The craft beer industry only accounts for about 5 percent of the $80 billion U.S. beer market -- peanuts compared to AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser and other beers, which commands a 39 percent share of that market.
But Goliath is very, very scared of David. The number of U.S. craft brewers jumped from 537 in 1994 to more than 2,000 as of July 2012, according to The Brewers Association, a national trade group. Meanwhile, Budweiser shipments in the U.S. declined 13 percent from 2009 to 2011, according to Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, and sales of Budweiser to U.S. retailers in the first nine months of 2012 fell by 6 percent in volume, Bloomberg reported.
The increasing popularity of craft beer was a major factor in AB InBev's decision to buy rival Grupo Modelo, Corona's parent company, according to internal documents from AB InBev released Thursday by the Justice Department, which sued to block the $21 billion purchase.
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