http://66.225.205.104/CW20100611.mp3
Last year wasn't great for beer, unless you brew it in small batches. U.S. beer sales were down 2 percent, according to the industry. But the craft segment of the beer market -those brewers that make less than 2 million barrels a year - grew by about 7 percent last year. You might know some of these local labels: Carolina Blonde, Highland and Olde Mecklenburg. That last one is the only craft brewer, making and bottling beer right here in Charlotte - and it's actually quite new. A few years ago, John Marrino was looking for a new gig after 18 years in the water treatment industry. Then one day, he read about a man brewing beer, and he started thinking about all the beer he used to drink when he lived in Germany. "And I said 'okay, I can kill two birds with one stone here,'" says Marrino, "I can solve the problem of not having fresh beer in Charlotte, and I can get the German beer that I miss. And so I decided to open a brewery." That was in 2006. Three years later, Marrino opened Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, replicating the German beer he loved. Olde Meck is in a warehouse by the Charlotte airport. The entire brewery floor is sticky with beer, and smells a little like fresh bread. Marrino runs the place with the help of a half-dozen employees. He spends a lot of his time out on sales calls and making sure the customers are happy. His friendly approach has paid off in pints. "We brewed last year about 1,045 barrels in nine months-our first nine months of operation-which is actually not bad for a microbrewery," explains Marrino. "But this year we're going to more than triple that. So it's really... we're really growing." As more and more beer drinkers turn their tastes toward flavorful local brews, the U.S. Craft beer market has taken off. North Carolina falls in the middle of the pack, ranking 34th in breweries per capita, but North Carolina's breweries are getting noticed. "There, I mean, there are so many breweries that people are starting to actually say, 'Oh yeah I know that brewery I've had their beer. They're from North Carolina,'" says Julia Herz, the Director of Craft Beer for the Brewers Association, a national organization supporting the brewing industry. Herz says for decades American beer drinkers had few choices-and most of them were bland. Craft brewing has changed all that, but it wasn't easy. Just ask Oscar Wong, one of North Carolina's craft beer pioneers: "When we began, it was rather difficult to get distributors to accept our brand and to consider taking it." Wong founded Highland Brewing in Asheville in 1994. Now they're distributing across the Southeast. "The landscape has changed dramatically in the acceptance by regular people and regular beer drinkers," explains Wong, "and I think that's evidenced by the upsurge of interest across the country." But the little guys still face challenges. The three major brewers, Anhaeuser-Busch, Miller and Coors, account for over 90 percent of the market. And they're territorial. "We have to get on the taps in the bars and restaurants," says Marrino. "And there are no open taps. In order for us to get a tap, somebody's losing a tap." Plus, the big brewers are trying to capture the craft beer market too, and they're advertising heavily. Industry data show these new beers from the big brewers have sold well in their initial months on the market. Smaller brewers say competition from the big three may actually help them if it entices beer drinkers to try something new. But helpful or not, John Marrino isn't worried about the competition. In the year since he opened, he's already managed to get Olde Meck on tap in at least 140 bars in the Charlotte region. "No matter how big these guys get," he argues, "they'll never be able to deliver fresher beer to Charlotte than me, unless they put a brewery here." So far none of the major U.S. brewers is planning to do that, so John Marrino is making plans of his own. In a few months, he'll install two new fermentation tanks to keep up with demand for Olde Mecklenburg.