Pictured are beer tasting samples, and attendees at the annual Boonville Beer Festival to be held on May 2, 2015 at Mendocino County Fairgrounds. As one of the oldest craft brew festivals in California, the event turns 19 next year. Typical beer drinkers are male age 18-49 years. They prefer beer and craft brews over anything else. Women? Only about 20% say they prefer beer. Their number one choice is wine.
Nevertheless, beer is all the rage these days! There have been dozens of new beer tasting events in California in 2014 (see Beer Festivals this week), offering opportunities for the public to sample craft brews ranging from apple flavor to mocha coffee and the fall favorite, pumpkin. It seems like everybody wants a piece of the beer action, and with good reason–jobs, profit and passion. In California the industry has experienced an annual growth rate of 15-17% recently–not too shabby! There are approx. 480 craft breweries in California and most have sprung up in the past decade. Every one in five craft brews in the U.S. comes from California, the nation’s top brew state. This month Gov. Brown signed into law a bill allowing breweries to sell their beer at farmers’ markets.
Halloween themed beers to check out: