Craft beer attracts Koreans in their 30's and 40's

I found an article summarizing the craft beer market in Korea.
original source(Korean) link

Craft beer attracts Koreans in their 30's and 40's - November 10, 2017

Staff are busy with serving beer and various foods in a craft beer brewpub ‘Saenghwal-Macjoo(daily beer)’ located Yeoyeedo, Seoul. The pub manager said that they have lots of customers who enjoy their meals with beer, even in weekdays. Every day, there are people enjoying their time drinking craft beer and chatting on the first floor of the pub. The pub's menu board written by hand writing draws people’s attentions. There are various groups of people including couples in their 20’s, office workers in their 30’s, and housewives in their 40’s. There rarely are empty seats in this pub after 8 PM every day.

As consumers' needs for diverse flavors and aromas from beer increase, craft beer with strong characters has been getting popular. Even 3 or 4 years ago, A small amount of pubs selling craft beer only was found around Itaewon or Hongdae. After a new legislation amended in 2014 however, the craft beer market has surged by new players including franchise brands, small importers, and microbreweries. According to a person who knows the industry well, the craft beer market in Korea has shown a rapid increase up to 100% every year. It still shares 20 billion wons so far, a small piece of 4.6 trillion wons (11 billion Canadian dollars) of a whole beer market, though.  Some insiders expect the craft beer can expand up to 2 trillion wons (2.3 billion Canadian dollars) market value.

The amendment of liquor tax legislation in 2002 was the first big step for the craft beer market in Korea. This change introduced a license of microbrewing and legalized brewpubs where craft beer can be sold and produced simultaneously. However, breweries under that law could not sell their beer out of the brewery. The new legislation adapted in 2014, allowing small breweries to distribute their beer out of a production site, ignited the rapid growing of the craft beer market in Korea. Lot of players from giant conglomerates to microbreweries owned by a couple of people continue to participate in the market and expand the size of it. A person from Korea Microbrewery Association said that there was only one microbrewery in Korea 16 years ago but now there are up to 80 operating breweries. He said “The number of entrepreneurs opening new craft brewpubs has been growing around places like Hongdae, Itawon, and Kyeongridan and we see there will be more and more in the foreseeable future.”