December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 137
Plato once said,“He was a wise man who
invented beer,” but that wisdom has phe-
nomenally flowed throughout the mar-
ket.Today, craft beer is undergoing such
a renaissance in America that there are
now more breweries inventing flavors of
beer than any other time since the 1870s
( or a total of 2,528 as of June, 2013).One
not-for-profit trade association serves to
promote and protect small and indepen-
dent craft brewers throughout America.
A
s an industry trade group, the
main goal of the Brewers Asso-
ciation is to promote and pro-
tect its more than 1,900 brewery mem-
bers. It does this via a number of avenues,
including annual craft beer events, govern-
ment affairs work, and craft beer export
development. The BA was not always or-
ganized as it is today. In 1978, Charlie Pa-
pazian (recognized as the father of mod-
ern home-brewing) formed the American
