Craft Beverages Unite at Inaugural Craft Beverage Expo

When talking about craft beverages, one's thoughts might still immediately turn to beer and breweries.  However, the craft beverage market has expanded to local wineries and craft distillers as well, a boom that is sweeping the nation.  More evidence of the industry boom could be found at the Craft Beverage Expo held in May of this year in California, bringing together the producers of craft beer, wine and spirits.

 

This gathering of producers also helps spotlight a unique characteristic among the craft beverages industry.  While competition obviously exists, the industry also includes an undeniable, and refreshing, sense of community among those involved.  As a packaging machine manufacturer, we receive more referral requests from "competitor" craft beverage producers than any other industry.  A recent article by Jeff Cioletti in Beverage World explored the expo and the industry as well.

 

Cioletti discusses the opening session of the 2014 Craft Beverage Expo "Craft as Community - A Brooklyn Case Study" in which a brewer, master blender and winemaker discussed the industry and the growth over the past few decades.  From the early days when there were arguably enough participants in the craft beverage industry to even start a community to the last few years where people keep waiting for the end of the boom, the participants in the opening session discuss some of the factors leading to the boom and reasons for the continuation of it, including that sense of community.

 

One interesting theory put forth is that the financial crises experienced by almost everyone in the United States in 2008, made people realize the importance of becoming self-sufficient.  In turn, craft beverages gained popularity across the country, with beer leading the way only to find wine and spirits quickly following suit.  It is hard to argue with that American Dream scenario, and it seems to be working just fine.  While we build packaging machinery for a wide range of industries, it is always a pleasure to work with a new craft beverage producer.  Each product always seems to come with an interesting back story, while being produced with a ton of heart.  

 

It also doesn't hurt that in testing those items we help package for these industries, we have become a huge fan of the products as well!