A Year Living Social Trends: August is Craft Beer
You probably know by now that every month of 2017 we’re living a different consumer trend, identified by social media. To name a few: we have turned vegan for a month, braved the London roads cycling and become master gin tasters (not all in one go!). This month we’re exploring beer, and the rising trends within it as a drinks category.
In the UK the average person drinks a huge 72 litres of beer per head every single year, with 11,000 beers to choose from. From chocolate, to avocado, to bacon, there is every flavour to quench anyone’s thirst. No wonder beer still makes up the biggest percentage of alcohol drunk across the UK.
Although total UK pub beer sales have decreased by 2.9% between 2015 and 2016, the social conversation shows no sign of slowing down. Over the past year more than 3.7M people have mentioned it and there’s been a general increase from September last year to now, with volumes of conversation increasing in a general upward curve.
Graph shows hot topics of conversation within the beer conversation
There are particular areas of beer which have shown significant growth. Craft beer has exploded onto the UK beer market and has seen 40% growth in sales a year since 2015. This is reflected in the social conversation, which has seen 13% growth in specific mentions of craft beer on this time last year. The secret to the growing success of craft beers may be partially linked to its female popularity. On Facebook, women are as likely as men to like pages containing content about Craft beer, whereas men are more likely to be interested in pages that mention beer generally (and are not craft specific) males are far more are more likely (13% more in fact) to be interested in it. This is different to tweets mentioning craft beer, which have a far more male skew (70:30). This indicates that women – although interested in craft beer – are not (yet) willing to openly associate with craft beer, which could be linked to prior preconceptions and the male stereotype of a ‘beer drinker’.
Other beers drunk such as lager and Bitter have seen a smaller increase in social conversation. Interestingly they are both commonly talked about in association to brands, whereas craft beer is generally mentioned in a general term of ‘craft beer’
At OneFifty this month we will aim to try as many beers of possible to let you know if craft beer really is a good as all the social mentions suggest. Which is why we’re off to The Great British Beer Festival. We’ll also be looking at the data in more depth too and see what the most recommend beer is on social, more on conversations between genders and the top beer apps.
Cheers.
