All the King's Horses...

It's selloff season. Earlier this week, Ballast Point, purchased by Constellation Brands four years ago for a billion dollars, was sold to tiny Chicagoland Brewer Kings & Convicts. We don't know the terms of that deal, but we know the sale price was substantially less than a billion bucks.

That follows the sale of Portland-based Craft Brew Alliance, which sold out to Anheuser-Busch for significantly less than a contract stipulated after AB simply let that contract expire and paid what it wanted. Then there's Colorado-based New Belgium, which recently sold to Little Lion/Kirin.

If you're an objective observer, you might conclude that the craft beer bubble is bursting. The problem, of course, is that interested parties typically fail to perceive the existence of a speculative industry or bubble until it's too late. Only in retrospect is reality plain to see.

There are plenty of examples of bursting bubbles out there, the most recent being the U.S. housing bubble that collapsed in 2008, leading to massive destruction of global wealth. By early 2009, the 12 largest financial institutions in the world had lost half of their value. Not great.

The craft beer industry isn't on the level of the housing collapse. However, I have characterized craft beer as a bubble industry more than once in these pages. It's a concept that is not generally well-received among industry-connected folks. But never mind. What do we know about bubbles?

Hyman Minsky (1919-1996) was an American economist whose research attempted to provide an understanding of the characteristics of financial crises, which he attributed to swings in a fragile financial system. Minsky identified five stages in a typical credit cycle or bubble:

Displacement: A displacement occurs when investors get enamored by a new paradigm, such as an innovative new technology or product, at a time when interest rates (or the cost of market entry) are historically low.

Boom: Prices rise slowly at first, following a displacement, then gain momentum as more participants enter the market, setting the stage for the boom phase. During this phase, the asset in question attracts widespread media coverage. Fear of missing out on what could be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity spurs more speculation, drawing even more participants into the fold.

Euphoria: During this phase, caution is thrown to the wind, as asset prices skyrocket. The "greater fool" theory plays out everywhere. Valuations reach extreme levels during this phase. New valuation measures and metrics are touted to justify the relentless rise in asset prices.

Profit Taking: By this time, the smart money – heeding warning signs – is generally selling out positions and taking profits. But estimating when a bubble will collapse can be difficult because, as John Maynard Keynes put it, "markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Panic: In the panic stage, asset prices reverse course and descend as rapidly as they ascended. Investors and speculators, faced with margin calls and plunging values of their holdings, now want to liquidate at any price. As supply overwhelms demand, asset prices slide sharply.

I'm not sure where the various pieces of the craft beer industry belong in the five stages. Newer breweries probably belong in the Boom or Euphoric stage. They're fresh and see the sky as the limit. Profit Taking will come soon enough. But it's clear that elements of the established industry have entered the Panic stage, a point at which they will sell for any reasonable price to avoid the realities of a flat market that is overcrowded and intensely competitive.

Keep in mind that a bursting bubble isn't strictly defined by a selling spree. The flipside of that is the places who have nothing to sell and simply close. We've seen that here at home with the likes of Alameda, Lompoc and others. The Laurelwood version of the story differs because some of its brands have a regional following and could be sold.

One thing to note about a bubble: Once it is punctured and losing gas, it's unlikely to inflate again. If what's happening in craft beer is a bursting bubble, all the king's horses and all the king's men won't be able to change that.

Runaway Growth and the Craft Beer Bubble

At some point, you start wondering when the next shoe will drop. The hypercompetitive craft beer industry, which had experienced dynamic, runaway growth for nearly a decade, is clearly entering a contraction phase. The bubble may not be bursting, but it is under intense pressure.

Signs of a slowdown began to appear a year ago, with the closures of Lompoc's Hedge House and Widmer's Gasthaus pub. Months later, General Distributing sold to Columbia, a move precipitated largely by perceived instability and a lack of confidence in where the market was headed.

More recently, we've seen additional evidence of turmoil. Lompoc Tavern closed. Seven Brides closed its pub in Silverton. Two Kilts closed in Sherwood. Then Alameda Brewing closed. Yesterday, Portland Brewing announced the abrupt closure of its underperforming pub in northwest Portland.

Alongside all this, we learned this past Friday that Brian Butenschoen is out as executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. Butenschoen had served as the leader of that organization since 2005. As of this moment, neither Butenschoen nor anyone at the Guild has explained what happened, beyond the typical canned statement saying they agreed to go their separate ways.

Forget Butenschoen for a minute. That situation may or may not be related to the big picture. When I was interviewed for what became PDX Brew City in 2014, I was asked if I thought there was a bubble forming in craft beer. Of course there was a bubble forming, I said. Whenever I've watched that film as part of an audience, I've heard smug laughter behind that comment.

But it was clear to me at the time that the brewery count was growing faster than demand at virtually every level. There were about 2000 craft-centric breweries in the United States in 2011. By the end of 2013, 2,420. By the end of 2015, 4,544. By the end of 2017, 6,266. By the end of this year, we'll have about 7,000, with 9,000 more in planning. These are crazy numbers.

Portland and Oregon brewery numbers essentially mirrored what was happening nationally. Oregon had 124 breweries in 2011, according the Brewers Association. By 2013, we had 181. By 2015, 228. By the end of 2017, 266. Portland stayed in step. It had about 40 breweries in 2011. Today, the city is home to 77, with 117 in the metro area, according to Oregon Brewers Guild stats.

My assumption back in 2014 was that the insane growth would compromise the entire industry. There's only so much shelf space and so many tap handles to chase. I always figured intense competition would create chaos and price wars that would affect everyone.

Some of that has happened or is happening. But the larger emerging theme is that older breweries and those that have quality issues or poor management or a lack of innovation are struggling or failing. Making good beer is definitely a requirement in the current marketplace, but not the only one.

When I said a bubble was forming, a friend suggested the result would be different than I imagined. He said places that make bad or mediocre beer would be driven out and replaced by those that make good beer. He was right, of course, though I still contend good beer isn't the only thing you need.

Getting back to Butenschoen's situation, he had been director of the Guild for 13 years. That's an eternity. He rode the wave of craft beer's golden age, a time when the industry could seemingly do no wrong. But things have flipped and the industry now faces a new set of challenges.

There are more than 250 breweries in Oregon today, most of them small. The Guild is tasked with serving the needs of the many, as opposed to the needs of the huge and the few. That means collaborating and cooperating with all kinds of operatives across a wide spectrum.

"It's a new world we're experiencing right now in beer," says a reliable industry source. "Everybody knows it. Oregon needs effective leadership if we're going to stay strong in craft. Maybe the Guild felt Brian wasn't the right guy to lead it through the emerging challenges."

Regardless of what's going at the Guild, the industry definitely needs strong leadership to help it navigate the turbulent waters ahead. The era of runaway growth is closing, to be replaced by a period of consolidation and contraction. At least for now.

Stenographers and Bubbles

It's a big week for craft beer. Some 50,000 beer fans have descended on Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. These fortunate folks will be sampling more than 2,700 beers from 578 breweries. The great bulk of the participating breweries are small. But make no mistake: craft beer is big business these days.

Corresponding with the GABF kickoff, there was a story on the CNBC website yesterday. The story, No Bubble for Craft Beer, is essentially an interview with Charlie Papazian, founder and president of the Brewers Association. Papazian talks about craft beer's rising star in recent years and flatly says there is "no [craft beer] bubble," despite concerns expressed by some in the industry.

Is there a craft beer bubble?

Look, I love that fact that we've seen the growth we've seen. There are more than 2,000 operating breweries in this country today, more than we've had since breweries were small and strictly local. The number of great beers out there continues to multiply. Terrific, right!

Still, I am increasingly uncomfortable with what passes for journalism in the digital age. We continue to see an erosion in the basic principle of objectivity. People with significant job titles or responsibilities are afforded a level of reverence that simply isn't in line with objective reporting. Journalists are stenographers.

In this case, what was Papazian supposed to say? Please recall this is a guy who virtually launched the craft beer movement in this country. Was he supposed to say the industry is at risk because recent growth has, in fact, been too rapid? Of course he wasn't going say that. Because saying so would be very bad PR.

Mid-2012 brewery count

And, yet, there it was. An article that presented one point of view...that of the person being interviewed. Perhaps the author might have considered digging a little deeper or talking to someone who is concerned that a bubble may be forming. What happened to objectivity?

Please understand, I don't always expect objectivity. I have friends who simply repost press releases and related promotional info on their blogs. They generally aren't getting paid for their effort. Even though I frankly think every press release should be evaluated, I have zero problem with citizen journalists whose blogs are primarily (and blindly) promotional.

That is not the case when it comes to supposedly reputable publications, whether online or traditional. People who get paid to function as journalists ought to be held to a higher standard.

Do I think there's a craft beer bubble forming? I'm not sure. But I hear a lot of brewers talking about it. Here's one question I would have asked Papazian or someone else had I been writing the story: "Are you concerned that even if there isn't a nationwide bubble, there may be bubbles forming in areas where the brewery count is especially high?"

Sadly, stenography is not journalism.