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In May, USA celebrated the\u00a0American Craft Beer Week<\/strong>. A really exciting event for small and medium independent\u00a0craft breweries<\/strong>\u00a0and for all the people who are passionate about beer and who work in this fascinating industry (brewers, marketers, distributors etc).<\/p>\n Seven intensive days on which lovers and professionals of\u00a0craft beer<\/strong>\u00a0met for the sake of sharing knowledge, \u00a0promoting successful ideas and doing business.<\/p>\n It was actually during this very event that some really interesting information about craft breweries broke through.<\/p>\n The Brewers Association (a not-for-profit organization born exactly to help small and independent American brewers to promote their beers), sponsor and organizer of the event, \u00a0announced that, in 2012, the American beer industry set new important records.<\/p>\n Sales registered a successful increase (about 17%), more than 18% new breweries were born and, most of all,\u00a0craft beer<\/strong>\u00a0export volumes rose to an incredible +72% compared with 2011.<\/p>\n Even if the number of kegs sold abroad is still a small percentage if one compares it with the internal sales volume (less than 200.000 barrels against 13 million) the numbers leaked days ago seem to be promising.<\/p>\n Canada, South America, Sweden and UK (despite the nearest Ireland, known all around the world as one of the best beer producers) seem to be the main buyers of American craft beer.<\/p>\n But all this was already well-known.<\/p>\n