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Beer Cartel, a prominent Australian craft beer retailer, just released the largest, publicly available, study of Australian craft beer drinking trends ever. The 2018 Australian Craft Beer Survey collected feedback from over 18,000 participants and not surprisingly echoed sentiments widely held here in the US and increasing in Europe.
Here are some of this year’s key findings …
There is a strong desire to support Australian Independent Breweries.
Mirroring actions taken by the Brewers Association in the US, Australia’s Independent Brewers Association introduced its own Independence Seal in May.
Currently one-third of Australian beer drinkers are aware of the Independence Seal and (83%) of those aware of the campaign said the seal will have a medium / large impact on their future purchasing behavior.
Two-thirds of drinkers are aware of the buy-out of at least one of the three leading Australian craft breweries in 2017.
Although global brewers like AB InBev may have slowed their US craft beer buying spree (or at least put it on hold for the moment) clearly they’ve shifted their international beer acquisition strategy to high gear and Australia is increasingly a prime target.
Lion who now controls 40.9% of all Australian beer sales, owns ‘once’ craft brands like Little Creatures, White Rabbit, James Squire, Furphy and Byron Bay Brewery.
SAB now owns ‘once independents’ like Matilda Bay. Redback, Fat Yakand Dogbolter. And in 2107 AB InBev acquired 4 Pines which as we’ve reported they’re bringing to the US, as well as Pirate Life which ironically was voted Australia’s best brewery in Beer Cartel’s first national survey.
According to Beer Cartel’s 2018 survey over half (56%) of those aware of those Big Beer acquisitions have since reduced or stopped purchasing from these breweries.
Balter voted Australia’s best craft brewery.
For a third year in a row, consumers have voted a different brewery and this year Balter, a Gold Coast craft brewery less than three years old and part owned by surfing world champions Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson was voted Australia’s best brewery.
Balter’s success comes at the expense of Feral (now owned by Coca-Cola) and Pirate Life (now an AB InBev property) who were crowned champion brewery in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Consumer sentiment post buyout seems to have impacted the rankings of both. And although Pirate Life was still ranked as the #3 best brewery in Australia, Feral dropped to #8.
The majority of Australian craft beer drinkers are on the lookout for new beers to try.
No surprise here…this finding is probably universal.
Beer Cartel’s 2018 survey found that “almost half of all purchases made by Australian craft beer drinkers are for beers they have never previously tried.”
