The Recent Advent of Micro Producers in the Spanish Brewing Industry

This chapter aims at investigating the birth and diffusion of craft brewing in Spain. We discuss the role of consumers: lead and experimental consumers were influenced by the discovery of a richer culture and variety of beers in foreign countries. They founded consumer associations and fostered the creation of a new demand for beer in the Spanish beer market. This gradual change created new opportunities for new firms, which entered the market on a small scale to produce differentiated products with respect to the mass-market beer. The first entrepreneurs in the craft brewing sector had relations with foreign experiences or with the consumer associations. The role of the first entrepreneurs was decisive for spreading the idea of new business opportunities and for satisfying the demand of a new consumer attitude, more sophisticated, more local, more informed. The Catalonia region played a crucial role in this story