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.
This is my third blog entry that deals specifically with the topic of hops. You can read the other two entries here and here.
Hops are one of the four essential ingredients of beer – the other three are water, malted barley, and yeast. As such, hops serve a number of functions. First, they act as a bittering agent. Second, they contribute to a beer’s aroma. Third, they have preservative qualities. There are three basic types of hops – alpha, aroma, and dual purpose. The primary function of alpha hops is to provide a beer with its bitterness, while aroma hops, as the name suggests, contribute to the aroma of a beer. Dual purpose hops combine bittering and aroma characteristics.
I’ve been reading quite a bit about hops recently, as well as looking at some data, trying to identify how demand for hops might be changing in response to the growing popularity of craft beer. This interest stems from a project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project, which includes colleagues from Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University, and Simon Fraser University, is concerned with isolating the existence of what are termed agricultural clusters in the United States. As a piece of this much larger project, I have been looking at the impact that the growth of craft beer has had on the hops industry. In my research, I believe that I have identified three major impacts:
An overall incease in demand for hops
Demand for a greater diversity of hop varieties
The geographic expansion of hop production, out of the industry’s Pacific Northwest core.
Let me now examine each of these in turn.
Incresed Demand for Hops
Not surprisingly, the volume of hops produced and used in a given year varies. A number of factors impacts these volumes, including weather conditions and fluctuations in demand from breweries. The chart below shows the number of pounds of hops held by growers, dealers, and brewers on March 1, for each year between 1948 and 2018. What is particularly noticeable about this graph is the sharp increase in hop stocks held by these three groups, starting in 2011. This increase corresponds quite nicely with the significant increase in the number of craft breweries that started around the same time (see second chart).
So why might more craft breweries result in an increased demand for hops? Well, a major reason is that many of the styles of beer brewed by craft breweries use more hops than the beers produced by macro-brewers such as Anheuser-Busch. A typical craft beer (if there is indeed such a thing) contains up to five times more hops than a macro beer. The first chart below shows the number of pounds of hops used to produce a keg of different styles of beer. Lagers and pilsners, the most common type of beer produced by macro-brewers, use 0.19 and 0.31 pounds of hops per keg respectively. All of the other styles of beer shown (except Ambers and Hefeweizen) use more hops. For example, IPAs use a pound of hops per keg, while Imperial Stouts and Imperial IPAs use 0.87 and 3.8 pounds per keg respectively. As the second chart below shows, IPAs (which tend to use a lot of hops) represent over twenty-five percent of the American craft beer market.
Another feature of craft breweries is that they tend to use a greater variety of different types of hops than macro-breweries. As noted above, there are three basic types of hop – alpha, aromatic, and dual purpose. Macro-brewers, such as Anheuser-Busch, use primarily alpha hops when brewing beers such as Budweiser. Craft brewers, in contrast, use larger amounts of aroma and dual purpose hops. For example, an examination of types of hops harvested in the state of Washington (the country’s leading hop producer) in 2007, shows that 73.2% of the harvested acreage were alpha hops. By 2017, alpha hops accounted for only 26% of the harvested acreage in the state. In contrast, aroma and dual purpose hops accounted for 40% and 25.9% of Washington hops in 2017, respectively (the numbers do not add up to 100% here because data disclosure rules meant that there were some hops that could not be placed in one of the three categories). This represents a fundamental shift in hop production, which reflects a fundamental shift in demand.
Another way that I analyzed the hop data was to examine what I term the Four Hop Concentration Ratio. This is a simple number that indicates the percentage of hop production accounted for by the top four hop varieties. Again, I looked at data from the state of Washington. In 2007, the top four varieties accounted 71.1% of hops harvested in Washington. In 2017, the top four varieties accounted for only 39.1%. These numbers suggest that Washington farmers were growing a greater variety of different types of hop in 2017, than in 2007. When I examined the top four hop varieties in each of the two years, I noticed another important shift. In 2007, the top four hops harvested in Washington were Zeus, Columbus/Tomahwak, Willamette, and Galena. Three of these four (Zeus, Columbus/Tomahawk, and Galena) are alpha hops. Only Willamette are aroma hops. In 2017, the top four hops harvested in Washington were Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, and Citra. None of these are alpha hops. Cascade and Citra are aroma hops, while Centennial and Simcoe are dual purpose.
The demand for diversity in hops reflects the diversity of beer styles and flavors/aromas that craft brewers produce. Different styles of beer require different combinations of different hop varieties. Even within the same style (e.g. IPA) individual brewers will combine different hop varieties as they seek to attain a particular flavor profile. Particular hop varieties are suited for Brewing specific styles of beer. For example, Azacca hops, which are alpha hops and impart notes of citrus, mango, and pineapple are ideal for pale ales and IPAs. Willamette, in contrast, are aroma hops that have floral, fruity, and herbal notes and are most commonly used in pale ales, bitters, and stouts. And of course, in the hands of a creative and innovative brewer, who knows what hop varieties will be combined with what other hop varieties, to generate exciting tastes and aromas. Craft breweries tend to be quite open in revealing the hop varieties that they use in a particular beer. In fact, displaying the hop varieties used in a particular brew, on the can or bottle, is not uncommon. My oldest daughter bought me a variety pack of beer for my birthday last month. Two of the beers were from Platform Beer Company in Columbus, OH. One, Chasing the Horizon, was a Black New England IPA, while the other, Seeing Sounds, was a small batch IPA. On the cans were the hops used in the brewing of each beer. In the case of Chasing the Horizon, four hop varieties were used – Callista (aroma), Simcoe (dual purpose), Eukanot (aroma), and Mosain (aroma) were used. For Seeing the Sounds, the hops were Galena (alpha), El Dorado (dual purpose), Citra (aroma), and Centennial (dual purpose).
Platform Beer Company cans displays the hops used in each beer
Geographic Expansion of Hop Production
A final trend that I have noted in my research on hops is the geographic expansion of hop production. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho represent the heartland of American hop production. In 2017, these three states accounted for 95.5% of the acres of hops harvested in the United States. As few years earlier, in 2014, the three Pacific Northwest states had accounted for 97.7% of the acres of hops harvested. Gradually, in recent years, farmers in states outside of the Pacific Northwest have started to grow hops. Hops are now grown in twenty-nine states across the country. After, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, the top three states for hop production are Michigan, New York , and Colorado. The map below shows hop growing States in 2017. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are in red, and the orange states are the other states growing hops. The expansion of hop production outside of its core states is driven by demand from some craft brewers for locally-grown hops. At the same time, farmers see an opportunity to expand and diversify their portfolio of crops.
States Growing Hops in 2017
So, it appears that the increasing popularity of craft beer is changing the hop industry. Not only is there a demand for more hops, but there is a demand for a greater diversity of hop varieties. In particular, there is an increased demand for aroma and dual purpose hops, which, together, are now more popular than alpha hops. Finally, production of hops is increasing outside of the Pacific Northwest, as more brewers demand locally-grown hops.
Earlier this week, I spent a couple of days in L’Aquila, Italy. I was there as a guest of the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), who had invited me to give a couple of talks. This was my second visit to L’Aquila. I had been there in September 2017, also as a guest of GSSI. To get to L’Aquila, you fly into Rome, and then travel by bus for two hours. L’Aquila has a population of approximately seventy thousand people. It is an interesting town for a number of reasons, one of which is the fact that it is earthquake prone. The most recent earthquake, on April 6, 2009, registered a 6.3 on the Richter scale and killed 308 people. Its impact is still visible throughout this picturesque Italian town. Since my last visit in September, however, I noticed visible signs of progress – buildings that had been empty were now inhabited and in use, while others were closer to being so.
The damage caused by the 2009 earthquake is still visible in L’Aquila
The purpose of my visit this time was to give two lectures – one to this year’s cohort of GSSI doctoral students in Regional Science and Urban Studies, and one to members of the general public as part of the Pint of Science Festival that was taking place in town.
My presentation to the GSSI students focused on the theme of consolidation and fragmentation in the global brewing industry. Both processes are impacting the industry simultaneously. For example, the October 2016, $106 billion acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev resulted in an industry that is considerably more consolidated at the global scale. At the same time, at the local scale, the industry becomes more fragmented every time a new craft brewery opens it doors.
My presentation at GSSI was in the afternoon. In the evening, I was back at the podium again. This time the audience took on a very different composition – it was the good citizens of L’Aquila. The town had been chosen as one of the venues for the three-day Pint of Science Festival; a festival at which that scientists present their research to members of the general public in the informal setting of a bar/pub.
Pint of Science was started in 2012 by Dr. Praveen Paul and Dr. Michael Motskin, two research scientists at Imperial College in London, UK. At the time, Paul and Motskin were post doctoral researchers working on motor neuron and Parkinson’s disease respectively. While working in London, Paul and Motskin organized a “Meet the Researchers” event, in which they invited individuals impacted by the disease (both those with the disease and their families) to their laboratories to see, first hand, the research in which they were engaged. It was a huge success, and very quickly the idea of taking scientific research to the people emerged – hence, a Pint of Science was born.
“The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – mainly across bars and pubs. We want to provide a platform which allows people to discuss research with the people who carry it out and no prior knowledge of the subject is required.”
In 2018, Pint of Science Festivals were held in over 260 cities, across twenty-one countries. In Italy, twenty cities hosted Pint of Science events. All Pint of Science events across the world were held on the same three days – May 14-16. Three venues hosted the events in L’Aquila. Over the three days, in L’Aquila, a total of sixteen lectures were presented. The topics were wide ranging, and included Chasing Gravitational Waves, Who’s Afraid of Social Media, and Living Together: From Municipalities to Cohousing and Beyond. My own lecture was titled Making Your Beer Great Again.
The Pint of Science Festival in L’Aquila covered a wide range of topics
”a Venetian tavern with a wide selection of wines by the glass and small snacks, a few seats and . . . a place where dishes from the local and Italian culinary tradition are also served . . . a place to make culture, where young singers and musicians, who want to express themselves and grow through music, alternate with great artists.”
My lecture started at 9:30pm. The venue was cozy, and comfortably full with somewhere between thirty-five and forty people. Recognizing that the audience’s knowledge of English was probably highly variable, my colleague Giulia Pezzi had translated my entire Power Point presentation into Italian. I covered five themes in my lecture:
The rise of large breweries and the homogenization of beer
The emergence of home brewing and the rise of craft breweries
The craft beer drinker and what attracts him/her to craft beer
The craft brewery as a unique drinking space
The geography of craft breweries
While most of my material came from the United States, I did incorporate some examples from Europe. The talk seemed to go well, and the audience appeared engaged. After I had finished, audience members were invited to ask questions. There were six or seven questions, and I was really impressed with their overall thoughtfulness and insightfulness.
My participation in L’Aquila’s Pint of Science Festival did garner some attention in the Italian press, including a mention in La Repubblica, one of the country’s most influential daily newspapers. The local L’Aquila website, NewsTown, also covered my visit. I was also interviewed by Fabio Iuliano, who runs the website virtuquotidiane.it. Fabio’s interview touched on a number of interesting issues, including the reasons behind the success of craft brewing in the United States, and status of craft beer in Italy. He also noted that Bob Dylan was a recent co-investor in a craft whiskey distiller, Heaven’s Door. Fabio was interested in the similarities behind craft distilling and craft brewing industries. Fabio’s final question had to do with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. He wanted to know if the title of my lecture, “Making Your Beer Great Again” had been inspired by President Trump”s slogan “Make America Great Again”. I explained that while my presentation’s title was a clear nod to the President’s slogan, it was not intended as a political statement; I was simply having a little fun with my title. As I reflected on my interview with Fabio, I must admit that I had not anticipated being asked about Bob Dylan and President Trump in an interview about craft beer.
So that was my trip to L’Aquila. I had a wonderful visit and was, yet again, overwhelmed by the generosity of my Italian hosts. Fortunately, it will not be long before I am back in L’Aquila. I will be there in early July to participate in a workshop on “The Geography of Craft Beer Brewing and Consumption: Local Entrepreneurialism and Tourism Development”, an event that I am co-organizing with my Italian colleagues, Alessandra Faggian and Giulia Pezzi.
Until then, Saluti!
My colleague, Giulia Pezzi, introducing my lecture at A Pint of ScienceThere was a nice sized crowd at my Pint of Science lecture
It has been pretty well established that it is the Millenial cohort who are driving consumer demand for craft beer. According to Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center, Millennials are those individuals born 1981 and 1996; making them between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-seven. We know quite a lot about Millennials. Thanks to market research firms, public opinion researchers, and fact tanks such as Nielsen, Gallup, and the Pew Research Center, we have a lot of data and information about Millennials as citizens, voters, and consumers. Research on Millennials often compares them to preceding generations – Generation X (born 1965-80), Baby Boomers (1946-64), and the Silent Generation (1928-1945). And what we have learnt is that each generation has unique values and perspectives.
Different generations defined. Source: Dimock 2018
One study that I read recently, was published by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It was titled, How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. The study report included a number of interesting graphics, including the one below (Exhibit 1). The graphic shows the relative importance that Millennials and non-Millennials attach to a number of different factors. These include patriotism, professional success, spirituality, and working out.
Source: Barton et al. 2014.
As I perused the findings of BCG’s research, I tried to identify connections between craft beer and Millennial values. Here is what I think I identified.
Status
BCG identify status as a value that is important to Millennials. A number of scholars have suggested that craft beer is a high status product. These include my good friend Tom Bell and his colleague James Baginski who, in a 2011 paper published in the Southeastern Geographer, refer to craft beer as a “high order prestige good”. Similarly, in a book chapter published in the same year, Victor and Carol Tremblay talk about the “prestige factor” of drinking craft beer. In a 2012 paper published in British Food Journal, Douglas Murray and Martin A. O’Neill, published in the British Food Journal, suggest that the craft beer drinker is “sophisticated” and “discerning”. The same observations have been made with regard to real ale drinkers in England, where Karl Spracklen, Jon Laurencic and Alex Kenyon, in a 2013 paper in Tourist Studies, note that drinking “real ale is seen as a marker of good taste and distinction”.
Millennials enjoying a beer at Basecamp Brewing Company in Portland, OR
Luxury
According to BCG, luxury is another characteristic valued by Millennials. Craft beer, I would argue, is a luxury product. More specifically, it is an affordable luxury. To the French-American author, Mireille Giuliano, luxury means ”premium quality and that doesn’t always equate to known brands or mascs marketing”. Speaking specifically about the Millenial cohort, Max Montgomery defines affordable luxury as “achieving quality, tailored to our taste, at a price we can afford.” Craft beer, it would seem, qualifies as an affordable luxury. Compared to mass produced beer, craft beer is relatively expensive. Of course, the price you pay for beer depends upon where you live. In 2017, the cost of a case of Bud Light or Miller Lite varied from $14.62 in Michigan to $21.98 in Pennsylvania. In comparison, the average cost of a case of craft beer, nationwide, in 2017 was $32 – that’s $1.33 a bottle – definitely what I’d call an affordable luxury.
Craft beer is an affordable luxury (Backcountry Brewing, Squamish, BC, Canada)
Excitement/Adventure/Travel/Fun
MiIlennials like excitement, adventure, travel, and fun. All four can be experienced in the consumption of craft beer. In 2013, A. J. Carpenter and his fellow students completed a term paper for their Marketing 6069 class (Buyer/Consumer Behavior) at University of Colorado, Denver. In it, they identified four types of craft beer drinker – novice, loyalist, enthusiast, and explorer. According to Carpenter et al’s study, Most craft beer drinkers are either enthusiasts or explorers. While there are some key differences between enthusiasts and explorers, one trait they have in common is their desire to try lots of different craft beers and to visit lots of different craft breweries. In other words, drinking craft beer is an exciting adventure; an adventure that takes the craft beer from tap room to tap room to taste the beer at its point of production. This idea that craft beer drinkers are excitement seeking adventurers is supported by the growing popularity of craft beer tourism. Annually, more than ten million Americans go on a brewery tour. Ale trails are increasingly common and help beer tourists strategically navigate a city or region’s craft breweries. The term ‘beercation’ has entered the lexicon of the craft beer drinker. Craft beer festivals (literally dozens of them occur every year across the United States) attract the craft beer aficionado and allows her to sample a wide variety of beers within the time frame of an afternoon, evening, or weekend. At the same time, the highly popular app Untappd enables the craft beer drinker to log the beers he consumes, while enjoying the fun of earning badges along the way.
Millennial beer tourists at Heist Brewery in Charlotte, NC
Charity
Brew Good Do Good is the motto of Black Cloister Brewing Company in Toledo, OH
With one of two exceptions, craft breweries are owned by people living in the community in which they are located. As a result, craft brewery owners tend to very committed to the well-being of their communities. To this end, they tend to be very supportive of local charities. The media is replete with specific examples of craft breweries giving to and/or supporting good causes. Brian Yaeger refers to craft brewers as “liquid philanthropists”. And craft breweries tend to be more generous in their charitable giving than the macro-Brewers. In 2014, craft breweries gave $3.25 for every barrel of beer brewed. In contrast, AB InBev, through its charitable organization, gave only $0.35 per barrel. As the motto of one of my local craft breweries in Toledo, OH (Black Cloister Brewing Company) proudly states – “Brew Good, Do Good”.
Change and Optimism
Change and optimism are Millennial values. Both are abundant in the craft brewing movement. Craft breweries are agents and representatives of change. From a handful of craft breweries in the mid-1980s, the number of craft breweries in the United States now exceeds six thousand. Craft breweries account for 12.7% of the American beer market by volume and 23.3% by dollar sales. These numbers represent change; dramatic change. But the change is not just found in the numbers. The change can be experienced with our eyes, our ears, our noses, and our taste buds. I experience it ever time I walk into the taproom of a craft brewery and see it filled with young people; men and women, enjoying a beer that has been carefully and lovingly crafted by the brewmaster. I hear it every time I listen to two or more people discussing the finer points of an IPA or debating which craft brewery is producing the most innovative brews. I smell and taste it when I lift that an IPA to my lips and I smell and then taste the aroma and bitterness of the hops. More than anything, I would submit that craft beer’s success happened because its early pioneers had optimism – an optimism that hinged on the belief that there were enough Americans out there who wanted better beer. It is an optimism that resurfaces every time a new craft brewery opens it doors.
Enjoying the taste of optimism at Mad Anthony Brewing Company in Fort Wayne, IN
There are a couple of values that appear in the upper left hand (non-Millennial) quadrant of Exhibit 1 that surprised me. Surprised me in the sense that I would have perhaps expect them to be values that resonated with a Millennials. Two in particular are authenticity and craftsmanship. Authenticity is a particularly slippery concept. And I really don’t want to get into any of the authenticity debates here. Suffice to say, that at the 2017 Craft Brewers Conference, Brewers Association Bob Pease identified the four pillars of the craft brewing movement – independence, spirit, community-mindedness, and yes, you’ve guessed it, authenticity. As for craftsmanship, one might have also expected that to be more important to Millennials, than indicated by the BCG study.
I just returned from five days in Portugal. While there I gave two talks about beer. The first titled ‘Drinking Beer in the Digital Age” was presented to a meeting of The Regional Science Academy, while the second titled ‘Changes in the Global Brewing Industry’ was Continue reading It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Super Bock→
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I was in Italy a few weeks ago. As with many of my trips these days, I went there to talk about beer. My first talk was to doctoral students in the Urban Studies and Regional Science program at the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila. The seminar I taught provided a broad overview of the growth of craft beer in the United States, Continue reading Craft Beer in Italy→
