1994 quote: “U.S. beer industry is going through a sea change I haven’t seen in 20 years”
With big-brand images in trouble (see box), beer bosses are cutting prices to lure consumers even as they scramble desperately to develop or buy the types of beer that American drinkers will pay more for — imports, whose sales rose 11% last year, and microbrews, whose tiny 1% market share is nonetheless expanding at an eye-popping 50% annual clip. The result of all this ferment, says Michael Bellas, president of Beverage Marketing in New York City, is that "the U.S. beer industry is going through a sea change I haven’t seen in 20 years."
The so-called microbrew “bubble” burst two years later.
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