Everyone’s favorite week is coming up.  Mark your calendars — the Brewer’s Association has deemed May 14-20 as American Craft Beer Week.  So take the next few weeks and draw up a plan.  Most cities have great events, bars have unique beer specials, and there’s all sorts of celebrating to be done with your favorite six pack in your living room.

Mark your calendars: Today the Brewers Association started their push for American Craft Beer Week, which is set for May 16-22, 2011.

Considered The Mother of All Beer Weeks, ACBW recognizes one of America’s true culinary arts and provides a platform for small and independent craft brewers to salute supporters and connect with their local communities. Thousands of today’s beer enthusiasts, beginners and hardcore geeks will toast craft beer, with ACBW events predicted to take place in all 50 states.

Those of us who love craft beer know this as a week where we can find great deals, interesting events, and plenty of other beer lovers at our favorite beer bars.  But we should also look at this as a time where we can politely introduce people to new beer.  If we want people to take part and love good beer as much as we do, there’s no better time to introduce them to the community during American Craft Beer Week.

We’ll write more about this as the week approaches, but mark your calendars and start thinking about what you can do to help advance craft beer in May.

From flickr user Thomas Hawk

It’s obvious that the folks at the Brewers Association have an enviable job when one of the organization’s biggest “problems” is that craft breweries are outgrowing the definition of what it means to be a craft brewer.

Last week the Association announced that it was tripling the size of breweries that were considered “small” by craft brewery standards.  The previous limit, 2 million barrels per year, was sure to be eclipsed by the makers of Sam Adams and because of its ongoing success.

The industry’s largest craft brewer, The Boston Beer Company, is poised to become the first craft brewer to surpass 2 million barrels of traditional beer within the next few years. Loss of The Boston Beer Company’s production in craft brewing industry statistics would inaccurately reflect on the craft brewing industry’s market share.

In addition to Boston Beer, the current growth trajectory of other sizable BA member breweries places them on a course approaching the 2 million barrel threshold in the coming years.

Nick Matt, chair of the Brewers Association board of directors correctly summarized: “Rather than removing members due to their success, the craft brewing industry should be celebrating our growth.”

Great news, and a wonderful problem to have to solve.

From flickr user skeggy

With college football starting tomorrow night, we posted a recipe for beer batter pretzels earlier today so you could be at least a little prepared before the season begins.  But you know what goes with pretzels almost as well as beer?  Cheese dip.  And if you’re going to eat cheese dip, why not make it beer cheese dip?

Fortunately, the Brewer’s Association has this covered, and has helpfuly provided a recipe for hefeweisen beer cheese dip.  We’ve pasted it below, and will likely be making it along with our beer batter pretzels.

(And yes, it says it serves 40-50 people, but we plan to cut back proportionally.  4 pounds of cheese seems like a little much.)

Read the rest of this entry »

(From Flickr user kevindean)

Feeling the recession?  Craft breweries aren’t.

Earlier this week, the Brewers Association released numbers from the first half of 2010 showing craft beer sales were up 12%.

Craft breweries continue to grow despite many challenges, and currently provide an estimated 100,000 jobs and contribute significantly to the U.S. economy.  Barrels sold by craft brewers for the first half of the year are an estimated 4.6 million, compared to 4.2 million barrels sold in the first half of 2009.

“While craft brewer sales volume climbed 9 percent in the first half of 2010, overall U.S. beer industry volume sales are down 2.7 percent so far,” noted Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “There is a movement by beer lovers to the innovative and flavorful beers created by America’s small and independent craft brewers. More people are starting to think of craft-brewed beer first when they buy in restaurants, bars and stores.”

I guess if you’re going to feel some form of economic stress, you can spend at least a little more to get through it with good beer.

From Flickr user Matt Niemi

The Brewers Association released the 2009 craft beer sales figures today, and if you’re reading this site, you shouldn’t be surprised.

The Brewers Association, the trade association that tabulates production statistics for US breweries, today released 2009 data on the U.S. craft brewing industry. In a year when other brewers saw a slowdown in sales, small and independent craft brewers saw sales dollars increase 10.3 percent and volume increase 7.2 percent over 2008, representing a growth of 613,992 barrels equal to roughly 8.5 million cases.

Great news.  The more it sells, the easier it’ll be to find and enjoy.