The US Brewing Industry (B): "Big Beer" Responds to the Craft-Beer Challenge

Craft-beer makers continued to proliferate in the US, nearly doubling from 2015 to 2022. Craft brewers typically produced beers that featured distinctive flavor profiles, compared with standard US lagers such as Budweiser and Miller, and were marketed as the products of small, independent companies with deep roots in specific communities. In many cases, these communities were integral to the craft brewers’ identity. Yet craft brewers’ independence and community ties also posed serious challenges on at least two fronts. First, how could small, independent brewers get their products into the broader marketplace and distant geographies? Second, if independence and community ties were integral to craft brands’ identity, could they grow beyond their roots—and even partner with or become part of multinational companies—while preserving both their quality and their core identity? No one found these questions more challenging than the large incumbent brewers interested in penetrating the craft market. As craft brewers multiplied and craft beer rose in popularity, “big beer” entered the sector and experimented with various strategies to discover whether genuine opportunities for “big craft beer” existed—and, if so, how the big brewers could seize the moment.