Next Steps:
From our talks with Terren and Fransisco at Broeders Brewery, we saw that craft brewing is an up-and-coming industry in Argentina that has begun to exponentially grow in the past few years. We wonder if this situation is happening in other countires across the world. Which countries has craft brewing breached? Which countries have booming craft brewry scenes already? We want to know the progress/trend of craft brewing around the globe, and it looks like we'll have to do more traveling to answer our questions!
The consumer culture surrounding the craft brewing industry in Argentina is very similar to Colorado, just on a much smaller scale. Craft beer as an industry attracts a devout and passionate following in Colorado, and it is the same in Argentina. In our interveiws we learned that there are very few sporatic customers that only order/buy once or twice from a microbrewery. Once someone finds a microbrewery that they like, they tend to stay loyal to their beers for years, and buy on a very regular basis. Obviously, craft brew sales have much lower volume in Buenos Aires than in Colorado. Despite this, the attitudes and habits of those that buy from microbreweries in Argentina are very similar to Colorado.
The final aspect that we compared between the two settings was government regulation and legislation. It turns out that regulation aids to the success of craft beer in both cultures, albeit for different reasons. In Colorado, microbreweries benefit from legislation that is meant to support small businesses, as well as legislation that allows for liberal access to the high quality water from Colorado's many rivers. In Argentina, brewers we intereviewed cited a lack of regulation and legislation as a major reason that adds to the success of microbreweries in Argentina. Because there are no regulations on the microbrewery market, there aren't any special taxes, licenses, or other arbitrary hoops that brewers have to jump through. This allows brewers in Argentina to escape many of the adverse conditions that the Argentinian government is known for creating for businesses.
In all, the Argentinian craft beer market in many ways mirrors the United States craft beer market ten years ago. Argentinian brewers face their own challenges of sparse sourcing, but operate within an environment with a passionate consumer base and trusting relationships between businesses within the industry. If we were to return to Buenos Aires in ten years, I guarantee we would find a thriving craft beer market in operation.