Benchmarking Craft Beer Cities

The craft beer craze is on the rise and is quickly spreading throughout the nation. The phenomenon of people paying top shelf prices for small batch specialty beer has been around since the 1980’s but has built up a large following in recent years. A few cities have already established a firm grasp on the movement, but new cities are being added to this list on an ongoing basis. We set out to determine how some of the most well - known craft beer cities earned their elite ranking and use our findings to offer suggestions for our local San Diego craft beer industry. We chose four cities across the nation for benchmarking. Thes e cities were chosen based upon beer destination popularity across the eastern and western U.S., location in small as well as large metropolitans, representing older well established markets and new young entrants. The cities we chose were Denver, Colorado ; Portland, Oregon; Tampa, Florida; and Asheville, North Carolina. We determined a set of criteria for benchmarking purposes that would have an impact on the growth of the craft beer industry. The criteria included both direct and indirect parameters of this industry such as the amount of craft beer production/consumption, economic impact, local and state government support, and marketing strategies. Our analysis revealed some common features among these cities as well as some unique features that make them stand out. The goal is to determine what San Diego can learn from these top craft beer destinations and how our findings can be applied to place San Diego at the top of the list of craft beer destinations in the U.S.