Craft beer trend

If you have a question about beer at Anton Paar, then Gebhard Sauseng is the man to ask. He has been in the company for 25 years and has long been involved in the development of measuring instruments for the beer sector. For years, he was a regular visitor at many dozens of breweries around the world. He knows beer brewing like the back of his hand. About one and a half years ago he began to brew his own craft beer. In this interview he talks about the end of the uniformity of taste, the beer revolution in 1976 and a market which is undergoing positive changes.

You are confronted with the term “craft beer” everywhere you go. In the media people are talking about the most important trend on the beer market for years. In the supermarket there are rows of eye-catching beer bottles. And who really knows what is going on? Nobody except industry insiders. What is craft beer?

Firstly: There is no standardized definition of the term “craft beer”. What is meant is beer which has been skillfully and honestly brewed as a craft. This beer does not have a comparable taste to industrially manufactured beer. It tastes more intense, with more layers. It tastes better. Just the fact that a wide range of different malt and hops are used means completely new beer aromas are created, for example hints of citrus fruits. In the unrivaled craft beer, Indian Pale Ale, these aromas are particularly pronounced.

Where did this trend originate?

There are two reasons for the current boom in craft beer: On the one hand, society is reacting to the uniformity of taste and industrially manufactured food. On the other hand, this trend is reaching Europe from the USA. People are noticing that home-made food, be that jellies, bread or beer, taste much better than what they can buy in the supermarket. They know what’s in it and have maybe even grown the ingredients themselves. Many people in cities have even begun to have gardens on their balconies. That shows that people have become more aware that they can produce their food themselves. This is essentially the same for brewing beer.

Why did the trend for brewing craft beer begin in the US?

The craft beer revolution in the USA began in 1976: Young people protested against the tasteless and uniform beers of the states. They longed for a similar beer culture to the one in Europe. What hardly anyone knows is that craft beer is not a new trend but an old one. In countries such as Belgium, England, Germany and also Austria, there was already a pronounced beer culture in the Middle Ages. The difference is that at that time only local resources were used for brewing beer. The hops and barley used came from the local area, not from abroad. That is different today. Craft brewers buy the ingredients for their beer from all around the world. With the increase in industrial manufacturing, the European breweries also experienced what was happening in almost all other branches: only the output counted, the production structures were optimized, breweries merged and became even bigger. This smoothed the way to beer with a uniform taste. And this is what is beginning to get on people’s nerves. So the craft beer trend has fallen on fertile soil.

Does that mean that the USA has a more pronounced craft beer culture than Europe due to the revolution in 1976?

That is difficult to say. Europe has a much longer beer brewing tradition. Regarding the current craft beer trend, however, America is slightly ahead. In 1992 there were around 50 craft breweries in the States. In 2012 there were approximately 1800 and in 2014 around 2800. This enormous growth could also be on the horizon for Europe. Whereas craft beer in the US amounts to around ten percent of the whole beer market, it makes up less than two percent in Europe. However, the trend is growing considerably. It must be clear, though, that in America a “craft brewery” can produce six million hectoliters of beer per year. As a comparison: The Puntigamer Brewery (one of largest Austrian breweries) produces over one million hectoliters of beer per year. America works in different dimensions. A brewery which bottles six million hectoliters of beer per year would never be called a craft brewery in Europe. The high market share in the USA should therefore not be overvalued.