While many sectors of the economy have been stagnant over the last few years, microbreweries are booming. The last week of September marked the first time since 1873 that more than 4,000 breweries were in operation in the U.S.
The U.S. Brewers Association made the announcement on Monday that they expect by the end of 2016, the U.S. will have more breweries in operation than at any other point in history.
The growth is remarkable considering in 2011, there were only 1,759 breweries in America according to The Business Journal.
Millennials and the free market are responsible for the growth in this industry, because young people love craft beer and are the driving force behind new microbreweries popping up across the country.
That, mixed with the massive deregulation of the beer industry in the late-1970s, allowed for new competition and taste to emerge.
More than 3,400 American breweries now produce craft beer, according to the USBA.
This wasn’t always the case though. The beer industry was nearly destroyed by prohibition and only the big corporations could survive the massive government intervention. Slowly but surely large breweries like Pabst and Anheuser-Busch swallowed up 94 percent of the market.
The millennials’ desire to get away from the stale, tasteless, and pale big American beers of the 1970s and 1980s changed the market to one that valued taste and localism.
Craft beer made up 11 percent of the national beer sales in 2014, according to the USB. That’s nearly triple the 4.3 percent from 2009 reported by The Business Journal. Microbreweries’ sales grew by 17.6 percent, much higher than the national average of .5 percent for all beer companies.
In 2013, craft breweries employed more than 110,000 people.
Millennials, localism, and the free market can change an entire industry by making it better and more profitable.
