TOPIC:

It's often been said, post property bubble, that we thought we could sustain ourselves by selling pieces of Ireland to each other, and we all know how it ended.

So the question arises: each new microbrewery is competing for a slice of a small domestic market. We know from the housing bubble that relying on the domestic market is a potential recipe for tears. But we also know that with enough local support (e.g. Denmark) microbrewing can survive.

So therefore is it an imperative that microbrewers look beyond our shores? Or can they drum up enough business locally to beat the bubble and sustain themselves?

I scratched my head for a bit thinking you were referring to me selling you my beer and you selling me yours...
Any economists in our midst?

I think the answer is yes. There is huge potential in the market and with good solid product, should do well even in the current slump.

If you can switch the Irish consumer to buying local fare(beer, food, whatever), that keeps money circulating and promotes jobs and will impact positively on the economy.

If what you buy (goods and services)is from local producers and not imported, this again contributes to the local economy.

And obviously, if you export your product, that brings money into the economy.

The key to a strong economy is production, not borrowing, that's where the whole thing has gone wrong. Production should be the driver, not consumption, that's what has us where we are. So on this basis it can only be a good thing. The housing bubble is not the same thing as it's all credit driven and based on dodgy market trades, beer production is real and has a product which is mostly being paid for with real money.

I'd have thought that the imperative for micros is to lure new consumers away from the macros and imported micros, rather than to compete with each other. I think that at a time when Irish consumers are becoming more open-minded about what they drink its probably a bit pessimistic to look at this as a zero-sum game.

As for the domestic market being small, that's true but think about the vast number of small breweries in the Belgium or, particularly in the UK which are successful in serving, not even a domestic market but their immediate local catchment area - as evidenced by CAMRA's LocAle campaign.

Somebody (probably the Beernut) posted some stats on breweries per capita in Ireland, UK, US. Basically, we'd need dozens of new breweries to get to the UK levels.

Also the market for beer is not fixed. Total beer volumes have been declining but craft beer is a high growth sector.

And as Eoin said, the growth of new breweries is not built on cheap debt.

Even if it all went pear shaped, people will always want beer. If the fuel supplies etc all went, the boys with the power would be the boys with a brewery and grain stocks, they'd be at the forefront of any rebuilding that would take place, reviving local economies.