the session

The Session #67: The answer is 2,620

The SessionFor The Session #67, host Derrick Peterman has asked us to predict how many American breweries will be operating in 2017 (presumably at this time of the year).

2,620.

I used a proprietary formula, but you don’t care about the details anyway. I find it amusing that the figure happens to land smack dab in the middle of what one book reports as the number of operating breweries in the United States in 1879 and what was published in another.

History of the Brewing Industry and Brewing Science in America has a list of the number of breweries in operation for each year from 1863 through 1920. This is the source used most often when comparisons are made between the number of breweries now and in the past, and where the peak of 4,131 is reported (1873). By 1879, the number was shrinking, to 2,719.

Beer, Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage provides a look at only two years, 1878 and 1879 (it was published in 1880), but in more depth. It lists every brewery in operation and, in most cases, how much it brewed. There are 2,520 breweries on the list.

Makes me go hmmmm and reaffirms my thought there are better things to focus on than the number of breweries. Stuff like access, diversity, quality. The numbers in Beer, Its History don’t really address such matters, but they do illustrate how much more local/regional beer once was.

George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery was the biggest brewery in the country, selling 180,152 barrels (about 1.5% of U.S. production). Only seven breweries sold more than 100,000 (31-gallon) barrels. In 2011, more than 30 did. Of course, the U.S. is a little bigger today.

In 1879, 150 breweries sold more than 15,000 barrels, but in 2011 only a little over 100.

Two hundred and seventeen breweries sold between 5,000 and 15,000 then, compared to 71 in 2011. Seems to be room for growth there. Or are the bigger breweries squeezing them on one side, the smaller ones on the other?

This sort of data mining tells us little about the future. Maybe Amazon is a better indicator. I see that a book titled, A Brewer’s Guide to Opening a Nano Brewery: Your $10,000 Brewery Consultant for $15 (Volume 1) is selling pretty well (better than mine). Are the people who buy it like arm-chair travelers, content to read and dream?

Or what will happen when dreams meet reality?

Oscar Blues founder Dale Katechis addressed that in an online interview last week:

“To me, it’s overwhelming to see how many people are getting into the segment. I can’t even keep track of even the ones in Colorado alone that are opening. It’s a little scary because I guess we’ve learned a little bit along the way and we’ve learned that draft beer doesn’t make you any money. The entire industry knows that. Then I hear of a guy that is a home brewer and is going to cash in his 401k and open a little craft brewery and start delivering kegs around town. Well, it’s not my place to call him and say, ‘you’re crazy,’ but there is going to be some fallout.”

Before 2017, after 2017, or at all?

The Session #66 wrapped up; #67 announced

The SessionCraig Gravina has wrapped up The Session #66: One Beer to Rule Them All and put a nice bow on it. And to keep things moving along, Derrick Peterman has announced the topic for #67: “How Many Breweries in 2017?”

Sixty-seven Sessions into this once-a-month silliness, Peterman will host the first Session contest.

“And for incentive, if five years from now your prediction is the most accurate one, in addition to enjoying beer blogger bragging rights, I will personally buy you a beer.”

Announcing The Session #66: The One Beer to Rule Them All

The SessionCraig Gravina at drinkdrank has announced the topic for The Session #66: The One Beer to Rule Them All.

What if you were to design the perfect brew—aTolkien-esque One Beer to Rule Them All. A perfect beer for you, personally.

Then you write about it.

Session #66 is Aug. 3. We’ll be in Spain. I know, you are feeling bad for me. It’s holiday, so there’s every chance I won’t be present for this Session. Also, you probably know that IPA Day II is scheduled for Aug. 2. I’m sure I’ll be absent for that one.

#65 roundup posted: Nobody was drinking alone Friday

The SessionHeck of a turnout for The Session #65: So Lonely, but Nathaniel Southwood got right to a proper roundup.

Well, after he got over the shed envy that Alan inspired.

Anyway, with the number of posts (most ever?) the topic inspired many themes hit upon. Still, Nathaniel spotted a repeated thought.

I noticed a theme whilst going through all of your posts: no matter where you are in the world, the same stigma of alcoholism is associated with going to the pub alone. It’s interesting.

To tell you the truth, I still don’t understand.

Session #65: On not drinking alone

The SessionFor The Session #65 Nate Southwood asked that we write about going to the pub, or bar, alone.

From the first pages of The Beer Travelers Guide (1995 – the 7,383,107th best seller on Amazon, last time I looked):

Broad Ripple Brewpub owner John Hill (in Indianapolis) likes to tell a story about when he was growing up in Yorkshire, England, and would visit pubs with his father. While it may have appeared to an outside that neighborhood pubs were serving the same beer, the locals knew better. “One cellarman might be adding a little brown sugar, another kept his beer a little fresher . . .,” Hill recalled.

So John’s father had his favorite pubs, but if one of them was nearly empty while the place across the street was busy, he would head to the less-favored one. Why? Because, as Hill says, “An Englishman doesn’t drink alone.”

The world’s best drinking companion and I wrote that to explain what we were looking for when we compiled the guide. But also to make a point about how Beer Different (sort of like Santa Fe likes to be known as “The City Different”) had changed things for the better. When you walked into a brewpub, or a bar serving Beer Different you could usually expect you wouldn’t have to drink alone. That there’d be a conversation waiting because there was a good chance you shared something in common with the other customers. Yes, beer, but usually something else.

This may be a Pollyannaish view. And it might have worked just as well in an Old Style bar. I never bothered to find out. That was probably a mistake, because I like eavesdropping in bars almost as much as I like talking. I once stopped in this spot (the Sandia Bar), which was about a mile from our house in New Mexico, and asked what beers they had. Sometimes a place will at least have a bottle of Samuel Adams stuck in the cooler (although it might be two years old; true story). Not here.

Too bad, because later they shot a bit of “Breaking Bad” in the bar. Dean Morris, who plays Hank, rented a house in Corrales while the series was being shot and apparently stopped in from time to time. Now that would have been some good eavesdropping.

So, tangent over, back to The Session and talking beer because, philosophizing aside, that is what The Session is supposed to be about. Monday I had a few of them in a few places with the famous Thirsty Pilgrim (Joe Stange), starting appropriately enough with an Urban Chestnut beer served in a stange (and I shouldn’t have to tell you what German city it reminded us of). I finished with tart wheat beer from 4 Hands Brewing (again, you should be able to figure out the German city).

Rumor has it that it will be 105° today in St. Louis, as it has been pretty much every day for more than a week. Thank goodness there are beers like these, brewed for Summer in the City.