After covering the Colorado drinking for scene for three
years now, 3 years as a blogger for Drinking Made Easy and 1 year for DrinkDenver, I have seen the
brightest star in the US economy and that star is beer. Whether a casual
drinker or total beer snob the size of the beer industry in the US has seen unprecedented
growth over the last decade and completely exploded the last few years. All this growth culminated in October at the
Great American Beer Festival in Denver, the world’s largest gathering of
brewers and beer judging competition. Try and wrap your head around these
numbers:
The numbers are nice, but let’s expand on this topic by
considering all the businesses that brewing supports.
Agriculture – Hops are one of the fastest growing (pun
intended) production crops in the country and US hops are quickly becoming some
of the most sought after in the brewing industry. Washington, Oregon and Idaho
lead the country in hop production, but other regions are not far behind. Don't forget barley and wheat crops either. With
the creativity of the beer industry, other agricultural products, like honey,
peaches, apples, cinnamon, even chillis, are finding their way into beer. Did
you know the Wynkoop Brewery in Denver makes a beer with bull testicles? But I
digress. Following in the footsteps of chefs, there is also farm-to-keg
movement with brewers seeking out the freshest and most local of ingredients to
use in their beers.
Manufacturing – In order for you to buy a six-pack of your
favorite craft beer, someone had to put that beer in a bottle or can. That
means an increase in production of machines that bottle, can, seal, label and
pack beer. Of course brewing beer takes a lot of equipment too; fermentation
tanks, chillers, pipes, kettles and kegs. As breweries continue to open and
expand, they will need more equipment. New Belgium, Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues
breweries will all begin construction on facilities in Ashville, NC, next year
and Green Flash Brewing in San Diego will begin construction on a facility in
Virginia Beach in 2015. Sierra Nevada is the country’s second largest craft
brewery while New Belgium is the third.
Hospitality – As briefly mentioned in the statistics, brew
pubs are included in the craft beer industry. A brew pub is a place that serves
food and has an on-site brewery that produces beer consumed by customers of the
pub. And other, non-brewing restaurants are getting in on the popularity by
holding beer pairing dinners and tap takeovers. People who cater and hold
special events are inviting craft beer into these events and events planners
are having special beers created just for those special occasions such as
weddings and anniversaries.
Tourism – Fanatics will seek out the places where their
favorite beers are brewed. Think Guinness in Ireland or Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
Beer cities in the US are gaining a following as well. Places like Ashville,
NC, Boulder, CO, San Diego, CA and Portland OR, are growing hot spots for beer
connoisseurs from around the world. Resorts are adding brew pubs to their
properties. Examples include the McMenamins chain of hotels with
brewpubs, or brewpubs with hotels depending on your point of view, and the new
“destination brewery” being built in Littleton, CO by Breckenridge
Brewery that will include a BBQ restaurant, retail outlet, hop farm,
special event center and visitor center. Airports are serving more and more
craft beers and several airports even have brew pubs on site. Sporting arenas
are adding craft beers to their menus and one, Coors Field in Denver, has a brewery inside the ballpark, The Sandlot.
You may wonder, with all the other pressing issues the
country faces, why discuss this? Because I think the industry is bigger than most
people outside of it realize. A press release I received the other day just
proves my point. Denver Beer Company, started in August 2011, just purchased a
48,000 sq. ft. warehouse to open as a production facility. The company will
begin bottling and canning their beers in Spring 2014. The company purchased
canning equipment from Wild Goose Canning in Boulder and barrels and fermenting
equipment from DME in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The company has hired Unleaded Group in Denver
to create labels for the new bottles and cans. Denver Beer Co. will be hiring
people to work all that equipment soon. All those jobs in just in three years. There’s
a saying in the brew business, Drink Locally, Think Globally. So instead of
feeling guilty about spending your hard earned cash on some craft beer, instead savor
that beer. Breweries are located where their customers are, in the community,
in your neighborhood. And the people
who brew beer are passionate, smart, well-educated folks. Because they brew for
their neighbors, they strive to make the highest quality beers possible. 
***
This blog was rejected by Jean Chatsky, Money Guru for the Today Show, former editor of Money Magazine and author of several self-help financial books. Jean made a request for guest bloggers on Twitter and I answered thinking I could write about saving money while traveling. Her assistant Arielle said they had enough travel advice and since I wrote for DrinkDenver, maybe I could offer a blog on “ways to save money during happy hour.” Really? Last time I checked happy hour pretty much EVERYWHERE meant half price or 2-for-1 drinks and cheap finger foods. Anyway, I offered up this idea, that if more Americans drank beer, we could save the economy. Arielle said no because it wasn’t “personal enough.” However, I thought my idea was fun and light (and true!), and we can all use some humor in this heavy, serious economy. I’ll let you be the judge.
