How Microbreweries are Fuelling the Golden Age of Beer

For much of recent history, the brewing industry has been dominated by multinational megacorporations. Most people will recognise at least one of the names Heineken, InBev, or Carlsberg, as together these companies account for over half of all beer sales in the world. The modus operandi of these companies is, of course, to make as much money as possible selling beverages. How do they do this? By creating a recipe, or formula, for a particular beer (usually of a lager or pilsner) and brewing these beers to that formula in their vast plethora of breweries around the world. This means that you get a consistent product with a consistent flavour at all times, and can cut importing costs because you can outsource your recipe to brewing plants wherever your desired customer base is located. What does this result in? Beers such as Heineken, Carlsberg and Foster’s, which have been virtually untampered with for years, that sell very successfully year on year on year. While this area of the beer market continues to be incredibly lucrative and remains the most popular type of beer globally, in the last 30 years or so there has been an exciting renaissance of new, independent brewers doing things very differently. Welcome to the world of the microbrewery.

While it is debatable that many of the microbreweries that exist today are physically ‘micro’, the word itself has come to mean something more than just the size of the brewer, rather the philosophy under which the brewery operates. This is a philosophy of independence, flexibility and innovation. The focus on maintaining independence for these small breweries in the last few decades has been fierce: the increasing moral incentive of the general public to support small businesses means that independence is a key selling point. This transition has meant that a significant chunk of drinkers who prefer not to support large corporations have been wrenched free from InBev’s grasp, which helps diversify the market and makes it more viable for more brewers to enter the space. This inevitably means a much larger selection of beers for you to try. In recent years, however, the titans of the brewing industry have been attempting to muscle in on the craft brewing revolution - and have been succeeding. Whether it be Carlsberg taking over the London Fields brewery in 2017 or ABInBev swallowing up Camden Brewery in 2015, multinational conglomerates are increasingly looking to expand their customer base by masquerading as smaller scale, artisanal brewing operations. While the way in which the beers taste is generally the same after acquisition from huge multinationals, it pulls drinkers’ attention ever further away from truly independent beers and contributes to the massive influence of the near-impenetrable beverage hegemony.

The microbrewing movement has pushed for a strong emphasis on experimentation and innovation. Different mixtures of hop varieties or additional ingredients and botanicals means that there are incredibly diverse sets of flavours gracing the pubs that support microbreweries today. For example, Bristol’s Left Handed Giant Brewery makes a fantastic raspberry sour that is fruity but without too much sweetness and has a really clean finish. Experimentation with different methods and technologies mean that people are able to enjoy completely different types of beer altogether. This willingness to change up ingredients and techniques also means that older, more traditional styles of beer have been reintroduced into the mainstream more often. This is best shown in the recent renaissance of Gose, an old north German beer that is brewed with coriander and slightly salted water (as the water used for the original Gose was from the brackish river that flowed through Goslar, the town in which this beer was first made). This beer became essentially extinct after the end of World War Two, but has enjoyed a successful comeback in the last 30 years or so as brewers become more experimental and outgoing. Nowadays, small brewers like Anspach and Hobday in London produce their own Gose but with modern German hops, resulting in a traditional beer with a modern flair and a balanced, refreshing flavour.

There is a large emphasis on local beer in the Microbrewing movement, with small-scale brewers supplying their local pubs, creating unique, distinctive ‘beer profiles’ for pubs in different local areas. This variance carries with it opportunities for bespoke tourism: much like wine tourism in France and Italy, there is still untapped potential for more craft beer based holidaying in the UK and beyond. People are becoming increasingly serious about good quality beer as we march further into the 21st century. One of the best indicators of this is the rising popularity of beer flights: the diversity and enrichment of the brewing scene in the past few decades has meant that many can now put beer on the same pedestal as wine in this regard.

The price, both in pubs and from shops that sell them, is what puts many people off craft beers produced by microbreweries. In much of the south of England at least, prices in pubs are often upwards of ￡4.50 a pint. This may seem extortionate compared with the Bud Lights of the world, but if you are looking for an exciting range of different styles and flavors, as well as to support independent brewers and pubs, then it is worth the extra money. These smaller breweries are operating on much tighter margins than the large corporations, and the ingredients are generally of much higher quality and price. These tighter margins do mean that there is scope for flexibility, as they are able to discontinue beers and try new ones without creating massive dips in sales. This leads to many breweries creating ‘guest’ beers alongside a select few old favorites, allowing customers to try many different beers over a longer period of time. On the other hand, tighter margins also mean that microbreweries can't afford to have too many commercial failures in a row, as they don’t have the finances to bounce back. This has been particularly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and has caused many smaller brewers to close their doors or rebrand. Fortunately, we don’t see this nearly as often as might have been, if Gordon Brown (as chancellor in 2002) hadn’t significantly reduced the taxes for small beer-making firms, with those producing under 880,000 pints annually benefitting from a 50% decrease in beer tax duty, with larger independent brewers receiving relief on a sliding scale. This has given prospective microbreweries a massive financial incentive to set up shop, which has greatly contributed to the massive influx of new players we have seen in the industry in the last two decades.

The last few decades have been dubbed my many as the ‘Golden Age of Beer’ due to the huge amount of growth and diversification that the brewing industry has seen in this period: the microbrewing and craft beer revolution is what has driven such an age to fruition. New and unconventional brewers, new and exciting beers and even old beers given a new lease of life have defined the changes in the way we choose what to drink. Nutritional science firm DSM found that nearly half of 18-30 year-olds (those who have spent their adulthood in the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of beer) like drinking craft beer because they like to try new things and that 45% of them said that their choice of beer said a lot about them as a person. This modern alignment of beer choice with variance and personal identity is what’s fuelling the microbrewing movement - and hopefully, the original values of independence, flexibility and innovation are being carried along with it.

-Mike Mcshane

About the author

Mike is currently the lead strategist for EATE, working behind the scenes with Sam to keep the business running. But he’s clearly not working hard enough as he seems to be writing articles all the time.

@mikemcshane_