Kickin’ it Local

We all know the benefits of supporting our local beer scenes, right? We’re guessing many of you indeed do, at least in theory, but not as many of you actually put it into practice on a regular basis. It doesn’t help when your favorite beer bar or store is bringing in all sorts of tasty foreign and domestic imports—a beer that’s from your country, but not from your direct region—that tease and tempt you to stray from the familiar and well-traveled paths at home. Hell, we’re guilty of these diversions on a daily basis. It’s our job to taste beers from all over the world, which makes it far too easy to get caught up with “what’s new” and overlook what’s brewing in our backyard.

Sometimes we all just need a good kick in the ass to remind us to support our local brewers, especially with the severe economic and fuel issues we’re currently dealing with here in the US. While it’s truly awesome to get the latest Double IPA from a small brewer on the West Coast or the latest limited-release collaboration brew from Scandinavia, the current costs and ecological footprint involved with getting these beers into our hands is making it a lot less fun to explore these offerings.

Now, we’re not suggesting that you should stop drinking non-local beers, but rather that you re-assess your consumption and perhaps include more locally brewed beer. And here’s your kick in the ass as to how you can…

Beer Drinkers

• Make your first beer a local beer every time you go out.
• Attend a beer dinner at a local brewpub or a bar that’s featuring a local brewer.
• When traveling, drink beers that are local to your destination. Why order something that you can get at home? Try something new. Support the local beer scene wherever your current locale might be.

Bar, Restaurant & Store Owners

• Remember: Wholesale pricing on local beer tends to be cheaper.
• Ensure that at least 25 percent (very doable) of your beer offerings are local.
• Hold tastings and food pairings that promote locally brewed beers.

Breweries
Don’t feel like you need to send your beer to the entire world. Sometimes fulfilling the local or regional markets can be profitable and rewarding. Spreading yourself too thin has many pitfalls, like worrying about selling the beer, keeping up with demand, freshness, or even losing focus of your local market. We see breweries overextending themselves all the time, only to pull back down the road.

What’s Local?
Good question. Currently, we think that a local beer is a beer brewed within a 60-mile radius. Why 60 miles? According to the Brewers Association, the average American lives within 10 miles of a brewery. Sixty miles takes into consideration more than just the average American and introduces some variety. We also tested this theory in some of the more rural areas of the US, and it seems to be pretty accurate.

What if Your Locale Lacks Options?
It happens. Some places might not support local brewers as much as others. Sometimes the local beer just isn’t that great. Or sometimes, there are literally no local options. If you run into any of these setbacks, simply increase your radius to support brewers that are as local as possible. Of course, there’s always homebrewing, too.

As for us, we’ll be putting our money where our mouth is, kicking our own asses and hosting our first local beer-only pub crawl this winter in Boston. We’re also looking forward to drinking only local beer when “BeerAdvocate Does Brooklyn!” before the end of the year.

Respect Beer. ■