Is Beer Less Interesting, or Am I?

It will never get better than this folks.

 

It would be interesting to understand what was defined as a brewery back in 1887. I doubt that the definition is close to what we would define today a brewery, but I guess that I should defer to BA who put the slide together. Probably more like a ton of home breweries back in 1887.

 

I'd love to see what has happened since 2013. I feel like that may be a period of vast changes, with consolidation, brewery closures, and new ones popping up briefly and disappearing.

 

Interestingly, I got involved in craft beer from 85-95, started having kids from 1993-2006 (4), and got "involved" again in 2021 (both periods have seen major growth).

I still get excited. Just bought a case earlier in the week of Stone Double Bastard (haven't had one in 5-6 years) and picked up two six packs yesterday of SN Hoptimum and Lagunitas Waldo's Special Ale. I still geeked up about the "release" or the "find". Three old time favorites in one week!

 

I haven't hit all of the breweries in Rhode island yet and I have a big list of styles to try so, I view the scene as interesting. I can see why many long time members might disagree. Cheers.

 

From the so-called Federal Revised Statutes (enacted 1874):

 

Not sure why the B.A. started that graph with 1887. Official sources put the previous high point for the number of brewers in the US at 4131 in 1873-1874.

[above]circa 1958 from The United States Brewers Foundation "A Century Record of Progress" (partial - up to Prohibition)
[below] from The Yearbook of the United States Brewers' Association

 

Go on about adjuncted stouts again. I love that story!

 

In the mid-1870s when the number of US brewers peaked, the largest US brewers - Siepp (Chicago), Best (pre-Pabst, Milwaukee), Bergner & Engel (Phila) and Ehret (NYC) - had yearly barrelages of 80-100 thousand barrels. So, they each accounted for around 0.8% - 1% of the 9.3 million barrels of beer brewed in the US.

Today, the top 2 - AB and Molson Coors - roughly brew about 75% of the beer brewed in the US ("roughly" because both also import some beer). And another factor is imported beer (insignificant in the 1870s) today accounts for nearly 20% of all beer sold in the US.

 

You mean "sweet but not cloying" .

 

Does it bug anyone else how much these beer hugs are selling and they were nothing special? Also, how alot of beers that have made it to big box stores now have the abv magnified way bigger than it used to be. I noticed this with 90 min.

It was cooler when it was more underground and wasn't as easy . Just like punk rock, and other things that have made it legal that aren't cool anymore.