Neil Reid is Professor of Geography and Planning and Director of the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center at the University of Toledo. He studies and writes about the beer industry.
In my last blog entry, I examined my collection of fifteen brewery t-shirts and looked at where they were made. Of the fifteen, three were made in the United States and twelve were made in Latin America. The t-shirts made in the United States were from Earnest Brew Works in Toledo, OH, Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati, OH, and Dogfish Head in Milton, DE. As I did more research into the companies that manufactured these particular t-shirts, it was the one from Dogfish Head that really caught my attention.
Dogfish Head is a brewery that I really admire. Established in Rehoboth Beach, DE in 1995, it was, at that time, America’s smallest commercial brewpub. Under the leadership of its charismatic, Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head has went from strength to strength, and by 2017 was the twelfth largest craft brewery in the United States. Over the last two decades, Calagione and Dogfish Head have been at the forefront of creativity and innovation. It was the first brewery to produce a continuously hopped IPA (their iconic 90 Minute IPA). It’s Ancient Ales Program has seen it work with molecular archeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern to recreate and reproduce beers from ancient Turkey, China, Egypt, and a number of far away places and epochs. And just this week, Dogfish Head realeased Slighty Mighty, a low calorie IPA that rivals Michelob Ultra for calories and carbs (95 calories and 3.5 carbs), and “doesn’t taste like seltzer water”.
I have never visited Dogfish Head’s flagship brewery, which is located in Milton, DE, but my oldest daughter has. And when she did, she bought me the aforementioned t-shirt. The t-shirt is manufactured by TS Designs, who are based in Burlington, NC. According to the company’s website, its t-shirts “are made from conventionally grown North Carolina cotton and you can track them through the entire supply chain back to the farmer. You can even meet the farmer yourself during our annual Cotton Harvest Tour.”
My Dogfish Head t-shirt uses 100% North Carolina grown cotton
Tracking my Dogfish Head t-shirt through the entire supply chain back to the farmer sounded intriguing – it certainly appealed to the economic geographer in me. According to theTS Designs website, tracking my t-shirt’s supply chain required going to the website whereyourclothing.com, where it states:
“not only are all of our t-shirts made entirely in the United States, they have completely transparent supply chains. And when we say completely transparent, we mean it! Not only do we give you the location, but a name, photo, address, and even phone number for each member of the supply chain, from dirt to shirt.”
To learn about the supply chain in my Dogfish Head t-shirt, it was simply a case of entering a tracking code. Tracking codes are either printed on the neck label or derived from the colors of the thread sown into the t-shirts arm hem and tail hem. In the case of my Dogfish Head t-shirt, the hems of the sleeves and tail had colored thread sown into them –
Tracking codes for my Dogfish Head t-shirt were derived from the color of the thread inside the hem of the t-shirt’s sleeves and tail.
As I soon learned, my Dogfish Head t-shirt started its life on the cotton farm of Thurman Burleson & Sons Farm in Wadesboro, NC. From there is passed through the hands of eight other companies. These included a cotton gin, yarn spinners, fabric knitters, fabric finishers, and cutters/sewers, before ending up at the print and dye facility of TS Designs in Burlington. All ten of the plants involved in the making of my t-shirt are located in North Carolina and South Carolina. Information about each participant in my t-shirt’s supply chain is provided on the whereyourclothing.com website, and appears after you enter your t-shirt’s tracking information. You can read these descriptions below (for the Dogfish Head t-shirt I own), as well as view the map showing the location of each manufacturer who contributes to the final product.
All ten of the plants that played a part in making my Dogfish Head t-shirt are located in North Carolina
Learning about the supply chain of my Dogfish Head t-shirt was fun, interesting, and informative. I would not want to replicate this search for information for every piece of clothing that I own (even if it were possible). But it was, as I said, informative to do it for one t-shirt. I was only vaguely aware of the various steps involved in producing a t-shirt, and so this educated me on the t-shirt manufacturing process. As someone who teaches Economic Geography, I fully understand the economics behind sourcing t-shirts from cheap labor countries overseas. So I say kudos to Dogfish Head for purchasing and selling t-shirts whose provenance is one hundred percent American.
Craft breweries typically have strong connections with their local communities. These connections are manifest in a number of ways. The owners usually live in town. The brewery provides space for activities such as a local yoga club, and several times a year they brew a special beer, part of the profits of which are donated to local charitable causes. In discussing craft breweries, George Homewood, Norfolk, Virginia’s director of planning and community development, notes:
“there is a different food truck outside nightly. Depending upon the brewery, there may be yoga on Sundays, trivia on Wednesdays, retro video games on Thursdays, and music on Saturdays as well as neighborhood block parties, a monthly pet adoption day or a free community meal.”
Regardless of where we live, all of us know local breweries who support their communities in these types of way. Some breweries are so proud of their local community that they name beers after local landmarks, historical figures, or important events in the community’s past. A growing number of breweries are even trying to source more of their ingredients, particularly hops, from the local region. For some breweries, one of their major contributions to the community is simply to provide a gathering place for locals; a refuge of sorts where neighborhood residents can come, meet up with a few friends, and enjoy a couple of beers.
And craft beer drinkers seem to appreciate this commitment to local communities and are very happy to support the locally-owned brewery, rather than the faceless multinational corporation (e.g., AB InBev or Heineken). There’s even a name or this preference for the local – it’s called “neolocalism”. The geographer, Steven M. Schnell defines neolocalism as a “conscious attempt of individuals and groups to establish, rebuild, and cultivate local ties, local identities, and increasingly, local economies.” Writing specifically about craft breweries, Schnell and his co-author Joseph Reese, stated that craft breweries represent a desire on the part of increasing numbers of people to “reestablish connections with local communities, settings, and economies”.
There is no doubt that buying a locally brewed beer supports a local business. Advocates of purchasing locally produced food are quick to point out the economic, social, and environmental benefits of doing so – keeping more money in the local community, encouraging cultural diversity, preserving genetic diversity etc. On the other hand, economists Jason Winfred and Philip Watson point out buying local conflicts with Ricardo’s two hundred year old principle of comparative advantage. Of course, there is the whole issue of what constitutes “local”, a topic I discussed in a previous blog entry.
Many breweries are rightly proud of the contributions they make to their local communities. And on their websites, they are not hesitant to articulate their community commitment. Crazy Mountain Brewing Company of Denver, CO, for example, state that, “although beer is our passion, one of Crazy Mountain’s core values is our commitment to community involvement”. According to Fairport Brewing Company in Fairport, NY, “our commitment to the local community run deep”, while Roadhouse Brewery of Jackson Hole, WY is “committed to supporting the local community of Jackson Hole”.
I got to thinking about craft breweries and their connections to the local economies the other day, when I was putting away a t-shirt that my oldest daughter had gave me as a Christmas gift. It was a t-shirt from Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, MO. My daughter had been to Boulevard recently, while visiting a friend in Kansas City. I visited Boulevard myself while attending a conference in Kansas City in June of last year. Anyway, as I picked up the t-shirt I looked at the label just inside the collar. I was curious as to where the t-shirt was made. The label said, “Made in Honduras”. That got me wondering – where were all my other brewery t-shirts made? How many were made in the United States? I took each of them from the closet and examined them. Here is what I found:
Bare Arms Brewing, Waco, TX – Nicaragua
Black Cloister Brewing Company, Toledo, OH – Nicaragua
Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO – Honduras
Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA – Nicaragua
Dogfish Head, Milton, DE – USA
Earnest Brew Works, Toledo, OH – USA
Elevator Brewing, Columbus, OH – Mexico
Grapevine Brewery, Grapevine, TX – Nicaragua
Kona Brewing Company, Kona, HI – Mexico
Lansing Brewing Company, Lansing, MI – Mexico
Market Garden Brewery, Cleveland, OH – Nicaragua
Maumee Bay Brewing Company, Toledo, OH – Nicaragua
Pike Brewing Company, Seattle, WA – Honduras
Rhinegeist Brewery, Cincinnati, OH – USA
Round Barn Brewery, Baroda, MI – Honduras
First off, I own fifteen t-shirts from breweries. I never knew that. Of the fifteen t-shirts, seven were made in Nicaragua, three in Mexico, three in the United States, and two in Honduras. Now I fully realize that my fifteen t-shirts do not constitute a scientifically valid sample, so I am not going to make any generalizations regarding the larger population of American breweries. Thinking scientifically, I thought that it might be interesting to have a control group. So, I randomly selected fifteen of my non-brewery t-shirts that I had purchased in the United States, and examined their labels. All of them were manufactured in Latin America – five in Mexico, four in Nicaragua, and three each in Honduras and El Salvador. These, albeit non-scientific, findings do hint at the possibility that American craft breweries may be more prone to purchase American made t-shirts than the average retailer.
My t-shirt from Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, PA was made in Nicaragua
That most of the brewery t-shirts I own are made in Latin American countries did not surprise me. I teach this stuff in my Industrial Geography course at The University of Toledo. By and large, it comes down to labor costs. Manufacturing labor costs are significantly cheaper in Latin America than in the United States. For example, according to IVEMSA, a company that assists U.S. companies interested in establishing manufacturing facilities in Mexico, American manufacturers who locate in Mexico will pay 20-30% less in labor costs. Add to that a forty-eight hour work week (before requiring overtime pay) and the advantages of manufacturing in Mexico soon become apparent.
Three breweries in my non-scientific sample do sell t-shirts manufactured in the United States. They are Dogfish Head in Milton, DE, Earnest Brew Works in Toledo, OH, and Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati, OH. The t-shirts sold by Earnest Brew Works and Rhinegeist Brewery are made by American Apparel, who are based in Los Angeles, CA. The company makes apparel in countries all over the world, including Bangladesh, Honduras, and the United States. Interestingly, one of American Apparel’s commitments is supporting the economies in which they are located. They do this by “using local suppliers for transportation, food services and raw materials and accessories for our production facilities such as dyes, buttons, zippers, boxes and office supplies.” The two American Apparel t-shirts I have were as I mentioned above, made in the USA. The components used to manufacture these two t-shirts came both from the United States and other countries
My t-shirt from Rhinegeist Brewery was made in the USA, with US and imported components
The t-shirt sold by Dogfish Head Brewery is manufactured by a company called TS Designs, who are based in Burlington, NC. Not only are TS Designs’ t-shirts made in North Carolina, the cotton that they are made from is grown in North Carolina.
My t-shirt from Dogfish Head Brewery
It would be nice if more breweries who sold t-shirts, baseball caps, wool hats and other souvenir items sourced those from inside the United States. If these items came from inside or close to the community in which they reside it would be another indication that the breweries are committed to supporting their local and/or regional economy.
Further Reading
Schnell, Steven M. and Joseph E. Reese. 2003. Microbreweries as tools of local identity.” Journal of Cultural Geography, Volume 21, number 1, pages 45–69.
I have a confession to make. Just like The Beer Professor himself, I too am a beer-loving philatelist. For this guest blog I want to combine my admiration for beer, its component ingredients, production and consumption, with my stamp collecting hobby. What? Did you have to look up ‘philately’ in your Funk and Wagnalls? The Beer Professor collected stamps of the British Isles as a wee lad. I collected (affordable) stamps from all over the world and I suspect that many budding geographers and historians did the same thing, learning a lot about the history, landscapes and culture of the places in the process.
But what about beer as the subject matter on stamps of the world? One of the best sources of information comes from proprietary data meticulously gathered and periodically updated by the American Topical Association (americantopicalassn.org), an organization devoted to assisting the specialized stamp collector keep up with stamps issued on given topics or themes. Most advanced collectors realize that trying to collect all stamps issued is impossible and even those issued solely by a particular country of interest would be quite difficult. So, most advanced collectors have elected instead to collect stamps dealing with particular topics or themes of interest to them. These themes could include (hound) dogs on stamps or even Elvis Presley on stamps (of which there are over 435 that have been issued worldwide by at least 55 different countries).
The American Topical Association (ATA) data include 135 stamps issued with beer-related themes as a focus dating from 1866 to the last update this past year (September 30, 2018). That number of stamps is, however, a bit misleading, as 66 of the 135 issued by the United States from 1866 through 1947 were beer revenue stamps that were required to be attached to each 32 gallon full barrel of beer (or on smaller-sized barrels ranging from 1/8th barrel (i.e., four gallons) to the half barrel (i.e., 16 gallons). The highest denomination beer revenue stamps were placed on the 64 gallon hogshead size (i.e., a double barrel). Of all of the beer revenue stamps issued by the US government, only one set contained an engraved image that was actually beer-related. That set was issued in 1875 and depicted “Bacchus serving the first fermented brew to man” (ATA Checklist 63: Beer 2018) [Figure 1]. If they didn’t include numerals representing the amount of the beer tax, all of the rest of the beer revenue stamps contained engravings of US presidents (e.g., Washington, Jefferson, Jackson), US Civil War heroes (e.g., Sherman, Farragut) or Secretaries of the Treasury and other overseers of the Senate Banking Committee (e.g., Hamilton, Corwin, Benton, Wright) (Scott 2017, 709-13).
Figure 1: Bacchus serving the first fermented brew to man
Removing the 66 beer revenue stamps from the focus of this blog leaves 69 stamps that a collector would call commemoratives. These commemorative beer stamps were issued by 42 different countries, some with a long history of beer making and an active beer culture (e.g., Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Czech Republic).
Others were issued by countries that don’t immediately spring to mind when one thinks of places with an active beer culture (e.g., Costa Rica, Philippines, Argentina). Still others are issued by countries that Slemrod (2008) labelled “stamp panderers”—usually small, agricultural, poor countries that include many island nations and many in Africa that emerged from colonial rule since the 1960s. Stamp pandering countries commercialize their state sovereignty in order to generate income from stamp collectors abroad. Interestingly, since by law the USPS must pay for itself, the United States is also considered by Slemrod (2008) to be a stamp pandering nation! But, we’ve never pandered enough to celebrate beer on a non-revenue stamp—yet.
Two of the entities that have issued beer-related stamps are not really sovereign countries recognized by the larger world community or supranational organizations such as the United Nations. They include two of the Bantustan enclaves within South Africa—Bophuthatswana and Transkei.
So, while I can’t show all of the stamps related to beer or the production of its components (e.g., hops, malted barley, millet), I will try to show some stamps that illustrate the worldwide commemoration of beer.
Early Beer-related Stamps:. According to the ATA data, the oldest commemorative stamp related to a beer event was issued in 1942 by Nazi Germany to “honor” the 20th anniversary of those Nazi sympathizers killed in the uprising that brought Adolf Hitler to power—the (in)famous Munich beer hall putsch. Because only a Nazi “patriot” is depicted on the stamp and if you don’t read German you couldn’t understand what is being memorialized anyway, I will not show that repugnant stamp.
One that the ATA list missed (probably because beer is not clearly evident on the stamp) is one of my favorites—a 1947 Canadian stamp depicting the iconic “streamline moderne” shape of a Labatt’s beer delivery truck. If I were a Canadian kid during that era, I would certainly have wanted a toy model version of that truck for Christmas [Figure 2].
Figure 2: Labbat’s Beer Delivery Truck
My final choice in the early group is a well-designed 1954 stamp from Costa Rica that illustrates the beer industry and its main ingredients in a simple engraved image [Figure 3].
Figure 3: Beer’s Main Ingredients
Beer Stamps that are Out-of-Place: The first country that seems out-of-place is also the one that Slemrod (2008) chose to focus on in his provocative article entitled “Why is Elvis on Burkina Faso Postage Stamps?…”about the commercialization potential afforded chunks of the world’s territory because of state sovereignty. That commercialization could be relatively benign like stamp pandering or more nefarious like tax havens or money laundering operations. We would not, for example, expect a majority Muslim nation like Burkina Faso with that religion’s strict prohibitions against the consumption of alcoholic beverages to issue a stamp commemorating beer. Perhaps that is why their 2012 beer-related stamp doesn’t show an image of beer directly but rather the hearth and the cooking utensils used to prepare millet beer (vis-à-vis beer made from malted barley) for the approximately 38% of the country’s population that is not Muslim [Figure 4].
Figure 4: Hearth and Cooking Utensils used to brew Millet Beer
Two of the entities issuing beer-related stamps are not recognized by the United Nations as legitimate sovereign countries—Bophuthatswana and Transkei. The 1984 stamp from Transkei depicts a beer tasting presumably of a millet beer [Figure 5] and the 1990 stamp from Bophuthatswana illustrates traditional beer-making activity [Figure 6]. Many collectors are wary of purchasing such stamps issued by breakaway provinces, unofficial or provincial governments or entities created by powerful controlling countries that give the illusion of independent sovereignty when they are, in fact, client states that are recognized as legitimate by few other sovereign nations.
Figure 5: Tasting Millet Beer
Figure 6: Beer Making in Bophuthatswana
The Stamps Produced by a Beer-centric European Country—Belgium: Belgium does more than produce Stella Artois for the mass market. In fact, it is the smaller breweries, especially those located in, and brewed by, Trappist monks that have captured the imagination of beer-drinking connoisseurs around the world. For a country that is small in areal extent, its beer reputation is outsized. Belgium has produced five stamp issues devoted to beer or aspects of its production. But even that number is a bit deceptive because four of those issues are souvenir sheets containing as many as six different stamps. The oldest Belgian beer-related stamp is a simple single stamp featuring a glass of beer issued in 1986 to honor it national beer industry [Figure 7]. In 2010, and again in 2012, Belgium produced souvenir sheets drawing attention to rural production in two disparate regions of the country—the Hesbaye Region, a sheet that includes five stamps, one of which shows the beer that is produced there [Figure 8]. The second souvenir sheet honors production in the Condroz Region and beer production is also emphasized [Figure 9].
Figure 7: A Glass of Beer
Figure 8: Beer Production in Belgium’s Hesbaye Region
Figure 9: Beer Production in Belgium’s Condroz Region
Also in 2012, a souvenir sheet of six stamps was issued that focused on six Trappist beers known worldwide for their excellent flavor provided by differences in the local monastery water and the various types of previously used wooden casks in which the beers are aged [Figure 10]. The individual monastery brews are featured with the appropriate glassware that should bring out the best qualities the brewers wish to emphasize. In alphabetical order, the brews and associated glassware are shown on the stamps of Achel [Figure 11], Chimay [Figure 12], Orval [Figure 13], Rochefort [Figure 14], Westmalle [Figure 15] and Westvleteren [Figure 16]. It is Westvleteren’s XII, a Belgian quadruple, that has been judged to be the rarest beer in the world and among the best. It is rare because it is produced in small batches and only sold at the monastery or a small pub across the street and only on a few days a year. Plus, one must enter a lottery in order to be chosen to buy the beer at all and then only in small amounts (Pagnotta 2013).
Figure 10: Six Trappist Beers
Figure 11: Achel
Figure 12: Chimay
Figure 13: Orval
Figure 14: Rochefort
Figure 15: Westmalle
Figure 16: Westvletern
The last souvenir sheet from Belgium was issued just last year in 2018 and contains five images lauding the beer culture of Belgium that has been declared an “Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO” (ATA Checklist 63: Beer, 2018) [Figure 17].
Figure 17: 2018 Belgian Stamps Celebrating the Country’s Beer Culture
Fine Beer-related Art on Stamps: It is not unusual for countries to issue stamps with representations of famous paintings usually by artists of that country. Some of these artistic renditions feature beer drinkers or still lifes with beer steins. In 1990, the tiny principality of Liechtenstein issued three stamps depicting paintings by the artist Benjamin Steck (1902-1981). The stamp with the highest denomination (1.50 francs) is entitled “Basket, Fruit, Stein” [Figure 18].
Figure 18: “Basket, Fruit, Stein”
In 1968, Togo, a small country along the West African coast, issued a stamp with a depiction of Edouard Manet’s (1832-1883) “The Beer Drinkers” [Figure 19] and, in 1995, Georgia honored the 77th anniversary of the death of native artist Niko Piromanashvili (1862-1918). One of his remarkable primitive-style paintings is entitled “Woman with Tankard of Beer” [Figure 20].
Figure 19: “The Beer Drinkers”
Figure 20: “Woman with Tankard of Beer”
Beyond Fine Art: Stamps with an Interesting Graphic Design: While it is interesting to see fine art on postage stamps, some countries have also dabbled in modern graphic design. Three examples are shown here—one from a country we associate more with a wine culture than one based on beer—Argentina and two that are European beer-centric countries—Germany and the Czech Republic.
Argentina is the home of some of the world’s best Malbec wine especially those grown near the city of Mendoza. But in 2011, however, Argentina issued an interesting stamp honoring their national beer festival containing simple but bold and blocky design elements [Figure 21].
Figure 21: Honoring Argentina’s National Beer Festival
A stamp of importance to beer culture is the 1983 German issue that commemorates the 450th anniversary of the beer purity law (Reinheitsgebot) [Figure 22]. That law specifies that beer shall be composed of only four ingredients—grain, yeast, hops and water. The stylized design of the stamp is undoubtedly either based or emulates a 16th century woodcut. I wonder how stray wild yeast strains could be kept out of the open vats shown on the stamp, but that opens up an entirely different line of inquiry that goes beyond the scope of this blog.
Figure 22: 1983 German Stamp Celebrating the 450th Anniversary of the Reinhetsgebot
And, since the holiday season was not that long ago, I end this stamp-related beer blog with an interesting 2005 graphic design from the Czech Republic that was somehow overlooked by the creators/updaters of the ATA spreadsheet (ATA Checksheet 63: Beer 2018). The stamp depicts a holiday meal of fowl and a beer [Figure 23]. So, as they say in Czech—pro vase zdraví—to your health!
This blog entry was written by guest blogger. Thomas L. Bell. Tom is Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Tennessee. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tom’s research interest are in marketing geography and location theory. More recently he has done some work on the American craft brewing industry in the southeastern United States and also on home brewing.
So another year is about to draw to a close. And with that, it is time to look back on my brewery visits for the year. This year, I visited a record sixty-six breweries. At the start of the year, I set myself a goal of fifty-two breweries, an average of one per week. So I more than met my target.
Of the breweries that I visited, twenty were in my home state of Ohio, forty-one were in states other than Ohio, and five were outside of the United States. In addition to Ohio, I had the opportunity to visit breweries in five other states – Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Texas. Outside of the United States, I visited breweries in Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Of the sixty-six breweries that I visited, I had been to thirteen of them at least once before (indicated in italics in the lists below), which means there were fifty-three breweries that I visited for the first time.
This year, I also kept track of the craft beer bars that I visited. Throughout the year, I visited nine craft beer bars – three in Austin, TX, and one each in Toledo, OH and Ann Arbor, MI. I also visited craft beer bars in Rome (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal), Zurich (Switzerland), and Innsbruck (Austria).
Creating a list of craft beer bars visited did raise some interesting definitional questions. To qualify as a craft beer bar, does that mean that all beer that it sells must be craft beer? If not, what proportion of the beer must be craft beer? Does a bar that sells predominantly macro-beer, but has a couple of craft beers on tap, qualify as a craft beer bar? I did give this some thought as I set out to create this list. Here is where I ended up, from a definition perspective. To qualify as a craft beer bar, the beers available must be predominantly craft beers. It is ok to have one or two macro-beers, but no more than that. Also, it must have craft beers from more than one brewery. For example, while most of the beers available at the Brewdog bar in Rome are brewed by Brewdog, the bar does have a nice, albeit, small selection of other craft beers. While you may debate the criteria I used to define a craft beer bar, it worked for me.
Below you will find a list of all the craft breweries and craft beer bars that I visited during 2018. Following this list, you will find one photograph from each of the places that I visited. I hope that you enjoy these. They are intended to capture the beauty and diversity of craft beer.
For 2019, I will once again set a target of fifty-two craft breweries. While I am tempted to try to beat my 2018 total of sixty-six breweries, I want to keep this a fun, non-stressful, venture – fifty-two seems a reasonable target.
I visited my first meadery a few weeks ago – B. Nektar in Ferndale, MI. We were celebrating my oldest daughter’s twenty-fourth birthday. My daughter is a craft beer lover (she particularly likes IPAs and Sours) and so my wife and I decided to take her to a few craft beverage producers in the Detroit area. She invited three of her friends to join us, so there were six of us altogether. Our first stop was B. Nektar Meadery. From what I can tell. B. Nektar has an excellent reputation in the world of mead and none of us had visited it before. B. Nektar is located in the Ferndale, a town of approximately twenty thousand population, about twelve miles north of Detroit.
B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale, MI
In addition to mead, B. Nektar also produces both cider and beer. When I was there, two of its beers were on the menu – Blitzkrieg, an American Pale Ale and Bootknife, a New England IPA. I had a couple of pints of the Blitzkrieg, while sampling a number of meads from my daughter’s sampler. I kept a tab open at the bar, and as I was paying our bill I asked if I could leave a tip. I was informed that the staff did not accept tips, and that all tips were donated to the charity Bark Nation. Bark Nation is a Ferndale-based non-profit organization whose fund raising efforts support dog shelters and a number of other canine-focused initiatives.
B. Nektar Meadery brew some beer, including this Blitzkrieg Pale Ale
As I left my tip, it struck me that this was not the first time I had been in brewery or a bar whose owners seemed particularly passionate about canine welfare. In March of this year, while visiting my youngest daughter and her husband in Portland, OR, I had a chance to go to Fido’s Tap House, a dog-friendly bar that also happens to have an adoption room for dogs. For a small fee ($4 for thirty minutes) patrons can enter the room and interact with the dogs. You can read more about my visit to Fido’s here. In November, 2016, on a visit to Wellington, New Zealand, I spent a very pleasant couple of hours at the Black Dog Brewing Co. As it turned out my visit there to coincided with the annual fundraiser that the brewery holds for the Wellington branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). You can read more about my visit to Black Dog here.
Enjoying a pint with Finnegan at Fido’s Tap House in Portland, OR
Black Dog Brewery & Tap Room in Wellington, New Zealand
In November 2018, the voters of Florida, by a margin of sixty-nine to thirty-one percent, voted to end greyhound racing in their state, starting in 2021. The passage of this amendment to the Florida constitution will, however, mean that somewhere in the region of six thousand greyhounds will be forced into early retirement. Many of these greyhounds will be made homeless. One solution, of course, is for these greyhounds to be adopted. Enter, stage left, Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company of Orlando, FL. The brewery are partnering with Greyhounds in Motion, a non-profit organization based in Winter Park, FL , who assist greyhounds transition from racing animals to family pets. On December 2, 2018 the Ivanhoe Park hosted greyhounds at a fundraising event at their brewery. For every greyhound in attendance, an anonymous donor donated $100 to Greyhounds in Motion. The brewery will also donate a portion of their beer sales. Greyhounds are now in the process of being adopted, with some of them finding a new home as far away as the state of Washington.
Florida brewery owners seem to particularly fond of dogs, not just greyhounds. In the summer of 2018, Southern Swells Brewing received a warning letter from the Florida Department of Health. The warning stated that the brewery would face closure if it continued to allow dogs in their taproom. Word of the warning soon spread to other Florida breweries, with the result that the Green Bench Brewing Company of St. Petersburg, FL started a petition asking state representatives to pass legislation allowing pets in Florida Breweries. The goal is 50,000 signatures. At the time of writing the petition had just over 35,000 signatures.
Of course, not all breweries welcome dogs. In 2016, Holy City Brewing of Charleston, SC announced that they would no longer allow dogs in their brewery. Over a six month period, five employees had been bitten by dogs. Andy Sparhawk of the Brewers Association, presents a number of arguments against dogs in breweries. In addition to the possibility of brewery staff being bitten, there is the possibility of severs tripping over leashes, dogs clashing with unsupervised children, and dogs eating stray popcorn (apparently popcorn is not good for dogs and can represent a choking hazard).
Of course, if you decide to get a six-pack and enjoy a beer in the comfort of your own home, there are a number of beers specially brewed for dogs that you can purchase for your four-legged friend. For example, Good Boy Dog Beer, based in Houston, TX, brews four beers for dogs – IPA Lot in the Yard, Mailman Malt Licker, Session Squirrel, and Crotch Sniffin’ Ale. Made with ingredients such as pork, chicken, vegetables, and herbs, they are, of course, non-alcoholic. The beer costs five dollars a can, and are available in over a dozen bars in the Houston area. Don’t live in Houston? Don’t worry? You can have the beer shipped to your home. If you do, however, decide to travel with your dog, you may want to consider visiting the website tripswithpets.com, where you can find listings of dog friendly breweries in all fifty states.
For millennia, dogs have been referred to as man’s best friend. Any dog lover will agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. So it seems perfectly natural, when a person loves both beer and dogs, that he or she enjoy the former, while keeping the companionship of the latter.
I was in Dallas, TX last month. I was en route to Austin, TX to take in the U.S. Formula 1 Grand Prix. This has been something of an annual pilgrimage, since the U.S. GP found a home in Austin in 2012. My travel pattern has been to fly into Dallas (it is considerably cheaper than flying into Austin) and spend the night with my good friend Mike. The next day, he and I drive to Austin for race weekend.
Mike lives in the city of Corinth, a suburb of Dallas. During previous visits we had visited a number of craft breweries within an Uber ride of where he lived. This time, we decided to venture farther afield, take the train into Dallas, and visit a couple of craft breweries there. We alighted the train in Dallas’s Deep Ellum neighborhood. Deep Ellum is a fascinating neighborhood. It was established in 1873, east of downtown Dallas, as both a residential and commercial neighborhood. In the late 19th century it was home to the largest manufacturer of cotton-processing equipment, the Continental Gin Company, in the United States. In 1914, Henry Ford chose the neighborhood as the location for one of his first automobile assembly plants outside of Michigan. During the first half of the twentieth century, it was a “hotbed” for jazz and blues music. Today, Deep Ellum, remains at the epicenter of the Dallas music scene. It also has a vibrant arts community and has, since 1974, hosted the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. It also home to a number of craft breweries, a couple of which we visited. Our first stop was Braindead Brewing. This was followed by a visit to Deep Ellum Brewing Company.
Public Art in the Deep Ellum Neighborhood
Deep Ellum Neighborhood
Deep Ellum Neighborhood
Braindead Brewing
Deep Ellum Brewing Company
After leaving Deep Ellum, wandering the neighborhood, we came across Trinity Cider. Neither of us had been to a cidery before, so we decided to give it a try. As we learned from the bartender, the cidery had been open less than a week. In fact, it had opened on October 12, five days before we visited. The menu had a selection of five different ciders to choose from. I opted for a glass of “Grow a Pear”. Trinity plans to specialize in dry ciders. I enjoy cider, although I only drink it very occasionally. I used to drink a lot more of it, especially as an undergraduate student at the University of Glasgow.
Trinity Cider
Trinity’s Grow A Pear Cider
Trinity Cider’s Menu
The origns of cider are unclear. While their is evidence that apple trees grew along the Nile River as early as 13,000 BC, there is no corresponding evidence to suggest that the Egyptians used them in the production of cider. When the Romans arrived in the British Isles in 55 BC, the local population were already drinking a cider-like drink, made from apples. In the Americas, cider was produced by the early colonists. At the start of the eighteenth century, the New England region was producing over three hundred thousand gallons of cider per year, and by 1850, per capita cider consumption in Massacussets was an impressive thirty-five gallons. As the population migrated west, however, and as German immigrants started to arrive in waves and settled in urban areas such as Milwaukee, WI, St. Louis, MO, and Cincinnati, OH, beer (particularly Lager) increased in popularity. As beer gained a foothold among city dwellers, cider developed a reputation as the poor farmers beverage.
Today, North America accounts for eleven percent of the cider consumed worldwide. By far the largest consumers of cider are the Europeans, who consume fifty-seven percent of the world’s cider.
Cider Consumption by Region, 2016. Source: Statista
It is, of course, tempting to compare cider with craft beer. An estimate in October, 2017 suggested that there were somewhere in the region of seven hundred cideries in the United States. This compares with over six thousand craft breweries. New York, with eighty-three, has the largest number of cideries, followed by California and Michigan, with seventy-eight and seventy-one cideries respectively. Washington (sixty-six cideries) and Oregon (fifty-seven cideries) round out the top five. Annual cider sales in the United States currently run at about $1.3 billion. Craft beer sales in 2017 were $26 billion. In terms of the total alcoholic beverage category, cider accounts for only 0.4% of sales in the United States. This is, by no means, a large market share, but it is a vast improvement on the 0.06% market share that cider held during the first few years of the current millennium.
In recent years, cider’s popularity has increased. After years of moderate growth, cider experienced an upsurge in sales between 2011 and 2015. The U.S. cider market went from 5.6 million cases in 2011 to 28.9 million cases in 2015: that is an increase of 416%. By 2016, it looked like its popularity may be on the wane. However, the most recent data from 2018 suggests that cider may be experiencing a rebound in the U.S. market. According to a recent study by Nielsen, cider appears to be most popular among 21-34 year olds. The same study found that beer appealed to a slightly older demographic – 35-44 year olds.
Source: National Beer Wholesalers Association
Cider produced by local and regional cideries (craft cideries) account for approximately twenty-five percent of the cider sold in the Unitrd States. The remaining seventy-five percent is produced by large multinational corporations such as AB InBev and Heineken. AB InBev’s cider brands include Virtue, a “craft cider, made with 100% Michigan apples”. Virtue is located in Fennville, MI. AB InBev’s cider portfolio also in includes the more well-known Stella Artois Cidre.
Boston Beer Company, the nation’s second largest craft brewer, produces its own line of cider – Angry Orchard. Debuting as Hardcore Cider in 1997, a rebranding resulted in the launch of the Angry Orchard Label in 2012. Angry Orchrard is an important part of the Boston Beer Company’s portfolio of drinks. In the third quarter of 2018, Boston Beer Company announced a 24.2% increase in revenue, compared with the same quarter in 2017. This increase was driven not by Samuel Adams beer (whose sales were down), but by sales of its non-beer products, including its Angry Orchard ciders.
As with beer, there are a number of different styles of cider. The United States Association of Cider Makers (USACM) recognizes ten distinct styles of cider. These styles are modern cider, heritage cider, modern perry, heritage perry, fruit cider, spiced cider, hopped cider, wood-aged cider, sour cider, and ice cider. Modern and heritage ciders are made with apples, while modern and heritage perries are made with pears (a perry is a pear cider). Fruit ciders are those made with non-pome fruits (essentially fruits other than apples or pears). Spiced ciders are those with spices, herbs and/or botanicals added, while hopped ciders, as the name suggests, have hops added. Wood-aged ciders have been aged in wooden barrels. Finally, sour ciders are made intentionally sour using bacterial fermentation. Cider does have the advantage that it is naturally gluten free – an attraction for some consumers.
It is difficult to predict the future of cider in the United States. It is likely to remain a minority alcohol, but will probably continue to benefit from the growing interest in locally-produced craft alcohol. Part of the challenge for cider is that, for a large part of American history, it has struggled to be mainstream. Looking into the foreseeable future, this is likely to continue to be the case.
Since 2013, I have served as Executive Director of the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC). NARSC is one of four supranational organizations operating under the umbrella of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI). One of my primary duties as Executive Director of NARSC is to organize the North American Meetings of RSAI. These meetings are held every November, and bring together between 450 and 600 regional scientists from around the world. This year’s meeting was held at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio, TX.
The Magic Cup
While organizing the conference takes quite a bit of effort, it is not without its rewards. The host hotel takes good care of me. For example, I get to stay in the hotel’s Presidential Suite, which is a great space for holding meetings and hosting cocktail parties. The day before the conference begins, myself other volunteers who have assisted with the conference’s organization, meet with the hotel staff to review final arrangements for the conference. It was at this meeting in San Antonio, that I was presented with The Magic Cup. At first sight The Magic Cup is not that impressive. It is simply a sixteen-ounce travel cup; the sort that can be found in millions of homes across America, and which are filled with coffee each morning. So what was so magic about The Magic Cup? Its magic lay in the fact that it entitled me to unlimited amounts of complimentary alcohol at the hotel bar for the duration of my stay. And it was not just beer and wine; spirits and cocktails were part of the deal.
I knew that Magic Cups existed. I had seen one before; in 2016 in Charlotte, NC. That year, the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association (MCRSA) had held its annual conference in Charlotte’s Sheraton Hotel. The organizer of that conference, John Leatherman, had been given one. I had eyed it with some envy.
But now, I had my own Magic Cup, with five days to avail myself of its pleasures. The hotel bar had a nice selection of sevenTexas craft beer on draft. These included Amber Ale from Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Houston, Mission Trail Pale Ale from Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling in San Antonio, and El Robison Porter from Busted Sandal Brewing Company in San Antonio. It did not take me long to sample each of the seven brews on draft.
The line-up of Texas craft beers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Antonio, TX
For the duration of my stay, I have no idea how many beers I consumed and, by extension, how much money I saved. I did not gorge myself. I drank no more beer that I would normally have done during a trip of that type and duration. It did mean, however, that in the evening, I rarely wandered beyond the confines of the hotel bar. As a result, I am sure that I missed out on many great drinking spots in San Antonio. But that’s life – there is a price to pay for everything.
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with Terry Keller ,Vice President for Academic Affairs at Lourdes University in Sylvania, OH. Terry is the driving force behind Lourdes’ recently announced Bachelor of Science degree in Craft Beverages. I was curious to learn more about the degree, and so Terry invited me to the Lourdes campus for lunch.
The degree requires the completion of 120 credit hours. As with any degree program, there are general education and core requirements, such as courses in English Composition, Theology, and Philosophy. It is when the students get to courses in the Major that the options get interesting. Students must complete forty-eight credit hours of Major Courses. Courses that they can choose from include General Microbiology, Introduction to Brewing Science, Fermentattion, Styles & Flavors, and Advanced Brewing & Distilling.
I had lunch with Terry Keller on the beautiful campus of Lourdes University
Students in the program will also be required to complete nine credit hours of internship study. Lourdes’ internship partners range from the local to the international. Local partners are Inside The Five Brewing Company, Black Cloister Brewing Company, Twin Oast Brewing, Upside Brewing, and Heidelberg Distributors. Lourdes also has partnerships with a number of vineyards in California, as well as Galway Hooker Brewery and Nephin Distillery (both in Ireland). The latter two will provide Study Abroad opportunities for the program’s students. Two of the program’s local partners have already concocted two brews in recognition of Lourdes’ new initiative. Inside the Five Brewing Company have brewed Gubi The Gray, a Smoked Amber Wheat, which it named after the school mascot. Upside Brewing have brewed Gray Wolves Wheat, a Pale Wheat Ale.
Twin Oast Brewing in PortClinton, OH will be one of Lourdes University’s local partners
The new degree program will launch in the fall semester of 2019. For that first semester, Terry hopes to enroll between eight and ten students. Part of the program’s mission is to “provide students the knowledge and practical skills for success in the craft beverage industry.” It is clear from the courses that the student will take in order to complete the degree that it is a comprehensive and holistic program. Even if another institution in the region were to mimick Lourdes’ example, and introduce a similar program, Lourdes will have the benefit of what is known as first-mover advantage. In other words, they now have the opportunity to establish a reputation and develop a brand identity in the area of craft beverage education. It is essential, however, that they do this well, and focus on developing an excellent program that provides students with a quality product. Having spent just under an hour with Terry, I have a feeling that Lourdes are going to do just that.
Talking about potential competition, back in 2016, I attended a meeting at Terre State Community College in Fremont, OH. They were interested in developing a curriculum for a certificate program around the topic of beer, and brought together a few local experts to brainstorm. As far as I know, the initiative never got beyond that one meeting. A few years ago, I suggested to someone in the upper administration at my institution, the University of Toledo, that they explore the possibility of developing a certificate or degree program around the theme of craft beer. Unfortunately, the University of Toledo is not a particularly forward-thinking institutuion and the suggestion fell on deaf ears. So kudos to Lourdes University. I wish them every success in their new degree and hope to hear and read about its success in the coming years.
Last month, I went on a tour organized by the the Toledo History Museum. The tour was titled “History & Hops Brewery Tour”, and combined some general Toledo urban history with the history of the brewing industry in the city. The two-hour tour started at Toledo’s oldest and largest modern-day craft brewery, Maumee Bay Brewing Company (established 1995; white star on map below). Gathered outside of the brewery as we waited on the bus to start our tour, I counted about twenty fellow tour participants.
Our tour guide was Tedd Long, Vice President of the Toledo History Museum. Tedd provided commentary for the tour, which he supplemented with short video clips. Tedd started off by noting the historical importance of the brewing industry in Toledo. Indeed, from the early to mid-1800s up until the early twentieth century it was one of the leading industries in the city. If I heard Tedd correctly, there were fourteen breweries in the city of Toledo in 1900.
Map of Toledo Breweries That Existed at Some Point Between 1838 and 1972. Source: Maumee Bay Brewing Company
We made a number of stops along the tour. I won’t cover them all in this blog entry, but will rather hit on a few highlights. Our first stop was in east Toledo, at the corner of Oak and Front Streets (number 7 on map). This was the site of the Home Brewing Company, which existed between 1904 and 1919. The brewery was a five-story structure. Interestingly, the brewery was owned by a syndicate of saloon owners. The syndicate ownership structure gave the saloon owners control over the price of the beer. At its peak, the Home Brewing Company produced 40,000 barrels of beer per year.
Our second stop was at the intersection of Front and Main Streets, also in east Toledo. Toledoeans will recognize this intersection, as the iconic Tony Packo’s Restaurant is located there. This intersection was the location of the original Buckeye Brewery (number 9 on map). The brewery was established in 1838, and was owned by a German Brewmaster, Julius Kohler. In 1854, Kohler purchased a brewery at the corner of Bush and Champlain Streets (number 1 on map) and shifted his brewing operations to this location. The brewery, which was a small, white, wooden frame building, was purchased by Kohler for $2,400. Our tour also included a stop at the Bush and Champlain Streets location. Over the years the Buckeye Brewery underwent numerous ownership changes, while also gaining capacity as a result of building additions. By the 1870s, the brewery was producing between fourteen thousand and nineteen thousand barrels of lager. In 1880, it was the fourth largest brewery in the city.
Another stop was at the intersection of Summit and Elm Streets, the site of the Finlay Brewing Company (number 4 on map). The brewery opened in 1853. It started off brewing Ales and Porter, but in 1869 switched to producing Lager. In 1874, Finlay Brewing Company produced 12,000 barrels of beer. By 1881, production had increased to 54,000 barrels. Finlay Brewing Company was the first Toledo brewery to sell its beer outside of the city, when it expanded its market reach to include Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. It was also the first Toledo brewery to bottle its beer. The bottling of beer, of course, was made possible by the invention of the automated bottling machine by Michael J. Owens, who worked for the Toledo Glass Factory (owned by Edward Drummond Libby). Prior to bottles, beer was sold in kegs. Today , Toledo remains a center of beer bottle design and innovation – a topic I covered in a previous blog entry.
Maumee Bay’s Brewery Manager, Craig Kerr, leads us through the beer tasting portion of the tour
Another stop that we made on the tour was the building that currently houses the Spaghetti Warehouuse restaurant, at the intersection of Lafayette and Superior Streets. Constructed towards the end of the nineteenth century, this building was the Hoppe and Strube Bottling Company. Hoppe and Strube bottled beer for a number of breweries including the Pabst Brewing Company from Milwaukee, WI and the Maumee Brewing Company, whose brewery was located right next door.
These are just a few of the stops we made on our tour. As I reflected on my afternoon, visiting the sites of old Toledo breweries, it struck me that most American cities have a brewing history. It is a history that should be preserved and told. Thankfully, the Toledo History Museum have taken on that task in Toledo. Back in March 2017, I took a guided tour of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, OH and learned about that neighborhood’s rich brewing history. The tour was organized by the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation, a not-for-profit group, part of whose mission it is to preserve and tell the story of the neighborhood’s brewing heritage. Just the other day, I came across this piece, in the St. Louis Dispatch about the Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum Beer Baron Tour. Around forty burial sites in the cemetery have a connection with St. Louis’s brewing history. The annual Beer Barons Tour gives people an opportunity to learn about some of the city’s beer entrepreneurs. These are important histories. We should preserve them and share them.
Following the bus segment of the tour, we returned to the Maumee Bay Brewing Company for beer tasting in the brewery’s cafe. The beer tasting was led by Brewery Manager, Craig Kerr. We sampled six Maumee Bay brews – Cherry Vanilla Porter, Coffee Cream Ale, Dreamin Demon (Belgian Strong Dark Ale), Glass Hopper IPA, Oktoberfest, and Mango Jerry (Gose). The background to each beer, including information on the ingredients was provided by Craig Kerr. I have sat through a lot of craft beer samplings over the years and this was perhaps the best. Craig did a fantastic job of describing each beer, as well as providing information on the general brewing process, and the function of the different ingredients.
FurtherReading:
Musson, Robert A. 2011. Brewing Beer in the Glass City, Volume I. The Buckeye Story. Medina, OH: Zepp Publications.
Musson, Robert A. 2018. Brewing Beer in the Glass City, Volume II: Huebner, Koerber, Maumee Bay and the Rest, 2nd edition. Medina, OH: Zepp Publications.
One thing I have noticed about us humans is that we like lists. We like making lists and we like looking at lists made by other people. People make lists for all sorts of reasons – to remind them to do certain things, to prioritize tasks, to make complex tasks simpler by breaking them down into discrete (simple) steps etc. In many respects, lists simplify and provide a semblance of order to something more complex. According to Jane Porter, “Lists are soothing. They’re simple. They provide instant gratification and purpose.” Claudia Hammond, in an article on the BBC website, even made a list of reasons why people love lists. Making lists, apparently, is also a common compulsion of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
I am not a big list maker myself. I never have been. I do have a few lists that I maintain, however. For example, I have a list of all the countries I have visited. There are forty-two countries on that list, arranged alphabetically, from Australia to West Germany. For the last two years, I have also kept a list of breweries that I have visited. I visited forty-six breweries in 2017. It’s only September, and already I have visited fifty-two this year. Occasionally, I do refer to and use lists. In July, I was in Zurich, Switzerland. I was browsing the internet, preparing for the trip, when I came across a list of the best beer bars in Zurich. There were thirty-six bars on the list. I ended up visiting five of those during my day and a half in the city.
When it comes to lists, I tend to categorize them into two types – those that are based on hard data, and those that are based upon people’s opinion. The latter type can reflect the collective wisdom of a large number of people, or the opinion of a single individual. Probably, my favorite all time list is one that was published in the Sports Section of the British newspaper, The Observer, in November 2002. The list reflected the opinion of two of the newspaper’s sports writers, Matt Tench and Jamie Jackson, and is titled “The top 10 greatest rivalries in the history of sport”. It’s a fascinating list – check it out. Although I am not a big creator or user of lists, I do recognize their value.
Not surprisingly, there are lots of lists associated with the beer industry. A few weeks ago, I came across a list of the top selling beer brands in the United States in 2017 – clearly a list based on hard data.
Other beer-related lists are opinion-based. For example, the beer rating site, Beeradvocate, provides a list of the world’s top 250 rated beers. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) have their own list of the best beers in America (as well as the best breweries). The aforementioned best beer lists represent the collective wisdom of large numbers of people – in the case of Beeradvocate, the contributors to the website and in the case of the AHA, members of their organization. Of course some folks don’t need input from others to create a list. Their own opinion will suffice. In a 2014 piece in Times Union (Albany, NY), Chad Polenz, shared his list of the top ten worst beers of 2013. And, of course, there are all sorts of other beer-related lists out there, including “15 Unique US Ale Trails”, the “Top 27 Authentic Belgian Beers”, and “18 Beers for Wine Lovers”.
So, why am I writing about lists. The catalyst for this blog entry was an e-mail that I received a few weeks ago. It was from Kaja Olcott, Communications Director, for Reward Expert Inc. According to the blurb at the bottom of kaja’s e-mail, “RewardExpert helps users navigate the world of frequent flyer programs and credit card rewards. The free web service provides smart tools and features that enable users to make more rewarding decisions. Through personal finance and travel insights, users are empowered to turn their spending into earning.”
Anyway, Kaja was e-mailing me to give me the heads-up on a new report produced by Reward Expert. The report was titled, “The Top Ten Places in the U.S. for Craft Beer”. The report defined a “place” based upon 3-digit zip codes (i.e., the first three digits of five-digit zip codes). Three factors went into ranking places. The first two were the number of breweries per 100,000 population and an average score for breweries in each place based upon consumer reviews of beers. The third factor was a little less clear. In the write up, the third factor was noted as “the total number of reviews found”, while in the data table it was listed as the “number of breweries”. The three factors were combined to create a composite score for each place. Scores were generated for 589 places across the United States.
Based on Reward Expert’s calculations, the top ten places for craft beer are
Two Harbors, MN/Arrowhead Region (zip code 556)
City and County of Boulder, CO (zip code 803)
Jackson, WY (zip code 830)
Uncompahgre Region/Southwest Colorado (zip codes 814, 813, 812, and 811)
Asheville, NC (zip code 288)
The Colorado High Rockies (zip codes 804 and 805)
Juneau, AK (zip code 998)
Portland, ME (zip code 041)
Boston, MA-NH-RI Metropolitan Are (zip code 022)
Bend, OR/Central Oregon (zip code 977)
As can can be seen from the list, in some cases (e.g., The Colorado High Rockies), zip codes were combined to create a geographically larger place. It is an interesting list, not so much for the factors that went into creating the ranking, but for the way in which places were defined. Not being aware of what these zip code places looked like, I did an internet search and found the following map for my own state, Ohio.
Of course, if you look around the internet, you will find plenty of other lists of “best craft beer places”. Some of these are based on the opinion of one person (the writer) or the collective wisdom of a larger group. For example, according to a panel of beer experts and the readers of USA Today, the best beer place in the United States is St. Louis, MO. The Beer Connoisseur’s international correspondents were asked to identify their twenty-four best beer cities worldwide – Portland, OR that topped their list.
But there are a few rankings that, like Reward Expert, are based on data. Infogroup considered both craft breweries and beer retailers in their analysis and calculated the number of such establishments per 10,000 population, for every metropolitan area. The top beer place, according, to Infogroup is Bend, OR. However, if you just consider metropolitan areas over one million population, the best beer place is Portland, OR. Either way, Oregon is a great state for beer lovers. According to Infogroup, Portland also ranked number one for wine.
A number of different factors went into creating SmartAsset.com’s list of the best beer cities in America – total number of microbreweries, number of microbreweries per 100,000 residents, number of bars per 100,000 residents, average Yelp score of breweries, and average price of a pint of beer. Using these criteria, Asheville, NC ranks number one in the country.
SmartAsset’s Best Cities for Beer Drinkers
Russell Goldenberg, writing for The Pudding, uses both quality (consumer ratings) and quantity (number of breweries). On his interactive website, Goldenberg allows the reader to weight the relative importance of each of these factors. Changing the weighting changes the rankings. If you weight quality 80% and quantity 20%, Santa Rosa, CA comes out as number one. Change it to 70% quality and 30%, and San Diego, CA replaces Santa Rosa at the top of the list. At 34% quality and 66% quantity, Denver, CO jumps to the top of the pack. Goldenberg only considers cities with a population of at least 40,000 population. Goldenberg also allows you to set different minimum thresholds for the minimum number of breweries within a particular radius, and for different types of beer (light beer, 0-4% ABV; medium beer, 5-7% ABV; heavy beer, >7%ABV; and all beer). The three sets of rankings illustrated above are for cities with at least five breweries within a twenty mile radius (all beer). Overall, Goldenburg’s ranking system may seem all a bit convoluted, but it is fun to play with. Try it here.
Of course, even when data are used to identify the best beer places, diferent rankings rarely agree with one another. So on one list San Diego, CA is the best beer city, while on another it is Portland, OR. This happens because different data sets, different criteria, and different methodologies are used to create these different lists. To me, the great thing about lists, such as these, is not that they provide a definitive answer. Rather, I like lists because they can be the catalyst for debate and discussion. Whether its the best sports rivalry, the best IPA, or the best beer city, most folks have their own opinion, and their own ideas, as to who or what should occupy which any particular position on a particular list. And there is nothing better than sitting down with friends, over a pint of course, and debating the merits of a particular list.
