low it was an increase of 10% from the previous year. It is possible that the increased exposure to these communities has driven this increase, and as Garrett Oliver explains (Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery) "when you present the beer in an inclusive way and really show people why this is worth their time and interest, everyone is just as into it as everybody else".  In other words, as long as the craft beer community continues its push to grow and become more inclusive, the craft beer and its taste will simply work for itself and gain new customers.


SOURCE/VIDEO

Snider, Mike. "Craft Brewers Seek to Involve more African Americans". USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/02/16/craft-brewers-seek-involve-more-african-americans/896994001/ 16 Feb 2018.