Brewing

Using Google Trends, I did a comparison using the search terms Brewing, Micro Brewery, Nano Brewery and Brewery, throughout the United States over the past twelve months. Based on the search analytics more and more people in Maine, Oregon, North Dakota and West Virginia aren't just searching for Breweries but they are also searching about Brewing. Here is a the four biggest states in  USA  showing their ranking interest in Brewing, Maine is at the top with 100.

While the search word "brewing" was of interest, the terms Micro and Nano Brewery were basically nonexistent. Which wouldn't come as a surprise to the brewing community and would most likely not be searched for by beer drinkers or people that are new to brewing.

However, the search words Brewing and Brewery we well intertwined with one another.
The peaks for Breweries and Brewing line up. At the end December 2016 people were not only searching for Breweries they were also searching for Brewing. This trend is seen again in February around Valentines Day and again in May around Memorial Day. The predicted trend is another spike around July 4th 2017. It's clear there is a direct correlation between holidays and the search for Breweries and Brewing.

It could be argued many ways, as to why Breweries and Brewing both spike up around holidays. Could it be that people take vacations around major holidays, enabling them to indulge in more beer? Do these people travel to areas known for their breweries and diverse beer selections. Or is it while on vacation they stumble on a "new" beer in the local supermarket, thus prompting the search for a local brewery? A state like Maine, known for its multitude of beer and breweries either could be true.
With the increasing popularity of brewery tours and beer /brew buses that take you from bar to bar to try different beers. Its hard to determine what came first.

Its obvious that there is a market for beer and brewing and that the number of craft beer drinkers is increasing greatly. The question is how much bigger will the craft beer fascination get, and is it enough to sustain all these new brewers and breweries appearing almost daily? When would be the best time to open a brewery?

If a friend was interested in starting a brewery would he survive amongst the wave of other breweries? Would he benefit from opening a brewery or selling his product around a holiday. Or would his product itself be enough set him apart and pull business from the other breweries. Is there enough to go around or will this market become over saturated? One thing is for certain, the beer industry as a whole is big business, and growing bigger every day,  but how much bigger can craft beer get?

I have found Google Trends to be a great tool for discovering the how the popularity of search terms, can be crucial for a company or individual trying to market their product or company.