Victory for Texas Microbreweries

Texas microbreweries won an important right to sell beer on their premises without distributors. This is key in enabling these small businesses to operate profitably.

Good summary of the situation here.

A lot of the marketplace isn't exactly an open and free competition. 

There's a lot of unfair regulations designed to favor one interest group and that limits consumers' access to products at a good price or perhaps deny access entirely.

Note: The Governor hasn't signed the bill yet, but is expected to.

Beer, Wine and Alcohol Industry

This is the one of the biggest industries in the world. Here's how to do research (actually, the process works for many other subjects.)

Industry Trends (market size, shares, leading companies, analysis and more):

Marketline Advantage
Passport

Marketline Advantage Beer Industry Radar Chart Example:

Market Sizes and Shares:

Simply Map is a great place to get local (anywhere in US) wine and alcohol consumption patterns and compare them with national averages.

Example:

Watch the Simply Map tutorial video to find out how.

Book Review: Brewing Up A Business

Beer entrepreneur Sam Calagione shares his story of creating one of the most successful microbreweries out there - Dogfish.

Yeah, there's lot of fun anecdotes about getting Dogfish off the ground - he's a free spirit to say the least.

But the real value here is a case study of watching a small business grow from incubation to being an established success story. In fact, the book is organized more about business principles than beer per se.

You're going to learn a lot about managing growth, product diversification, bouncing back from mistakes (not all of his competitors do so), identity as a brand, listening to customers, and a lot more.

Another cool thing about this book is that it addresses a basic reality in our economy: forget about taking on the big boys and find that long tail of the niche market.