Craft brews taking on the king of beers?

On Thanksgiving day many families are together enjoying some good turkey, pumpkin pie and for some a beer or two.

With the popularity of craft beer on the rise we spoke to some beer experts who tell us about the rising trend.

Evidence has shown people have been brewing beer since 6,000 BC.
In the 19th century brewing was industrialized selling beer to the masses but now small independent breweries are making a comeback.

“The original idea for craft brewing is something that’s local, independently owned a lot of passion involved a lot of high quality ingredients,” said co-owner of the Hoppy Monk, Beto Longoria.

Longoria told ABC-7 what he considers a craft beer.

The category has been slowly building market share ever since the home-brewing hobby took on a commercial flavor in the 1980s.

“Wow, right now there is an explosion of craft breweries nation wide,” said Longoria.

The Wall Street Journal reports independent breweries have finally taken down the king of beers.

Independent brewers sold 16.1 million barrels of beer last year.

While Budweiser has sold 16 million, that is barely half of what it sold a decade ago.

Longoria told ABC-7 he has definitely seen the growth in craft beer’s popularity.

“Our sales have actually grown, just the concept itself has evolved,” said Longoria.

He told ABC-7 customers are walking in looking more and more for that special beer.

“The beers that we are selling now are a little more unique simply because people are more willing to try them,” Longoria told ABC-7.

According to the Brewers Association of America small independent brewers have showed continued growth in 2014.

As of June of this year more than 3,000 independent breweries were operating in the United States with and estimated 110-thousand employees.

An article in the Seattle Times earlier this year says the craft brewery boom even has hops farmers scrambling for workers.

Longoria says he feels there is plenty of opportunity for independent brewers to grow in the future.

“If you talk about market share all their breweries are around 14, 15% of the total market share and you’re talking about a very large number of small breweries competing with only three companies so there is definitely a lot of room for growth,” said Longoria.

Longoria also told ABC-7 their craft brew business has gone so well, they are opening a new location in San Antonio soon. Just more evidence of the rise in popularity for craft brews, Longoria told ABC-7.