During the semester that has just ended at The University of Toledo, I taught a course titled, The Geography of Beer and Brewing. This was a course for graduate students. Eight students enrolled in the class – six doctoral students and two Masters students. Being a graduate level class, it was reading and discussion intensive with one student responsible for leading the discussion each week. Students had to read four to five scholarly papers each week, and come to class prepared to discuss and debate them. The topics covered in the class were wide ranging and included the historical evolution of the brewing industry, craft breweries and neighborhood change, beer and the law, beer tourism etc. The scholarly literature on the brewing industry is multi-disciplinary. As a result, even though this was a course taught within the Geography and Planning Department, students were exposed to a wide range of disciplinary perspectives on the industry – geography, economics, anthropology, business history, law etc. The mix of students in the class was also very gratifying. There were two female students, one African American student (female), and at least two Muslim students (from Bangladesh). This mix made for fascinating discussions; discussions that were undoubtedly richer because of the diversity of voices around the table.
As part of their course assessment, students had to write a five thousand word term paper. I have just completed reading them and I have to say that I really enjoyed doing so. Here are the titles of the term papers that I read:
- Market Overview of Non-alcoholic Beer: Prospects and Constraints
- Thai Microbrewing Tied Down by Policy: Policy Analysis of Thailand’s 2008 Alcohol Beverage Control Act and its Effects on Small-Scale Thai Breweries
- Discussing the Relationships between Crime and Craft Beer in Chicago, IL
- Beer and Brewing Consumer Preferences : A Look at Preferences of American Drinkers
- Geographic Analysis of Ohio Hop Farming and Breweries
- Going Out for a Pint: Craft Breweries and Walkability
- Izakayas as Third Places in Japan
- Limits to Production: A Study on the Relationship Between Craft Brewery Production Volume and Socioeconomics of Urban Areas
Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the papers produced by the students. A few of them, with some work, may even have the potential to be published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. I will be talking with these students over the summer to see if the are interested in pursuing this possibility.
As with any course, the first time that you teach it, you identify changes that you can implement to improve the overall learning experience for students. I plan to teach a new and improved version of the same course in the spring 2020 semester. I am also giving some thought to developing an undergraduate version of the same course. This will, of course, be lecture-based, and so involves developing a semester’s worth of lecture material. I am gradually piecing those lectures together.
I’m not the only person to teach a course on the the geography of beer and brewing in the United States. There are a few others of which I am aware. Sean Crotty teaches a Geography of Beer course at Texas Christian University, while Julie Wartell teaches
Craft Breweries and the Urban Economy at the University of California, San Diego. While a course on the the geography of beer and brewing may be considered a niche or boutique course, there is no question that such a course can help students develop a more nuanced understanding of broader topics and issues such as industrial location theory, industrial organization, changing consumer preferences, neighborhood change, etc.