With the growing popularity of craft beer we have witnessed a concomitant increase in beer-related tourism. This is a topic I have written about in a previous blog entry. Most beer tourism involves short two or three day getaways, usually to a town or city where there are enough breweries to keep the beer drinker happy for a couple of afternoons and/or evenings. Beer tourism can be big business and can bring significant sums of money into a local economy. For example, a study by Grand Valley State University estimated the economic impact of beer tourism on Kent County, MI to be in excess of $12 million. Much of this impact was due to the fact that Kent County is home to the city of Grand Rapids, one of the premier craft beer producing cities in the United States. The study found that the 42,000 beer tourists who visited Kent County during the spring and summer of 2015 accounted for fourteen thousand hotel nights at an average cost of $148 per night.
While most beer tourists stay at a hotel in close proximity to the breweries they plan to visit, in a few cases it is possible to stay in a hotel or other lodgings owned by the brewery. Perhaps, the best known example of a brewery hotel is the DogHouse Hotel. Touted as the “world’s first craft beer hotel”, the DogHouse is located on the grounds of the BrewDog Brewery just outside of Columbus, OH. The hotel has thirty-two themed rooms, with draft beer on tap in each. Given that the DogHouse Hotel is only a couple of hours from where I live, you might think that I have stayed there already, but I have not. It is on my ‘to do’ list, however. Another well known brewery that owns a hotel is Dogfish Head. Their sixteen-room hotel (the Dogfish Inn) in Lewis, DE is a short twenty-minute drive from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Unlike the DogHouse Hotel, the Dogfish Inn does not offer beer on-site – the idea is to get visitors to visit bars and restaurants in the surrounding community.
While I still have to make it to the DogHouse Hotel, I did recently have the opportunity to stay onsite at another brewery – The Inn at Springfield Manor in Thurmont, MD. My wife and I were visiting Maryland and Virginia to celebrate a family birthday and my wife’s step-father, knowing of my love of beer, booked us a room at the aforementioned inn. The Inn is situated on a beautiful 130 acre estate. But there is more to the estate than the Inn. On site, they brew beer, distill spirits, and ferment wine – something for everyone, as it were. The Inn has eight rooms. We stayed in The Edelweiss Suite, named after one of the types of lavender grown in the Inn’s lavender fields.
The Inn at Springfield Manor, where we stayed two nights.The view from the front steps of the Inn at Springfield Manor.
Our complimentary flights of four sangria and four beers.
My flight of four beers.
We arrived at the Inn late afternoon. After checking into our accommodation we headed to the outside bar area. As part of our room package, we received a complimentary flight of drinks. My wife opted for a flight of four sangrias, while I went for a flight of four beers. While the bar offers small plates to munch on, more substantive fare can be purchased from the food truck that is on duty. That evening’s food truck specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches, so I had a very tasty grilled cheese and pulled pork sandwich for dinner. As the evening wore on, the outside bar got increasingly busy. Given the limited number of rooms available at the Inn, most of the folks enjoying the craft beer/spirits/wine were either locals or tourists staying in other accommodation.
We had a wonderful two-night stay at the Inn at Springfield Manor. The setting was idyllic, the service was friendly and attentive, and the craft beer was tasty. Following our stay at the Inn, we got into our car and headed to our final destination. Chincoteague Island, VA, where we were meeting up with family from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. On our way there, we stopped for lunch at RAR Brewery in Cambridge, MD. Later in the day, after checking into our hotel in Chincoteague, we headed to Black Narrows Brewing Company for a late afternoon beer. Overall a great trip – quality time with family and a few breweries thrown in for good measure.
We had lunch at RAR Brewing in Cambridge, MD Enjoying a late afternoon beer at Black Narrows Brewing Comp[any in Chincoteague Island, VA.
I have lived in Toledo, OH for twenty-eight years. One of the things that I like about living in this part of the country is the seasonality of the weather. We have hot summers (average high July temperatures of 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and cold winters (average high January temperatures of 18.4 degrees Fahrenheit). In between we have beautiful spring and fall weather. Before moving to Toledo, I lived in the Phoenix, AZ for four years, where the average high July temperatures are 106.4 degrees Fahrenheit. I still recall June 26, 1990 when the temperature hit 122 degrees Fahrenheit – a record for Phoenix that stands to this day. Before emigrating to the United States in 1985, I lived in Scotland. When people ask me about the weather in Scotland, I jokingly say that if you watch the nightly news, there are one of two weather forecasts – wet with dry periods, or dry with wet periods. Glasgow, where I spent four years as an undergraduate student, gets on average 13 more inches of rain per year than Portland, OR.
The Book of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) states that, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens“. And so it is with beer. Just like the weather in Toledo, OH, beer is also a highly seasonal beverage. While all breweries have their year-round flagship brews, almost every craft brewery that I know have seasonal releases – Märzens in the spring, pumpkin ales in the fall, Christmas ales in the winter, etc. Some seasonal beers I really enjoy ( Märzens), while others (pumpkin ales) I can take or leave.
Over the years, I have come to realize that there is a seasonality to my own beer drinking habits. For example, I consume considerably more beer in the summer months than other seasons. This is directly related to the weather. During the winter months, when I spend more time indoors at home I simply do not drink as much beer. For example, I rarely drink beer at home when it is just my wife and I watching a movie on TV. If we have guests, that is a different matter, especially if at least one of those guests is a beer drinker. During the winter months I also go out less to bars and restaurants.
Summer is a different matter. At home, during the summer months, I spend more time outside, mowing the lawn or doing other yard work. Yard work of any type usually ends with a beer to two. Summer is also grilling season, and I never grill without a beer in my hand. One of my favorite summer beer rituals occurs right after I arrive home from work. I usually get home before my wife. So I take advantage of this time, grab a beer from the refrigerator, and sit on the front stoop and consume it. As I sit there, I observe the comings and goings of the neighborhood. I see others arriving home from their workday. I say “Hi” to folks walking their dogs, and even to those not walking a dog. More often than not, Barbara my neighbor is in her front yard pottering away. Barbara is an elderly retired African-American lady, She was there when we moved into our house in 1994. So as I sit and drink my beer, Barbara and I will exchange pleasantries and chat for a few minutes (usually about our yards). Sitting there with a beer in my hand also provides an opportunity to reflect on the workday just completed and to plan for the one ahead. Another habit that I gotten into is to take a photograph of the beer that I am drinking and post it on social media (Facebook and Twitter mainly). I have posted some of these pics below).
In terms of the styles of beer that I drink, I tend to have quite eclectic tastes. Unlike one of my friends who seems to have an IPA in his hand every time I see him (you know who you are Joe), my taste in beer is pretty wide ranging. Even within the space of one evening I can shift from a Lager to a Sour to an IPA. I do however, drink more Stouts and Porters during the colder months, with more Lagers, Sours, and Fruit beers in the summertime.
But sitting on the front stoop of my house with a beer is by far my favorite beer drinking ritual. There is quite a lot of evidence that having daily rituals are beneficial in all sorts of ways – from promoting creativity to giving us a greater sense of self awareness. According to one observer, “rituals, in essence, provide the structure and substance to our every day lives, and without their comforting presence, our lives are thrown into disorganization, uncertainty and chaos.” Who wants disorganization, uncertainty, and chaos in their lives? – certainly not me. Rituals can of course take many forms – exercising first thing in the morning, having coffee with friends at a local coffee shop, taking an afternoon nap etc. Apparently the Swedish movie director, Ingmar Bergman and the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, took walks everyday to recharge their batteries. As far as beer is concerned, some people have attributed their longevity to having a daily beer. When Mildred Bowers, from Mount Pleasant, SC, turned 103 in 2016, she revealed that a glass of beer at 4pm every day was one of the keys to her longevity. I am not sure if my summer beer drinking ritual is going to add one day to my life, but it sure improves the quality of my life on those days when I do have one.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were planning an overnight trip to just north of Cincinnati, OH. We were going there to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The drive would be approximately three hours. And given that we’re planning to leave mid-morning we decided to look for a possible lunch venue along our route. Anytime we are on the road and have a lunch stop, I always try to see if there is a brewery where we can eat and have a beer. We figured we would be near Dayton, OH around lunchtime, and so I looked for breweries there. In my search I came across Carillon Brewing Co. I had read about Carillon a few years ago and had always had an interest in visiting it.
Carillon Brewing Co. is a little different than most craft breweries. It is located inside Carillon Historical Park. The park is a sixty-five acre open-air history museum that depicts the history of Dayton from the late-1700s to the present.
Carillon Brewing Co.
Carillon Brewing Co. was established in 2014. One of the brewery’s claim to fame is that it is the nation’s only production brewery that is located inside a museum. Inside the brewery itself, there are displays highlighting Dayton’s brewing history. Like many other city’s across the United States, British-inspired ales were the dominant type of beer produced. When German immigrants started arriving in significant numbers in the 1840s, they introduced Lager to the city. By the 1880s there were as many as fourteen breweries operating in the city, and by 1900 Dayton’s breweries were producing three million gallons of beer annually.
This map inside Carillon Brewery provides information on Dayton’s brewing history in the 1850-1856 period
According to the brewery’s website, all of the beer brewed at Carillon is a “historical recreation of the earliest brews made in Ohio’s breweries.” Many of the processes used to brew the beer replicate those of the nineteenth century. Beer is brewed in open kettles, fermented in oak barrels, and is unfiltered. And when available , Ohio-grown hops are used. Beers on the menu include Coriander Ale, Irish Red Ale, and Pale Rye Ale (no IPAs!). The staff at the brewery are dressed in period costume. With my lunch, I opted for their Ginger Pale Ale. In addition to brewing beer, bread using spent grain from the brewing process is made daily onsite. My wife and I enjoyed some with the soup we had for lunch, and purchased a loaf to take back home with us.
For $150, Carillon offers you the opportunity to be a brewer for the day. It is quite a long day, which starts at 11:00 am and runs until 7:30 pm. While we can read about the process of brewing beer, and even look at diagrams that identify the various steps, it is my belief that there is nothing like a little bit of hands-on experience to enhance one’s understanding.
Carillon offers you the opportunity to be a brewer for the day
While craft beer has bought us a unprecedented diversity of wonderful beers (The Brewers Association recognizes over 150 different styles of beer), it has, I believe, also contributed to a growing appreciation of brewing history. This is manifest in any number of ways. In my town of Toledo, OH, for example, the Toledo Historical Museum organize a History and Hops Brewery Tour, in which participants learn about the city’s brewing history. The tour starts at one of the city’s craft breweries – Maumee Bay Brewing Company. In a similar fashion, the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (BDCURC) in CincinnatI, OH offer a number of walking tours that recount that neighborhood’s historical connection with beer. In St. Louis, MO, the Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum offer the Beer Barons Tour. The cemetery contains around forty burial sites that have a connection with St. Louis’s rich brewing history. The tour provides people with an opportunity to learn about the city’s beer entrepreneurs.
Individual breweries are discovering and recreating old beer styles that have not been brewed in decades. For example, breweries in Louisville, KY are brewing their version of pre-Prohibition Kentucky Common beer. The city’s Apocalypse Brew Works produce a Kentucky Common beer using a 1912 recipe from the Oertel Brewing Company; a recipe that calls for corn grits.
Kentucky Common – a beer style that was popular in the Louiseville, KY region in the pre-Prohibition era is now being produced by a number of Louisville breweries. The one pictured here was brewed by Louisville’s Bluegrass Brewing Company.
History is important. It grounds us in our roots, helps us understand change, and can inspire us to learn more. And thanks, in part to craft beer, there seems to be a growing interest in the history of both beer and brewing. This is a good thing.
Last month I was in Altoona, PA. I was there at the invitation of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation (ABCDC), who had asked me to give the keynote address at their Annual Meeting. ABCDC’s President and CEO, Steve McKnight, had read my blog entry, Craft Breweries as Third Places, and wanted me to share my perspective on the topic to the broader Altoona-Blair County community. I drove to Altoona from my home in Toledo, covering the 328 miles in a little over five hours. Shortly after checking into my hotel I met up with Steve who gave me a tour of downtown Altoona, with a focus on the redevelopment initiatives that are under way there.
Promotional material for ABCDC’s Annual Meeting
Altoona has a population of just over forty-four thousand people. Like many cities in that part of the country it has lost population over the years. It’s population, in fact peaked in 1930, at just over eighty-two thousand. It is what is known as a shrinking city. Like many shrinking cities, Altoona is grappling with the challenge of how to stem, perhaps even reverse, decades of population decline. Third Places may be one piece of Altoona’s revitalization jigsaw.
Altoona’s population has been declining since 1930
Altoona owes its existence to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The community that would eventually become Altoona started out, in 1849, as a staging area for the construction of the rail line. Such was the importance of the railroad that in 1925, fourteen thousand of the area’s seventeen thousand industrial workers were employed by The Pennsylvania Railroad.
Like many American cities, Altoona has a proud brewing history. Also, like many American cities that history follows a familiar pattern. At various periods prior to Prohibition. Altoona was home to nine breweries. Two of those – the Oswald Brewing Company and the Altoona Brewing Company – survived Prohibition. But as with many smaller breweries they did not survive the post-Prohibition era, when economies of scale became the keys to success and smaller breweries were either bought by larger competitors or simply closed down. The Oswald Brewing Company closed in 1935 and the Altoona Brewing Company closed in 1974. Some of the beer produced by the Altoona Brewing Company included Altoona Bock, Horseshoe Curve Porter, Altoona Pilsener Beer, Altoona 36 Beer, American Maid Ale, and Pops Brau Beer.
Today, Altoona is home to two breweries – Railroad City Brewing Company and Marzoni’s Brick Oven and Brewery. The Railroad City Brewing Company, of course, is a nod to the important part played by the railroad in Altoona’s social and economic history. I love it when a brewery pays homage to some aspect of its local community, be it a historical figure, local landmark, or industrial heritage.
Railroad City Brewing Company is contributing to the revitalization of downtown Altoona, PA
After a walk around downtown Steve and I dropped into Railroad Brewing Company, where we met up with some of ABCDC’s staff, as well as brewery owner Matt Winrick. The brewery opened in 2016 and is a key part of the revitalization that is happening on Altoona’s 11th Street. Along with the recently opened coffee shop across the street, The Clay Cup, Railroad Brewing Company has become a vibrant local gathering spot (aka Third Place) in the heart of the city.
Community gathering spots, otherwise known as Third Places, were the focus of my presentation the next morning at the annual meeting of ABCDC. I have written about Third Places in a previous blog entry. It is a simple concept really. According to Ray Oldenburg, who coined the term, a Third Place is nothing more than an informal public gathering place. They are places outside of the home (first places) and work (second places) where we gather with friends, work colleagues, family members etc. According to Stuart Butler and Carmen Diaz, they are places where we “exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships“. Michael Hickey refers to Third Places as “the Living Room of society“. Despite the simplicity of the concept Third Places play a key role in creating social capital and a sense of community. A wide variety of venues in a community can function as Third Places, including libraries, coffee shops, and churches. Indeed, the subtitle of Oldenburg’s classic work on the topic, The Great Good Place, “cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other great hangouts at the heart of a community”, hint at the diversity of venues that can serve as Third Places. And, while not on the radar when Oldenburg was formulating his ideas, craft breweries are emerging as vital Third Places in communities all across America. Oldenburg was fearful that Third Places were becoming less popular, and that America was experiencing a decline in what is termed its associational life. The same fear was echoed by Harvard’s Robert Putnam in his classic work Bowling Alone.
Ray Oldenburg’s, “The Great Good Place”Railroad City Brewing is emerging as a gathering spot for locals in downtown Altoona.
ABCDC’s Annual Meeting was held at the Blair County Convention Center. There were approximately 250 people in attendance. A copy of my presentation is available here. During my talk I presented some statistics from the Social Capital Project that highlighted the decline of associational life in America:
Between 1974 and 2016, the percent of adults who said they spend a social evening at least several times a week fell from 30% to 19%,
Between the mid-1970s and 2012, the average amount of time Americans (25-54) spend with coworkers outside the workplace fell from 2.5 hours to just under one hour per week
Between 1972 and 2016, the share of adults who thought most people could be trusted declined from 46% to 31%
Third Places, including craft breweries, can play a critical role in reigniting our bonds with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even family members. Towards the end of my presentation I presented some challenges to those in the room. With respect to Altoona, I asked:
• Where are your existing Third Places? • Are you utilizing these to their full potential? • If not, why not? How can they be better utilized? • Where are your potential (as yet unused) Third Places? • Why aren’t these being utilized? • What needs to happen for the community to utilize them?
While Third Places can emerge organically (e.g. a neighborhood bar), I believe that it behooves a community to think strategically about the concept – hence the questions I posed above. Although I was in Altoona for less than twenty-four hours, I got the sense that the city is thinking strategically about Third Places and the role that they might play in the city’s revitalization. When I visit a city like Altoona, I often wonder what it will be like two, three, or five years down the road. Altoona is close enough to Toledo that I may just make a return visit to take a look.
“Beer for the modern adult” – that’s how Bill Shufelt, owner of Athletic Brewing Co. in Statford, CT, describes his brewery’s beer. All of the beer brewed at Athletic is non-alcoholic. While non-alcoholic beer may seem like an oxymoron it, along with its cousin, low-alcohol beer, is trending in the marketplace. And not just in the U.S market, but in overseas markets as diverse and as different as Belgium and China. Before exploring the numbers and reasons behind the growth of low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer let’s start with some definitions.
In the United States, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau defines beer as “beer, ale, porter, stout and other similar fermented beverages (including sake and similar products) containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from substitutes for malt.” It is, in my opinion, a quirky definition, but let’s not get into that here. They key point, for present purposes, is that for beer to qualify as beer it has to have an ABV of at least 0.5%. So everything below 0.5% ABV is either non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beer. Technically, non-alcoholic beer has an ABV of 0.0%, although the Oxford Companion to Beer notes that, “technically speaking, there is no such thing as non-alcoholic beer because beer contains alcohol by definition”. For the sake of simplicity, and for the purposes of this blog entry, I will use the term low-alcohol beer to refer to all beer under 0.5% ABV, and 0.0% ABV to refer to non-alcoholic beer. One of the challenges I found in researching this piece is that lines between the two are often blurred – so for example the term non-alcoholic beer is sometimes used in such a way that it also includes non-alcoholic beer.
Low-alcohol/non-alcoholic beer is not a new concept, of course. During Prohibition, it was in fact legal to brew beer that contained less than 0.5% alcohol – so-called ‘near beer’. In more contemporary times low alcohol beer has been produced in both the United States and Europe. Those of us who live in the United States are familiar with O’Douls, a low alcohol beer (<0.5% ABV), introduced by Anheuser Busch in 1990. My European friends are probably more familiar with low-alcohol brands such as Kaliber which is brewed by Guinness and St. Pauli N.A., brewed by Beck’s (which is now owned by AB InBev).
O’Doul’s – A low alcohol beer introduced by Anheuser Busch in 1990
When I was drinking mass-produced beer in the 1990s, low alcohol beer had a bad reputation. It wasn’t so much that it didn’t give you a buzz (it wasn’t meant to after all), but rather that it just didn’t taste all that good. Toady the low alcohol beer market seems to be booming, and those who prefer low-alcohol beers no longer are restricted to an awful tasting product.
Just how popular is low-alcohol beer. Globally, the market for low alcohol beer was $13 billion in 2016; by 2024 it is projected to be $25 billion. And it’s growing popularity seems ubiquitous. In Belgium, in 2018, non- alcoholic lagers and wheat beers experienced a thirty percent market growth. Non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer is also gaining in popularity in China. In 2016, twenty-nine percent of new beers launched were in one of these two categories. Approximately eight percent of the beer produced by AB InBev is low or non-alcoholic. They project that by 2025, that will increase to twenty percent.
The increasing popularity of low and non-alcoholic beer appears driven by the consumers prioritizing healthier lifestyles. Why don’t they drink a healthier non-alcoholic alternative, I hear you ask. It is true that some juices may provide healthy alternatives to beer. They do not, however, deliver the lifestyle image provided by beer. Beer projects a particular lifestyle image; consuming low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beer protects that image, while not compromising an individual’s health.
The recent upsurge in interest in low and non-alcoholic beer has prompted some of the world’s major breweries to launch new products to add to their existing beer portfolios. In January 2019, the world’s second largest brewer, Heineken, will launched a new non-alcoholic beer in the United States – Heineken 0.0 (pronounced zero zero). The new beer, first introduced into Spain in January 2017, is now available in over thirty countries. Heineken 0.0 has only sixty-five calories. It also goes a step further than its low-alcohol cousins, in that it contains zero alcohol. In other words, the ABV is 0.0%. In marketing the new beer, Heineken suggest that people drink it at times when perhaps they would normally not drink beer – such as during an office lunch or after a workout. Other potential markets for non-alcoholic beer include drivers of motor vehicles, pregnant women, people taking medication, athletes, and those who abstain from alcohol for religious and other cultural reasons. Studies in Europe also show that avoiding a hangover and keeping in control are factors driving demand for non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer.
Heineken Zero Zero was recently introduced into a number of markets, including the United States
The growing demand for non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer is part of broader taste shifts impacting the alcohol industry. According to CNBC reporter Angelica LaVito, “consumers are increasingly shunning beer and instead drinking wine, spirits and hard seltzers, which they perceive as healthier than beer.” The shift away from beer and towards wine can be clearly seen in the two graphics below. In the first graphic you can observe the general decrease in per capita alcohol consumption, particularly beer, in the United States in the post-1980 period. The second graphic shows that in 1993, 47% of American who drank alcohol stated that beer was their preferred alcohol of choice. This compared to 27% preferring wine and 21% preferring liquor. By 2017, the percentage preferring beer had fallen to 40%, while the percentage preferring wine and liquor had risen to 30% and 26% respectively.
This is a trend that is also occurring in other countries. A recent article on the BBC website was titled, “Under-25s turning their backs on alcohol, study suggests”. The article reported on new research at University College London which found that the percentage of 16-24 year olds who do not consume alcohol increased from 18% in 2005 to 29% percent in 2015. In Belgium, a recent survey revealed that sixty-two percent of Belgians felt that they consumed too much alcohol.
In the United States, we have observed the growing popularity of so-called session beers – beers that are less than 5% ABV. A 2016 survey by Nielsen and CGA Strategy found that 45% of craft beer drinkers prefer session over beers with a higher ABV. Of the twenty-five fastest growing craft beer brands in 2016, thirteen were session beers. Almost every craft brewery produce session beers. Many have went to great efforts to ensure that from a taste perspective that they are an acceptable alternative to higher ABV beers. Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, U.K. disposed of four batches (sixty thousand bottles) of beer in their quest for a palatable low-alcohol beer. The end result was their Big Easy, a very drinkable Pale Ale with an ABV of only 0.5%. Athletic Brewing Co. of Stratford, CT is a craft brewery that produces only non-alcoholic beer. Athletic Brewing’s flagship beers are an IPA and a Golden Ale, while season offerings include an Autumn Brown Ale and a Harvest IPA. Crafting a non-alcoholic beer that did not compromise on flavor was a challenge for Athletic’s owner Bill Shufelt. It meant producing over one hundred test batches on home brewing equipment, before he was satisfied.
Market signals clearly demonstrate growing consumer demand for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer. This shift in consumer preferences impacts every brewery, from the smallest microbrewery to the largest multinational. And they are clearly responding, witness the seemingly growing number of non-alcoholic and low alcohol beers that are now available. Furthermore, breweries are working very diligently to ensure that those who choose non-alcoholic and low alcohol beers are not being compromised when it comes to taste. And it seems to be resonating with some consumers. Thirty-one percent of Germans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four 18-24 agreed that non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer tastes just as good as ‘regular’ beer. More and more, we are seeing beer writers helping consumers navigate the increasingly crowded low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer market by tasting and rating the various offerings.
During the semester that has just ended at The University of Toledo, I taught a course titled, The Geography of Beer and Brewing. This was a course for graduate students. Eight students enrolled in the class – six doctoral students and two Masters students. Being a graduate level class, it was reading and discussion intensive with one student responsible for leading the discussion each week. Students had to read four to five scholarly papers each week, and come to class prepared to discuss and debate them. The topics covered in the class were wide ranging and included the historical evolution of the brewing industry, craft breweries and neighborhood change, beer and the law, beer tourism etc. The scholarly literature on the brewing industry is multi-disciplinary. As a result, even though this was a course taught within the Geography and Planning Department, students were exposed to a wide range of disciplinary perspectives on the industry – geography, economics, anthropology, business history, law etc. The mix of students in the class was also very gratifying. There were two female students, one African American student (female), and at least two Muslim students (from Bangladesh). This mix made for fascinating discussions; discussions that were undoubtedly richer because of the diversity of voices around the table.
As part of their course assessment, students had to write a five thousand word term paper. I have just completed reading them and I have to say that I really enjoyed doing so. Here are the titles of the term papers that I read:
Market Overview of Non-alcoholic Beer: Prospects and Constraints
Thai Microbrewing Tied Down by Policy: Policy Analysis of Thailand’s 2008 Alcohol Beverage Control Act and its Effects on Small-Scale Thai Breweries
Discussing the Relationships between Crime and Craft Beer in Chicago, IL
Beer and Brewing Consumer Preferences : A Look at Preferences of American Drinkers
Geographic Analysis of Ohio Hop Farming and Breweries
Going Out for a Pint: Craft Breweries and Walkability
Izakayas as Third Places in Japan
Limits to Production: A Study on the Relationship Between Craft Brewery Production Volume and Socioeconomics of Urban Areas
Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the papers produced by the students. A few of them, with some work, may even have the potential to be published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. I will be talking with these students over the summer to see if the are interested in pursuing this possibility.
As with any course, the first time that you teach it, you identify changes that you can implement to improve the overall learning experience for students. I plan to teach a new and improved version of the same course in the spring 2020 semester. I am also giving some thought to developing an undergraduate version of the same course. This will, of course, be lecture-based, and so involves developing a semester’s worth of lecture material. I am gradually piecing those lectures together.
I’m not the only person to teach a course on the the geography of beer and brewing in the United States. There are a few others of which I am aware. Sean Crotty teaches a Geography of Beer course at Texas Christian University, while Julie Wartell teaches Craft Breweries and the Urban Economy at the University of California, San Diego. While a course on the the geography of beer and brewing may be considered a niche or boutique course, there is no question that such a course can help students develop a more nuanced understanding of broader topics and issues such as industrial location theory, industrial organization, changing consumer preferences, neighborhood change, etc.
Along with my colleague, Isabelle Nilsson of the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, I recently published a study that examined the impact of craft breweries on property values in the city of Charlotte, NC. In the study we looked a properties sold between 2002 and 2017 . To summarize our findings, we discovered that the opening of a craft brewery in Charlotte resulted in a 9.8 percent increase in the value of single-family homes and a 3.2 percent increase in the value of condominiums. Interestingly, the opening of a craft brewery had no impact on the value of commercial properties. Charlotte is a fast growing city with a vibrant craft brewing scene – twenty-one craft breweries opened in the city between March 2009 and October 2016.
Our study in the journal Growth and Change analyzed the relationship between craft breweries and property vales in Charlotte, NC
Our explanation for our findings is relatively straightforward. A craft brewery is, for many people, a neighborhood amenity. Imagine it is a warm June evening, and you decide that you would like to pop out for a couple of pints of craft beer. What could be better than being able to walk to the neighborhood craft brewery and doing just that. In a previous blog entry, I suggested that many craft breweries are emerging as a new type of Third Place on the American landscape – community gathering spots where people can go and enjoy a beer and relax, while engaging in conversation with other patrons. Being within walking distance of such places is clearly desirable. Indeed, this is a topic that I am going to talk about next month at the annual meeting of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation.
I will be talking about craft breweries as Third Places at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation
But it’s not just proximity to a craft brewery that raises property values. Previous studies have shown that being near a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s, or a Starbucks also results in higher home’s values. It seems clear that people appreciate being able to walk to a nearby craft brewery, coffee shop, or grocery store. Indeed, a recent study by the American Planning Association found that fifty-six percent of Millennials prefer to live in walkable communities. And, as market research has clearly demonstrated, Millennials are the demographic cohort primarily responsible for the growth of craft beer. Walkability seems to valued by large swathes of American society. The same study found that forty-six percent of active Baby Boomers also prefer to live in walkable neighborhoods.
Heist Brewery, one of the breweries contributing to increased property values in Charlotte, NC
This semester I am teaching a graduate course in The Geography of Beer and Brewing at the University of Toledo. Students enrolled in the class have to write a term paper. One of the students is writing her paper on the topic of craft breweries and walkability. Walkability is a simple concept really – how friendly is a neighborhood to those who wish to walk to bars, restaurants, grocery stores etc? The walkability score of my neighborhood is 56 (that’s out of a maximum of 100). This makes it “somewhat walkable”, meaning that some of my errands can be accomplished on foot. You can calculate the walkability of your neighborhood by typing in your home address here. The website Walkscore.com identifies a number of factors that determines a neighborhood’s walkability. These include schools and places of employment being within walking distance for most residents, streets being designed with bicyclists, pedestrians, and public transportation in mind, and the provision of plentiful of public spaces where residents can gather and relax. Bekka, my student is focusing on craft breweries in San Diego, CA and is examining the extent to which they are located in walkable neighborhoods. As I write this, she is still in the middle of analyzing the data that she has gathered. I am curious as to what her findings will show.
Just as living near a craft brewery (or a Whole Foods or a Starbucks) may enhance the value of your home, so does living in a walkable neighborhood more generally. The real estate brokerage company Redfin analyzed the impact of walkability on home prices across fourteen major metropolitan areas in the United States. They found that, on average, increasing the Walk Score by just a single point results in a 0.9% increase in home prices.
A potential concern of living near an establishment where alcohol is served is that it could potentially result in more crime in the neighborhood. And there are some studies that have shown higher crime rates in the immediate neighborhoods surrounding bars. This may not be the case when it comes to craft breweries, however. In a previous post guest-blogger Julie Wartell provided data from Portland, OR which suggested that crime rates are lower in the immediate environs (within fifty feet) of a craft brewery than in the immediate environs of a regular bar. The explanation as to why this might be the case are unclear. However, it may have something to do with both the attitude of both the craft beer drinker and the craft breweries that sell their beer in their on-site taprooms. According to Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids, MI, craft beer is “more about enjoying the craft than getting drunk”. As Fritz Hahn, a writer for the Washington Post, stated, “I’d rather drink beer longer, not get drunk faster”. Brewery Vivant also has a four-drink maximum for its patrons. I am not aware of any scientific studies comparing the drinking preferences and habits of craft beer versus non-craft beer drinkers, but my gut feeling is that the observation of Kris Spaulding is not far off the mark.
Later this year, Isabelle and I (in collaboration with another colleague) hope to expand our analysis of craft breweries and property values to include more cities. At the moment we do not know how many cities we will include in our expanded analysis, or what those cities will be. But I expect that we will include cities in different parts of the country, cities of different sizes, and cities on different socio-economic trajectories (e.g., shrinking versus growing cities). By doing so, we will be able to draw conclusions that are more generalizable. Watch this space!
Further Reading:
Nilsson, Isabelle and Neil Reid. 2019. The value of a craft brewery: On the relationship between craft breweries and property values. Growth and Change, https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12292
Good for what you ask? I would say multiple reasons and will
outline those in just a moment.
First, I thought I’d give some background on my varied perspective on this topic. Assuming I had four feet, one foot is in the academic world as faculty at a major university (go Tritons!), one foot is in the real world as a crime analyst (not like CSI, think social science), one foot is in the craft beer world as the owner of a brewery mapping company (quick plug for PubQuest), and my last foot is in the crime world (not doing it, studying it!). Accordingly, I read a lot about breweries (and crime) in addition to supporting local, independent breweries wherever I travel (which is often!) as well as speak with many “beer people” on a regular basis.
OK, on to why I (and many others) think breweries are good.
When you think of Main Street, what comes to mind? Thriving downtowns or used-to-be-but-now-highly-vacant-or-rundown? Breweries have helped convert the latter types of downtowns in small towns and big cities across the country. There are currently almost 500 brewery locations in the U.S. with a street address of “Main” with another dozen in planning. That doesn’t count all of the breweries that have moved into city and town centers that are on a different street name (someone needs to figure out how to capture this!).
2. Community. I recently presented alongside one of the owners of Border X Brewing, a wonderful San Diego brewery (also just opened in Bell, CA – find that one on a map!), and he related their experience with moving into one of the more historically depressed neighborhoods. When someone asked him about gentrification, he explained how they made extra effort to work with the existing businesses and neighbors, the last thing they wanted was to displace locals. The photo below captures the tasting room at Border X where all the artwork is done by local artists and is of local people and places.
The Tasting Room of Border X Brewing in San Diego, CA
The example above is one of many that reveal craft breweries’ commitment to their communities. Whether it’s in the local newspaper, a beer blog or a social media post, there is a constant stream of discussion around efforts that are being made by breweries to welcome families, neighbors and strangers from afar into the brewery space. Many of the breweries work closely with local non-profits, sponsor runs or yoga and create an atmosphere that says “come hang out here, we are integral to this community.” The graphic below, from the website of Hops & Grain Brewery in Austin, TX, speaks to this very issue.
Community involvement is important for Hops & Grain Brewery in Austin, TX
3. Not Crime Generators. There are numerous studies available on the topic of crime and bars as well as the relationship between alcohol and crime, but there are no peer-reviewed studies about crime and breweries as a unique type of “bar.” A few years ago, I did a small study in Portland (OR), nationally known for their craft beer. While this hasn’t been published, the preliminary analysis reveals that breweries have a much lower level of police calls for service (a more accurate measure than typical crime stats due to calls for noise, litter, disturbances and the like that often are not included in official crime stats). Breweries (without liquor) had on average 1.7 calls within 50 feet of the location for the year, whereas bars (with liquor) had on average of 5.5 calls. A graphic below provides another way to look at these stats.
Craft Breweries, not selling liquor, had the lowest number of police calls than other establishments serving alcohol
Why do breweries generate less crime/police calls? There are a number of hypotheses about this including: clientele demographics; cost of craft beer; closing time (often before midnight); owners caring about the neighborhood (see above); family-friendly (who wants to get drunk with a bunch of babies?!); and no liquor. We definitely need more research on this topic (that means visiting breweries, right?), and I am working on that with several colleagues.
What are breweries doing to keep crime under control? You probably have not heard the concept of Situational Crime Prevention (unless you’re one of my colleagues in the crime world), but breweries are using many of these techniques without even knowing it. Some examples in the graphics below include the technique of “remove excuses – alert conscience” and “remove excuses – assist compliance” (the latter being smaller pours and limits on higher alcohol beers). Other techniques such as “increase the effort – control access to facilities” is done by limiting buses and large groups as well as “increase the risks – extend guardianship” by turning a vacant place into a neighborhood gathering location where people are looking out for the space. Another great example is the City of Vista (CA) government works closely with the Vista Brewers Guild to stay on top of crime and policing issues generated by breweries. This collaborative approach of using data and tackling problems before they get out of control has been beneficial to the City, the breweries and the safety of the community.
Some craft breweries remind patrons to be mindful of their neighbors and to keep noise and litter to a minimum
4. Tasty Libations. Do I need to say more? Different people support craft breweries for different reasons, but one thing in common is that most (although generally not the babies or the dogs) are going there to enjoy a nice beer. Having more options to enjoy local, craft beers at the source (see graphic below from the Brewers Association about the increase in craft breweries, especially over the last decade), allows friends, family and strangers to come together to taste this variety. Also in the U.S., we are now seeing more breweries that offer gluten-free, “session” (lower alcohol), and fruit and pastry-style beers to reach an even wider range of consumers.
Has this made you thirsty and eager to support your local
brewery? Don’t forget, you can find them all on an interactive map on PubQuest.
Cheers!
This blog entry was written by guest blogger, Julie Wartell, Julie is a Continuing Lecturer in the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of California, San Diego and an independent advisor to governmental agencies and communities relating to analyzing crime problems, neighborhood safety, and the geography of breweries. Julie currently teaches “Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Community Planning” and “Craft Breweries and the Urban Economy,” and her research, training and writing has been used in communities around the world. Julie has a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in criminal justice administration from San Diego State University as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Criminology and Police Management from University of Cambridge. In her spare time, Julie also runs PubQuest, a brewery mapping company.
I was in Hillsboro, WI last month.. I was there to participate in the 10th Annual Wisconsin Hop Seminar. The seminar, which brings together craft brewers, hop growers, and university researchers was held at the Hillsboro Brewing Company. My role at the seminar was to give the keynote address on the impact of craft brewing on the American hop industry. Hops is a subject that I have written about in previous blog entries, which you can read here, here, and here.
Hillsboro is a ninety-minute drive north of Madison. I flew into Madison, where I spent the night, before driving with my colleague and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, Steve Deller, to Hillsboro. Hillsboro is a town of just over 1,400 people, located in west-central Wisconsin. It is known as the “Czech capital” of Wisconsin. While the earliest immigrants arriving in Hillsboro came from Germany, the Czechs started to arrive in the mid-1800s. Attracted by a landscape that reminded them of home, the Czechs brought with them their culture, food, and traditions. Today, the town’s Czech heritage is celebrated with the annual Cesky Den Festival.
Hillsboro Brewing Company is owned by the husband and wife team of Snapper and Kim Verbsky. Hillsboro is a relatively new brewery, only being established in 2014. In 2018, the brewery’s success (production went from ~350 barrels in 2017 to ~1,000 barrels in 2018) meant that it had to relocate to a larger facility and it is now housed in a 28,000 square foot building, that was formerly home to a Carnation Milk plant. This is where the hop seminar took place.
I must admit I was impressed with what Kim and Snapper were doing with their new brewing facility. It is a two-level building. The upper level is in the process of being renovated to house an event space. Wedding receptions will be a primary target market for this space. As I walked around the soon-to-be event space, I thought about the fact that there are only a little over 1,400 folks who live in town. This is clearly a space designed to attract out-of-towners. That thought also made me consider the brewery’s capacity to attract beer tourists.
The upper level of Hillsboro Brewery is being renovated and, when complete, will be rented out as event space.
Brewing occurs on the ground level of the brewery. Hillsboro produced approximately a thousand barrels of beer in 2018. It has the space to grow its brewing capacity, should the need arise. What particularly impressed me was that the owners clearly had respect for their building’s history. On display, there is a collage with old newspaper articles and photographs highlighting the building’s former life as a Carnation milk facility. I like it when brewery owners have an appreciation for and celebrate their building’s history. At Hillsboro, they also brew a beer that recognizes the building’s heritage. Contented Cow is a Milk Stout. In 1907, the founder of Carnation, E. A. Stuart introduced the phrase, “Carnation condensed milk, the milk from contented cows.” I sampled Contented Cow while at Hillsboro, and have to say that I really enjoyed it.
Collage highlighting the building’s history as a Carnation milk facility A photograph of the building when it was a milk facility
There were approximately fifty in attendance at the seminar. The vast majority were hop farmers. There were a couple of brewers in attendance, including Dan Carey, co-owner and brewmaster of the legendary New Glarus Brewing Company. Dan was also one of the seminar’s speakers. My presentation focused on how the growth of craft brewing was impacting the hop industry. Among other things, craft breweries have created a demand for locally-grown hops.
The Program for the 10th Annual Wisconsin Hop SeminarMy presentation at the Wisconsin Hop Seminar
In preparing for my presentation I discovered quite a few things about the Wisconsin hop industry, including its history. During the second half of the eighteen-century, Wisconsin emerged as a major center of hop production. Production peaked in 1870, when the state produced approximately five million pounds of hops (Figure 1). The center of Wisconsin’s hop production was Sauk County, in the southwestern part of the state. I passed through Sauk County on the drive from Madison to Hillsboro. Hops first started to be grown in Sauk County in 1842. The rainfall and good drainage made Sauk County and ideal location for growing hops. Wisconsin’s reign as an important center of hop production did not last long, however. By 1880, annual production in the state had decreased to two million pounds. Production continued to fall and by the turn of the century very few hops were grown in the state (Figure 1).
Source: Rumney, 1997/98Source: Rumney, 1997/98
In recent years hop farming has returned to Wisconsin. Most of the demand for Wisconsin hops come from Wisconsin craft breweries. There are over one hundred and sixty craft breweries in the state, and a growing number of them are using Wisconsin grown hops as an ingredient in some of their beers. As noted by Erika Janik in an article in Edible Milwaukee, “interest in local ingredients for local craft beer is driving a resurgence in the cultivation of hops and barley for brewing in Wisconsin.” According to the Hop Growers of America, in 2018 there were 297 acres of hops harvested in Wisconsin. This placed Wisconsin sixth in the country, behind Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Michigan, and New York. There are a lot of challenges associated with growing hops outside of the Pacific Northwest. There are the initial start-up costs, which can run ~$10,000 per acre. In addition, there are harvesting and post-harvesting processing costs; the latter include the costs of drying, pelletizing, storage etc. For small hop farms, as most start-ups are, achieving critical economies of scale is close to impossible. This make it difficult to compete on price with growers from the Pacific Northwest, particularly when it comes to the more common varieties of hops. Hop farmers in states such as Wisconsin have to figure out which hops will give them a competitive edge. In the long-term this might mean developing hop strains that are unique to the region, or by leveraging the concept of terroir; the idea that local Wisconsin hops provide unique flavors and aromas that are influenced by local soil and climate. Wisconsin hop growers may also be able to capitalize on the geographic proximity they enjoy viz-viz Wisconsin breweries – this proximity allows breweries to receive whole-cone hops that are delivered within hours of being harvested. Upon arrival at the brewery, these so-called ‘wet hops’ can be incorporated immediately into the brewing process. Wet-hop beers allow you to experience the true hop flavor the hop and have been described as “mellow, delicate, and freshly vibrant”. By definition, wet-hop beers are only available during the harvest season, which generally falls in August and September.
The hop farmers that I met and chatted with in Hillsboro were an impressive group. It is clear that they are passionate about hops. All are new to the industry, but are keen to learn, and are determined to become successful hop farmers.
February has come and gone, and with it the inaugural Flagship February. Conceived by Canadian beer writer, Stephen Beaumont, the idea was simple enough – spend the month of February rediscovering and drinking the beers upon which breweries made their reputation – their so-called flagship beers. I must admit that I did not make any conscious effort to drink flagship beers throughout the month – maybe I will next year – but I did enjoy a few such brews during the twenty-eight days of February.
But before getting to the February flagships that I consumed, let’s think about what defines a flagship beer. In other words, what qualifies a beer as a flagship beer? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines flagship as “the finest, largest, or most important one of a group of things”. So for a brewery, its flagship beer would be the one that the brewer considers to be his or her finest, or it could be the brewery’s best selling beer. To investigate this further I did an internet search and came across this page on the Beeradvocate.com website; where a number of brewers were asked to articulate their understanding of the term “flagship beer”. You can read the answers at the link above, but let me share a sample of them below.
According to Peter Egelston of Smuttynose Brewing Company in Hampton, NH, a brewery’s flagship beer “doesn’t necessarily have to be the biggest seller, but rather is the beer that best defines those qualities that a brewer wishes to be associated with. It is the one that embodies the culture and aspirations of a brewery, as opposed to being a brand that merely pays the bills”. For some breweries, however, paying the bills is key to identifying a flagship beer. For Jim Killeen of the now out-of-business Nutfield Brewing Company of Derry, NH their flagship beer was Nutfield Old Man Ale, for no other reason than it was the brewery’s best seller, accounting for two-thirds of its sales.
For some breweries, year-round availability is a key characteristic of a flagship beer. For example, David Wollner of Willimantic Brewing Co. in Williamantic, CT noted that Certified Gold is their “flagship because we always try to have it on tap. All of our other beers rotate throughout the year.” Finally, some breweries have more than one flagship beer. This is the case for Victory Brewing Company of Downington, PA. Brewer Bill Covaleski notes that Victory has four flagship brands, all of which are available throughout the year.
So the definition of ‘flagship beer’ varies from brewery to brewery. As I reflect on the beers that I enjoyed during the month of February, some were clearly flagships, with at least two of them being what I would term ‘iconic flagship’ beers. These are Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Steam, from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Anchor Brewing Company respectively. Every craft beer drinker in the United States is surely familiar with these beers. Indeed, in an article about flagship beers in the Post Bulletin (a Rochester, MN newspaper), Josh Noel suggests that Sierra Nevada is “light-years ahead of its time and arguably the most important American beer of the past 50 years.”
Two other flagship beers, not available nationally, that I had in February are Trumer Pils from Trumer Brewery in Berkeley, CA and Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, WI. The Trumer Brewery in Berkeley was established in 2004 as a sister brewery to the Trumer Brauerei in Salzburg, Austria. Trumer Pils is the only beer brewed at the brewery – so it has to be its flagship, right? It is one of my all-time favorite pilsners. Despite not distributing their beers outside of Wisconsin, New Glarus Brewing Company are the sixteenth largest craft brewery in the United States. Spotted Cow is New Glarus’s best known and best selling beer. When I flew home from Madison, WI last month, I didn’t check a bag. This meant, of course, I could not bring any beer home with me. Fear not, for there they were, at one of the gift shops in the Dane County Airport – twelve packs of Spotted Cow.
The four beers mentioned above are undoubtedly flagship beers. Others that I had that may be considered flagship beers include Mallet Session IPA from Trade Brewing in Napa, CA. The beer is brewed year-round. Also on that list is Leaping Lemur Cream Ale, which Hillsboro Brewing Company of Hillsboro, WI identify on their website as one of three flagship beers. Likewise, South Shore Brewing Company of Washburn, WI list their WPA:Wisconsin Pale Ale as one of five flagship beers.
WPA:Wisconsin Pale Ale from South Shore Brewing Company
Finally, while having dinner at Celadon in Napa, CA last month, I noticed, on the menu, Arctic Pale Ale from Einstok Beer Company in Akureyri, Iceland. I’d never had any Icelandic beer before, so I ordered it. I am glad I did. As I researched it later, I learned that Arctic Pale Ale is part of Einstok’s “core portfolio” of beers.
Arctic Pale Ale, one of Einstock Beer Co’s flagship beers
Of the eight flagship beers I enjoyed during Flagship February, seven were consumed in the state in which they were brewed (the exception being Einstok’s Arctic Pale Ale). Two were actually consumed at the brewery where they were brewed – Anchor Steam at Anchor Brewery and Leaping Lemur Cream Ale at Hillsboro Brewing Co.
As February drew to a close, a story about a new brew from Smartmouth Brewing Company in Norfolk, VA started to appear on my newsfeed. The beer is called Saturday Morning and is an IPA brewed with toasted marshmallows and cereal marshmallows. It was inspired by Lucky Charms breakfast cereal. Now I have no objection to brewers utilizing unsusal and non-traditional ingredients in their recipes. In fact, I think that beers brewed with such ingredients make the world of craft beer more interesting, and they certainly create buzz and get people talking. For breweries producing such a beer, it can generate some media coverage and get a brewery’s name out there. I, for example, had never heard of Smartmouth Brewing before they hit the news over the last few weeks – but I now know who they are. But I doubt such beers will ever attain Flagship status.
As I reflect on the concept behind Flagship February, I have to say that I think it’s a good idea. While I drink my fair share of flagship beers throughout the year, it was good to have an entire month focused on beers which, in my opinion, play a critical role in the world of craft beer.
