I was listening to a beer focused podcast and the concept of local beer. Just thought I would get the ball rolling in here about that discussion. 1)What does it take to meet the qualification as local to you? Brewed in the same city? State? region? 2)Is locality based of on ownership or location of brewhouse? In other words, is Lagunitas also a local beer in Chicago where the brewhouse is? Are 21st Amendment cans local to Minnesota where they are brewed or in California where the taphouse is? 3)How much of the beer you buy is local by your own definition?
A few years ago, I had a discussion about this with a "local" brewer, and we differed enough in our own definitions that we ended up defaulting to the "Foodie" / locavore definition of local. Insofar as that definition applies to local food and dining, that's (generally, but not everyone agrees... ) food which is grown or raised within 100 miles of the place of preparation. But we're talking beer, and that often involves hops brought into town from Washington, grains from Europe... so it quickly becomes a tough proposition to be a strictly "local-only" Craft Beer purist. Beer is a luxury to begin with, and seeing as I have no religious or ethnic dietary restrictions I make no further pretense when it comes to adhering to such Craft Beer purity as might be described by the "Drink Local" adage or philosophy. Better than half of the packaged beer I buy is brewed in Minnesota or the upper midwest, while the rest is clearly from further away. At the bar, it's a more well-defined 75% midwestern to 25% beer from-far-away, largely due to my preference for trying "local" seasonal offerings fresh on draught.
I tend to purchase more local stuff than not, but it has to be good not just local. Being local is not enough of a reason for me to support your business.
I don't get too bent about the whole buying local thing, but as @Chaz points out, it's complicated. I don't really pay attention to where the ingredients come from, but I do notice where the "brains" are for brewing the beer (e.g. Toppling Goliath is an Iowa beer, even when brewed in Florida, 21st Amendment was not a MN beer, even when it was brewed at Cold Spring). I also think the ownership of the retail outlet is an aspect of "buying local". IOW, if you buy your Summit or Surly from Total Wine or Costco, you are not buying local. Emotionally, I consider "local" to be MN and adjacent states, but "really local" to be MN only. Duluth is on equal footing with Shakopee in that regard. Most of what I buy is local (by my somewhat broad definition), with only an occasional purchase from outside the region.
