Craft brewing - the grassroots activity of micro-manufacturers as a stimulant for market development and self-improvement in the brewing industry

This article presents the aspects of the activity of home brewers from the area of beer production on a micro scale. The first part discusses the market conditions affecting the growing popularity of non-commercial beers and the essence of craft, contractor and restaurant breweries. The second part describes the innovations emerging in the industry, not only in terms of new technologies and recipes, but also in building home brewer communities and their education through forums and dedicated websites. It also presents the initiatives supporting domestic brewing, coordinated by the Polish Home Brewers Association (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Piwowarów Domowych) (e.g. competitions, festivals, sensory courses). The multi-aspect analysis of the activities of home brewers revealed that the most important result of their self-education has been the “beer revolution”, going on since 2011, which has paved the way and enabled the commercial emergence of new taste offers, different from the typical light lager beer.