Craft Beer an effective but unexpected ambassador for US Foreign Service
American craft beer was born with an anti-establishment pedigree. Battling against well-established national brands of gargantuan scale, early U.S. craft brewers often portrayed themselves as upstarts, rebels, or the smaller guy in the David and Goliath story. Flash-forward to 2019, however, and many U.S. craft breweries have both grown up and calmed down, enjoying access to private equity funding and entering into large-scale mergers, much like the established national brands they originally fought against.
Another sign that U.S. craft beer is substantially less anti-establishment than it was just a generation ago: Around the world, U.S. craft beer frequently serves as an ersatz ambassador for the U.S., appearing at U.S. embassy events and helping to support its homeland’s international profile.
