Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301150074
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER HAMILTON LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
SMALL LOCAL BREWERIES TAP FLAT BEER MARKET
Richard Belliveau expected the normal new business problems when he opened a small brewery in Chatsworth, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles. But he never thought that one of them would be finding a company that sold brewing equipment.Belliveau searched for six months in 1985 for the right equipment because few manufacturers cater to the small brewery market, he said.
"It hadn't been done before and I knew almost nothing about what I was doing," Belliveau said. "I started from zero on this business."
Belliveau's Angeles Brewing Co. is one of a growing number of microbreweries and brew pubs that were almost non-existent a decade ago but now are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. beer market, according to Beverage Industry magazine, a trade publication.
There were fewer than 50 microbreweries nationwide in 1987, but now there are more than 300, of which almost 70 are in California, said Jeff Mendel, director of the Institute for Brewing Studies, a Boulder, Colo.-based trade group.
The microbrewery business is expanding by about 15 percent a year, Mendel said. By comparison, the overall beer industry business was down 2 percent in 1991. Microbreweries produce only a few thousand barrels each year for sale through local grocery and beverage stores. Beer pubs brew ale or lager that they sell in their own restaurants and sometimes also bottle and distribute locally.
The beers are known for using natural ingredients, creating a fresh flavor that resembles European beer more than the more popular U.S. brands.
Microbrewers must overcome lingering stereotypes about beer, the largest of which is its perception as a monolithic drink bought only by men.
"We're trying to upscale the image of beer," said Trudy Shields, who owns Shields Brewery Pub and Grill in Ventura, Calif., along with her husband, Bob. "There is something in the subconscious mind where it's OK to taste wine but not beer."
Instead of the darker wooden paneling favored by most British-style pubs, the Shields pub has peach-colored walls and windows to attract more women. The pub also has a separate dart room and long bar.
Rhino Beer, which Belliveau began brewing two years ago, bills itself as an environmentally conscious beer with labels that tell customers it contributes 51 percent of its profits to the African Wildlife Foundation, a wildlife preservation fund.
There were thousands of small brewers across the country in the early 20th century but most were wiped out during Prohibition, Mendel said. When Prohibition was lifted in 1933, the industry consolidated rapidly because the larger brewers had been able hang on during the ban by manufacturing soda and other beverages as smaller companies went bankrupt, Mendel said.
Microbreweries and beer pubs were helped during the 1980s by the then-burgeoning import industry, which intruded on the market share of domestic brewers, Mendel said. But in recent years the growth of the microbreweries has come at the expense of the imports, which have seen their market share diluted.