Craft beer is marching to entice the palate of Korean - August 25, 2017
The craft beer fad arrived at The Blue House. President Moon had a ‘pub meeting’ with CEOs from major conglomerates at The Blue House last July. The beer they had had at that time was Gangseo, which was produced by medium-sized Korean brewery, Seven Brau. Choosing craft beer, which is still unfamiliar to public, as an official beverage at the meeting attracted people’s attention to the brewery and craft beer. Sales figures reflected the attention. Home Plus reported that the sales of Gangseo and Dalseo, two beer brands of Seven Brau, showed 150% increase since the meeting.
Rapid spread of craft beer
Craft beer means beer produced not by giant conglomerates but by small or medium-sized breweries. According to Brewers Association in the U.S., craft breweries must ensure a small amount of production (below 0.95 billion liters per year), independents (below 25% capital from outside of the company), and being traditional (use traditional ingredients and processes). There are over 4,000 craft breweries in the U.S. Craft beer has become increasingly popular in the recent couple of years.It has become one of the cultural phenomenon of young generations; hotels, big shopping marts, and convenient stores are eager to distribute craft beer. Lots of new attempts for researching and developing craft beer also has appeared. ‘Playground Brewery’ is one of them. It differs from other breweries, which focuses only on producing and distributing beer, by providing Korean foods. For example, a Korean style pork stir fries or hot tofu stews pairing well with craft beer. The way to enjoy beer is diversified, too. ‘Can Maker by Craftbros’ sells craft beer to-go. The store sells 40 more craft beers only brewed in Korea. ‘Gangnam Pale ale’, popular with its logo design symbolizing the mark of the Gangnam subway station, led a trend symbolizing landmarks of local districts like Gangseo or Dalseo.
Beer giants invest craft beer
Korea has become a promising market for craft beer companies outside the country. Brooklyn Brewery, the prominent brewery with 30 years of history in New York, U.S., launched its sister company ‘Jeju beer’ in Jeju Island and it is the first branch of Brooklyn Brewery in Asia continent. Its first recipe, Jeju Wheat Ale, was designed by Garrett Oliver who was the winner of 2014 James Beard Award, called the Oscar for chefs. The beer was developed to pair with traditional Jeju local cuisines and includes Jeju mandarin peels as a special ingredient.Big companies want to invest in craft breweries more. It is also true in the U.S., the biggest craft beer market in the world. Top craft breweries were merged into beer giants. AB InBev, the world’s largest brewery company merged Goose Island Brewing in 2011; it had been a landmark brewery in Chicago. It took over five more breweries in 2015 including Golden Road Brewing, which had the largest production size in Los Angeles. In Korea, conglomerates merged and operated brewpubs by themselves. Sinsegae and YG foods operate its own brewpubs; Jinjuham consolidated with Kabrew Brewery in 2015. Smaller craft breweries like The Booth, Amazing Brewing Company, and Platinum succeeded to receive billions of wons (millions of Canadian dollars) of investments. LF, the giant in the fashion industry, bought more than 50% of stocks of Indulge, a pronounced liquor distributor.
Many expect that domestic craft beer can fight back market shares from imported beers which are welcomed in big supermarket chains. Since Home Plus introduced a series of local craft beers like Gangseo, Dalseo, and Haeundae in July, the market share of domestic beers reached over 50%. Given the fact that the increase of sales of major brands was below 10% compared to last month, surging sales of craft beer as 27.3% led sales of a whole domestic beers’ share in the market.
