7th Annual Central City Beer Fest 2018
By David Josselyn
Is the future of microbreweries in the local pub house rather than distribution? Fourteen breweries lined Main Street for the Central City Beer Fest to gain exposure for their brands and have a little fun while doing it, but when asked to share their vision of the future of microbrewing, most of their answers trended to scaling down.Steve Fletcher of Colorado Native said the market is “pretty saturated” and “quality is the only surviving factor.” Tom Hail from SandLot Brewery reflected that there are too many choices in liquor stores and distribution is getting harder; there are microbreweries opening every day while the number of liquor stores remains stagnant. Allison Hansell of Holidaily Brewing believes the microbrew growth is slowing down and the industry is starting to focus on customer service. Our local brewers, Dave Thomas and Buddy Schmalz agree that the trend is to focus on brewpubs. Not everyone saw things the same way, though, Lindsey Garrett of Tivoli Brewing thinks microbrews will grow due to the full-strength liquor law for grocers, and Rafi Kelley of Westbound and Down thinks there is still plenty of market out there with potential. Whether or not the micro industry is going to grow, collapse, or stay the same is up for debate and summarized best by Jonathan Lee of Cannonball Creek who said, “Who the hell knows?”
Support authors and subscribe to content
Subscribe to read the entire article.
