The Danish beer revolution in cold facts

Every year the Danish beer news blog beerticker.dk compiles a list of new Danish beers on the market.

I believe the numbers alone show what has been going on in Denmark in recent years:

New beers by Danish breweries (or contract breweries):
■1999: 17
■2000: 15
■2001: 21
■2002: 30
■2003: 54
■2004: 82
■2005: 234
■2006: 506
■2007: 556
■2008: 647
■2009: 604
■2010: 590

Denmark has a population roughly the size of Wisconsin.

The media over here keeps talkin about crisis in the craft beer business, but the fact is that very few producers shut down. But not many are making much of a profit though.
Although consumption of beer keeps dropping (officially) the producers keep releasing new beers. And who am I to complain...

You can read a little more here in googlish:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=da&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fbeerticker.dk%2F590-nye-danske-oel-i-2010-30396&act=url

Congratulations and good luck. Hope it’s not a desperate attempt to win profit before dying.

I hate to piss on you bonfire, but those facts are not as meaningful as you’d like to think they are. In fact, they’re a whisker away from being completely meaningless.

You can have 400 new beers in a year by having 8 macros brewing a batch a week and cynically rebadging each batch with a different name. (cf. /Archers/ in the UK who seemed to never brew a beer twice.) In "facts" you’ve got 400 new beers a year, but in fact you’ve only got 8 beers, and none are new.

And why are you telling us the number of new beers, but not the number of retired beers? In new beers are good, then retired beers are bad, right? Do you fear that the ’bad’ side would show an enormous growth also? Does that statistic worry you?

A far better statistic is just the number of different beers available at any one time. I’m sure that would tell an equally positive story, and is far less easily gamed.

You don’t need feel-good faux statistics in order to feel good about the beer scene in Denmark, anyone who’s seen it both before and after the revolution knows that any word weaker than "revolution" isn’t strong enough to describe what has happened.

Damn it - when I get home, I’m sticking a Danish beer in the fridge - may the selection and quality you currently have be long maintained! (Black Cat was excellent, I wish I has another...)

Originally posted by FatPhil
I hate to piss on you bonfire, but those facts are not as meaningful as you’d like to think they are. In fact, they’re a whisker away from being completely meaningless.

You can have 400 new beers in a year by having 8 macros brewing a batch a week and cynically rebadging each batch with a different name. (cf. /Archers/ in the UK who seemed to never brew a beer twice.) In "facts" you’ve got 400 new beers a year, but in fact you’ve only got 8 beers, and none are new.

And why are you telling us the number of new beers, but not the number of retired beers? In new beers are good, then retired beers are bad, right? Do you fear that the ’bad’ side would show an enormous growth also? Does that statistic worry you?

A far better statistic is just the number of different beers available at any one time. I’m sure that would tell an equally positive story, and is far less easily gamed.

You don’t need feel-good faux statistics in order to feel good about the beer scene in Denmark, anyone who’s seen it both before and after the revolution knows that any word weaker than "revolution" isn’t strong enough to describe what has happened.

Damn it - when I get home, I’m sticking a Danish beer in the fridge - may the selection and quality you currently have be long maintained! (Black Cat was excellent, I wish I has another...)

I suspect more than a quarter of the new releases are from a single brewer, Mikkeller, who makes wonderful stuff and is available at RateBeer-type places. But does the average Dane sip this heavenly nectar?

All of them are verified as new beers by the author of beerticker.dk and several of RB members. Nothing wrong with that list.

Originally posted by altonbrownd
I suspect more than a quarter of the new releases are from a single brewer, Mikkeller, who makes wonderful stuff and is available at RateBeer-type places. But does the average Dane sip this heavenly nectar?

Originally posted by KimJohansen
All of them are verified as new beers by the author of beerticker.dk and several of RB members. Nothing wrong with that list.

Originally posted by Christian

Originally posted by altonbrownd
I suspect more than a quarter of the new releases are from a single brewer, Mikkeller, who makes wonderful stuff and is available at RateBeer-type places. But does the average Dane sip this heavenly nectar?

"Only" 10% actually

And yes, ordinary Danish beer drinkers know and respect the name. They may not be willing to pay the price for a bottle of Mikkeller, but they recognize the name when I bring it to tastings.

Originally posted by FatPhil
You can have 400 new beers in a year by having 8 macros brewing a batch a week and cynically rebadging each batch with a different name. (cf. /Archers/ in the UK who seemed to never brew a beer twice.) In "facts" you’ve got 400 new beers a year, but in fact you’ve only got 8 beers, and none are new.

Originally posted by FatPhil
I hate to piss on you bonfire, but those facts are not as meaningful as you’d like to think they are. In fact, they’re a whisker away from being completely meaningless.

You can have 400 new beers in a year by having 8 macros brewing a batch a week and cynically rebadging each batch with a different name. (cf. /Archers/ in the UK who seemed to never brew a beer twice.) In "facts" you’ve got 400 new beers a year, but in fact you’ve only got 8 beers, and none are new.