Ken Stout, president of Goose Island Brewery, has said the group was conscious of not going head to head with British pubs when it launched its Vintage Ale House concept in London.
The concept opened in the former Be At One site in Balham in December. Goose Island operates three retail formats but the Vintage Ale House currently operates in the UK.
Speaking at MCA’s Managed Pub Conference last week, Stout said: “The idea of the ale house is that we’re not leading with our most famous products – the likes of IPA but those corked, more eccentric offers like Sofie and Matilda.
“We certainly didn’t think we could come over here and compete with pubs. We wanted to capture wine drinkers and bring them over to the beer side.”
Stout talked about the explosion of craft beer in the US, where there are currently 5,300 breweries compared to 79 back in 1980. However, he said this success could equally be seen as a “historical correction” taking the country back to the level before Prohibition.
He said the modern breed of US craft brewers owed a lot to their European forbearers.
He said: “When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s beer was bland in the US and there was very little interest from Europe. Now all of a sudden everyone is interested in what’s happening with beer in the States. It’s like the British invasion of rock n roll but in reverse. All those guys took American blues and rock n roll, did a little mash-up and then took it back to the States. Now we’ve taken this traditional brewing from the old world and we’re bringing it back with an American riff.”
He also said he believed the American craft beer movement was in a good place to hit its target of growing market share from the current 12% to 20% by 2020.
