Happy Anniversary…….. Year 3

This post begins the fourth year of BeerBusinessUnplugged, and as promised, I would like to comment on what has taken place over the past year.

In the last 12 months, the weekly subscribers have continued to increase and readership surpassed 50,000 hits.  I have truly enjoyed publishing and hearing back from each of you, including both the positive and the negative comments.  Please continue to send recommendations for future topics as such are greatly appreciated.

Once again a blog written in the past year became the most read of all time.  On November 20^th the posting of Hell, I Don’t Live in Texas, I Live in Austin, became the all-time the number one post.  This story was about the rise and fall of Lone Star beer and the company’s ties to the redneck rock music scene.

The blog posted on January 27th, There is No Higher Value in our Society than Integrity, brought the most responses to any post written over these three years.  Each comment was in support of this blog and many had a story about the lack of integrity that had a negative effect on their lives.

One of my favorite weeks to post is during the end of the year. It is in this post that I write about a longtime industry person and highlight them for their contribution to the beer industry.  R.D. Hubbard was last year’s focus.  Dee, known more for the race tracks he owns than for beer, was the former owner of Coors of Kansas during the brand’s hay days of 60%+ market share.

I have also included the annual look at last year’s top 10 largest selling brands in the world. Once again, I highlight the number of Chinese beers in the rankings.  Given the size of that country the growth will probably not change anytime soon.

This year I have included the top 20 selling beers in the US.

This graph below will give you a picture of the growing trend of new labels, mostly crafts that many of you deal with on a daily basis.

This spring, I was an instructor at Portland State University for a number of beer topics including sales, marketing and distribution. I taught 33 students in their school of Business of Craft Brewing.  This fall I will be assisting the Alamo Colleges in San Antonio in the development of a series of continuing education classes for craft beers.  Please feel free to forward your ideas on various skill sets you believe the school could provide to help educate either new or existing employees.  The purpose of this program is to educate a workforce for the craft industry.

I look forward to hearing from you in this fourth year and thank you for all your great comments.  Happy third anniversary!