Abstract
Belgium has to some extent always been a “craft beer nation”. As in other countries, the industrial revolution and scale economies in advertising caused a dramatic consolidation in the beer industry in the twentieth century: The number of breweries declined from more than 3000 in 1900 to around 150 in 1980. However, a wide variety of different types of beer survived to a greater extent in Belgium than elsewhere. The famous beer writer Michael Jackson noted that “The great beers of Belgium offer an extraordinary variety … and represent some of the oldest traditions of brewing in the Western world.” This made the country and its surviving small brewers a source of inspiration for the world’s craft brewers. Since the 1980s, Belgian craft beers have recovered and rapidly gained market share, not just domestically but globally. The dramatic export growth of Belgian craft beers, especially since 2000, is the result of a remarkably symbiotic interaction between large multinational brewing companies and small-scale crafts. With many small-scale craft brewers being taken over by large international brewing companies in recent years, the question what is “craft” and what is “Belgian” in today’s globally sold “Belgian craft beers” is an important question.
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Notes
- 1.
Jackson (1999), Beer Hunter.
- 2.
For analyses of the earlier period, we refer to Hornsey (2003); Poelmans and Swinnen (2011); Unger (2001, 2004); Van Dijck et al. (Chap. 10) and Van Uytven (2007). Since Belgium and the Netherlands were both part of the Low Countries in much of this period, the developments are very similar. Persyn et al. (2011) document the more recent history.
- 3.
Tongerlo Blond won gold at the World Beer Awards 2014 in the category Pale Beer and was World’s Best Beer in 2014.
- 4.
For instance, the Belgian Trappist beer Westvleteren XII was named the “Best Beer in the World” by RateBeer, and this four years in a row (from 2011 to 2014). Nine other Belgian beers can be found in RateBeer’s 2014 top 100, including Westvleteren Extra 8, Black Albert, Pannepot and Pannepot Reserva, produced by De Struise Brouwers; Sint-Bernardus Abt 12, Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer, and raspberry Lambic Hommage, produced by 3 Fonteinen; Bush de Nuits (Scaldis Prestige de Nuits) from the brewery Dubuisson, and Rochefort 10 Trappist. See “Westvleteren XII is world’s best beer” (http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.1860841).
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Westvleteren XII is world’s best beer (http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.1860841).
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Poelmans, E., Swinnen, J. (2018). Belgium: Craft Beer Nation?. In: Garavaglia, C., Swinnen, J. (eds) Economic Perspectives on Craft Beer. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58235-1_5
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