The Economics of Luxury Beer

Dear Client: Duvel Moortgat USA/Ommegang chief Simon Thorpe crunched the numbers surrounding the highest-end beer segment at today's Boston Brewbound session. More provocatively, he exposed the segment's guts. There's a special place for BMW and an oversized sales force nestled in Ommegang's. It's a slim segment. However, the spoils are strong. By Simon's estimates, over a quarter of value in the ultra high end is held by just 100,000 hectoliters of volume [he seemed to use barrels interchangeably]. "There's a