Over the past few weeks I’ve spent some time researching how people are looking up beer. Specifically, I’ve been trying to delve into what has dominated Google searches around the country as well as the terminology of beer searches.
In both posts, one thing clearly stood out – the searches for “craft beer” exploded in 2009, most notably in the Northeast. Searches for “microbrew” declined around the same time, showing people clearly had a preference for how they were identifying non-macro beer.
… and it kept me thinking: Why?
That’s why I’m digging further into the question this week, offering up a few more posts dissecting the early “craft beer” search trend. I want to see if I can narrow things down a bit to find out why 2009 was such a catalyst year. As always, I welcome your thoughts and suggestions, too.
Before we jump into the first area of exploration, here’s a GIF’d chart showing the increasing searches for “craft beer” on Google between 2008 and today. It’s based on the first six months of each year, with darker states meaning higher search volume. As you can see, the Northeast is a trend setter:
Where Did “Craft Beer” Come From?
With that in mind, I wanted to find out what might have driven public perception. The first place I thought of was the breweries themselves. My assumption was if people are increasingly using “craft beer” in their vernacular, an obvious place may simply be the source of their goods.
Based on the above map and where we see searches, my assumption is that if a regional brewery is located in the Northeast and experiencing great success, it would make sense that a large portion of their customers would be locally or regionally and looking for “craft beer.”
I pulled the Brewers Association lists of top-50 overall brewing companies by beer sales volume from 2008 to 2010 and as expected, something stood out – breweries that made big jumps in sales volume came from the Northeast, the epicenter of the “craft beer” search trend on Google. Here are five of the biggest jumps in that three-year span:
Brewery
State
2008 placement
2010 placement
Jump in placement
Magic Hat
VT
18
12
+6
Harpoon
MA
20
16
+4
Brooklyn
NY
31
25
+6
Dogfish Head
DE
33
19
+14
Long Trail
VT
34
21
+13
There were other companies increasing their sales, but none to the extent that these did. Oskar Blues showed up in the top 50 in 2010 and SweetWater went from 40th to 38th in the above time frame, but no one did what these breweries accomplished.
From this perspective, the growth of using the term “craft beer” makes sense, considering these Northeast companies were performing very well and more people were searching for “craft beer” in the Northeast. Additionally, the overall number of breweries – especially craft – got a bump between 2008 and 2009 (click to enlarge):
So what is this all telling me?
I infer – and hopefully you do, too – that it makes sense the searches for “craft beer” stem from the Northeast. Breweries in that region of the country grew very strongly around 2009, which means sales increased, which we should assume also means awareness increased.
Perhaps most important, this sequence of events seems to hint that the growth of interest and searches for “craft beer” was an organic process. People became interested and curious because of what was happening around them. Word or mouth may have helped spur this interest.
… and that’s what I’ll delve into in the next segment.
Related:
- How (and Where) We Search for Beer – A Visual Guide
- How (and Where) We Search for Beer – An Issue of Wording
+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac
