The American Craft Beer Rumor Mill – April 3, 2013

Hey it’s Wednesday and it’s Rumor Mill Time…..There has been a paradigm shift in the world of beer and it’s massive. We’ll be giving you everything that we know so far, and we’ve got some fast-breaking craft beer news from the East Coast’s newest music festival, as well as some tweet-tease from Lagunitas guru, Tony Magee. Plus we’ve got a hot new spring release that you will definitely want to run down! So fasten your seatbelts everybody….THIS WEEK’S RUMOR MILL IS ON!

Dogfish Head Rocks It Again at This Year’s Firefly Festival (Milton, DE) – It’s encore time for Sam Calagione and the Dogfish Head crew, who will be returning as the Firefly Festival’s official craft beer sponsor. Having been part of last year’s debut music fest, they’ll also be returning with their specially brewed Firefly Ale, an English-style pale ale that they crafted for last year’s festival.

Hallelujah… Beer Replaces Wine In Popularity Among Younger Women (Anywhere, USA) – That’s what we’re talking about! According to a 2012 Gallup poll, beer has replaced wine as the beverage of choice among women aged 18 – 34. Though hardly a surprise to those of us who frequent America’s next generation craft beer hangouts, this data is indeed a paradigm shift of massive proportions in the beverage industry, as wine has up to this point consistently beat out beer with women (18-34) for decades.

Another One Bites The Dust? (Chicago, IL) – Hot on the heels of the Boston Beer Company Jim Koch’s turnaround on his long-held stance opposing the canning of his craft beers comes a tweet from Lagunitas impresario, Tony Magee, who indicated that his oft-cited resistance to canning may be waning. Our friends at beerpulse report that his objections “mainly centered around the resource-intensive process of bauxite mining,” and that Magee hinted over Easter that he may well be reconsidering things going forward.

“Higher” Education Goes Online (Portland, OR) – Portland State University has introduced a new online Business of Craft Brewing Certificate to help educate those interested in learning more about the business side of craft brewing. The program, according to oregonlive.com, will emphasize business savvy over technical expertise and focuses on how to make “your brewery or pub more efficient and profitable” taught by “instructors from within the industry.”

Dogfish Head Crosses The Pond (Milton, DE) – Bedford, UK-based Charles Wells has teamed up with Dogfish Head Brewery to produce a groundbreaking craft beer collaboration. The transatlantic partnership will launch Dogfish Head DNA New World, a 4.5% ABV IPA with limited availability in cask on April 1. “DNA” has been in development for some months and celebrates the creativity of two internationally renowned breweries. The beer will be rolled out more widely in keg and bottle variants later this year.

Priciest Craft Beers Gain at Bars & Restaurants (Leesburg, VA) – According to GuestMetrics, based on its database of POS sales in restaurants and bars, the most expensive tier of craft beer brands are responsible for the majority of the growth in the craft beer segment. “The most expensive price tier, which we are calling Tier I, had an average price of $6.65, which is 20-50% greater than the other three tiers’ average prices, and accounted for about 19% of all craft beers sold last year,” said Peter Reidhead, VP of Strategy and Insights at GuestMetrics. “However, despite being significantly more expensive, Tier I grew unit sales by 27% versus the much more modest 3% unit growth among the other three tiers, which accounted for 81% of craft beers sold.”

And speaking of road trips, we caught up with Sweetwater’s head of marketing, Steve Farace, at this year’s CBC in Washington DC and he told us about Sweetwater’s move into the DC market…