December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 151
operations. I’d be the the guy fixing things
and then breaking them again, just to fix
them. This fits my personality.”
Upon fully immersing himself in the
brewery culture down south, the New York-
born newbie quickly discovered -- much to
his surprise -- that the competition was far
more cordial than what he’d become accus-
tomed to in his prior life up north.
It’s not just an Austin thing, either. It’s a
brewers thing.
“It blows my mind, really, how support-
ive everyone is,” Hovey said. “Coming out of
the semiconductor business, it was cordial,
but that was about it. There’s competition
in this, but it’s not cutthroat. We all recog-
nize there’s a huge underserved market and
I think that helps maintain the mindset that
a rising tide lifts all boats if we’re all out here
making good beer.”
It’s the latter point, he said, that matters
most.
Research by international market research
firm Mintel indicated craft beer sales in the
U.S. more than doubled -- from $5.7 billion
to $12 billion -- between 2007 and 2012,
with further growth to $18 billion forecast
by the close of 2017.
The entire U.S. beer industry was valued
at $78 billion at the end of 2012.
“I definitely think we’re still in an expan-
sion phase,” Hovey said. “Slowly but surely,
people are getting away from the Budweisers
and the Millers and the Coors. They’re seen
