Unlike the big manufacturers of bottled lagers, however, the early craft beer makers were not interested in mass appeal or in consolidating costs and tended to trumpet their iconoclastic credentials in opposition to the mainstream big lager brewers.

BBC: US craft beer: How it inspired British brewers

Western producers of bottled beer picked up the slack, but at prices most people could not afford.

ECONOMIST: Mein Herr of Kirgizstan