Skyrocketing demand for craft beer is rejuvenating rural communities and reviving farming sectors in the United States, and there are signs it could do the same in Australia.

In the US, it's estimated the equivalent of one and a half new craft breweries enter the market every day.

Beer produced in the smaller, boutique style breweries, known as craft breweries, with a focus on flavour, now account for 10 per cent of sales in the American beer sector.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 26 seconds 4 m 26 s Ryan Hopkins, of Yakima Chief Hop Union, and Owen Johnston, of Hop Products Australia, on demand from craft brewers. ( Cath McAloon ) Download 2 MB

The impact of growing demand for craft style beer, which uses more hops per litre than conventional brewing, is being felt by US hop growers, who are this year expected to harvest 40,000 acres of hop plantations, up from 27,000 acres harvested in 2000.

Ryan Hopkins, a strategic accounts sales manager with Yakima Chief Hop Union, the largest hop co-operative in the United States, growing hops in Washington State's Yakima Valley, said it was an exciting, upward spike for the agricultural industry which had endured fluctuating production over the past century.

Mr Hopkins said as well as increasing demand for hops by volume, the rise of craft brewers was also leading growers to pursue different varieties.

"Craft brewers are looking for higher oil content within their hops, something that's unique; citrus, pine, floral, things being presented that's based upon the essential oils that are in those specific varieties," he said.

"They are interested in something new. What is the unique? What's the something that somebody else doesn't have? They want a beer character that is going to make them stand out on the shelf or in their pub beyond what others have."

He said hop growers were adjusting their plant breeding programs to respond to brewers' needs and growers and brewers were working together on developing and growing new varieties.

"We're in an exciting transition. Previous generations in the United States had interesting relations with large macro brewers and now there is an intentional increase in collaboration in the approach to connect our growers directly with brewers, so that's exciting because that collaboration works well on the brewing side of things and it also works well connecting the grower to a brewer.

"We're able to respond more quickly and meet these interesting and unique demands.

"There is a lot of side by side work that's going with craft brewers and our US growers.

American growth replicated down under

Mr Hopkins, who was in Australia to attend the Craft Beer Industry Association conference, said the Australian craft beer sector appeared to be following a similar growth trajectory to the United States.

Dried hops in bag July, 2014 ( flickr: Fergus McIver )

"There's a tremendous amount of momentum here (in Australia), similar to what we saw about ten years ago in the United States, and I would imagine that this momentum will continue," he said.

"Craft brewers will grow and rise and become organised and make their availability to enter the market even more efficient.

He said he could see parallels of what had happened in the US and what was happening in Australia.

"People want some type of source connection to their beer, to their brewery, to their brewer and we see that as very popular in the US.

He said craft breweries had rejuvenated communities in some parts of the United States.

"In many parts of the United States, craft beer is regenerating a lot of those small communities and I see that here.

"There's that connection. Going to see your brewer and having a pint of his new beer is something that is very popular. It's meaningful and it seems like it will continue to rise."

There are no hard figures on the craft beer industry's growth in Australia, but the industry association's executive officer, Chris McNamara, said new breweries opening across the country were experiencing huge demand for their product.

"Brewers can't keep up with demand. Some of them are at least double digit growth each year, and a great number of them triple digit - 100 per cent, 200 per cent growth in the year," he said.

"Everybody is buying new equipment. They are needing to find bigger sites for their breweries and just can't keep up with demand."

Australian hops growers are also watching the experience of the United States.

Local hops expansion

Owen Johnston, sales and marketing manager with Australia's largest hops producer, Hop Products Australia, said in the past six years his company had introduced six new varieties of hops to cater for craft brewers.

Hops, malt and barley, along with water, are the key ingredients in brewing. ( Cath McAloon )

"This is an unprecedented rate of change in the hop industry in Australia. If you go back ten years, we were literally growing three or four varieties all for the same bittering purpose. Now we've got an array of unique flavour offerings," he said.

"The US craft market is often referenced for leading the world in the revolution that is craft beer.

"That impacts on us, because the consumption rate for hops in craft beer is far in excess of traditional mainstream lager, almost to the point where you could say ten to one, for every litre of beer produced, craft could use up to 10 times more hop to achieve a flavoursome beverage."

Mr Johnston said the rapid growth of the craft beer sector in Australia was changing the local beer market.

"We hear figures of 30 and 40 per cent volume growth year on year in the craft segment, while overall alcohol consumption is coming down and beer is coming down even more rapidly," he said.

"It's one sector of the beer industry that is showing some really strong growth."

In response to the strong growth in craft beer, Hop Products Australia is expanding plantings and spending $15 million investing in farms in Victoria and Tasmania to increase overall production by 50 per cent over three years.

Malting barley growers to benefit

It is not just hops farmers that are benefitting from the growing craft beer market, with predictions grain farmers, who grow barley that's malted and used in the brewing process, also stand to do well with craft brewers likely to use more malt and pay more for it.

Malted barley and other grains to be used in beer production. ( Cath McAloon )

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 21 seconds 3 m 21 s David Cryer, of Cryermalt, on growth in the craft beer sector. Download 1.5 MB

David Cryer, of Cryermalt, has been supplying breweries in Australia and New Zealand with speciality malts for more than 20 years.

He said in the past four years there had been an explosion in the number of new breweries in the region, leading to increased demand for different types of malt for brewing.

"Caramalts, smoked malts, all sorts of things they (craft brewers) are looking for, they are all looking for a point of difference in a busy market," he said.

"There's immense growth in the market from the consumer."

Mr Cryer estimated Australian craft beer was experiencing growth of around 30 per cent, year on year.

"That growth has been continuing for four years and will continue," Mr Cryer predicted.

He said as the craft beer sector grew, brewers were also successfully increasing the price consumers paid per bottle of beer.

"Which means they have the capacity, and they also have the desire, to get from the grower a really top quality product which they can get into the beers, and also be able to talk about it," Mr Cryer said.

"I think for the farmer it's a good news story.

"With this growth there is going to be a demand on raw materials, so I think the connection between the brewers via the maltsters to the farmers, I think that's going to get tighter and I think that's really going to improve what's happening at the farm gate."

Mr Cryer said the craft beer sector drew strongly on the provenance of its raw materials and there was a push by brewers to source local materials.

"I think it's going to get as local as possible and you are going to return to the days when you had the local on the corner. That's where craft (brewing) is going and it's going to keep burrowing down and it's going to be great," he said.