Congratulations Chicagoland!

True points...

Found an article on Finch's closing. Sounds like the lease with break room, and a hostile work environment we're the main culprits

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ch...-beer-brewpub-closing-20161208-story,amp.html

 

I think one of Finch's issues (aside from the location that no one knew about) is that their beer was mostly mediocre, because Finch himself didn't care. From what I've read, they're hoping to change that (and I think Finch is out).

 

Finch is out. Still a lot of bad blood with them in the industry though.

 

Finch failed because their beer sucked.

 

Edit, this was by Urban Area, so a sprawling area like Chicago gets a big total.

Source data are from this article, which was making some other points, Rural vs. Urban.
https://www.brewersassociation.org/insights/brewery-growth-both-urban-and-rural/

The map in the article is cool.

The Brewery count for San Diego always means San Diego County.

I wonder how far the Denver count went? From Colorado Springs up to Cheyenne WY would be a big total.

 

I would argue that these aren’t exclusive. I think that Finch’s model was to replace Goose Island in the local market (not unrealistic at the time they started, but Rev and Half Acre came out swinging hard and upped the ante), package and distribute everywhere they possibly could, and hope for the eventual buyout.

 

They're not exclusive, but GI started because John Hall actually gave a crap about beer.

 

I liked Fascist Pig and heard good things about...Skull Hammer or something, but...yeah...

 

I think just Illinois, but don't know the law well enough to say.

 

I think more practically relevant than the number of breweries within a metro area is the number of breweries within a certain realistic commute time. How long are you willing to drive to go to visit a brewery in your area? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? An hour? Between the geographical sprawl of Chicagoland and realistically bad traffic, the functional number of breweries local to most Chicago-area residents surely is significantly lower than that to San Diego, Portland, or Denver-area residents. That said, it's still an impressive total, just one that regresses toward the mean when adjusted by added context.

 

This may be a realistic addition for someone like me, but based on the guys in the Great Lakes forum in general, "there's a hot new brewery in Kentucky, gonna drive down and take a look" isn't outside the realm of possibility.

(And traffic is a pretty unfair divider. I'll give you distance provisionally, but traffic is way too fluid a metric to worry about)

 

How significant? I'm curious how you determined that.

 

It usually takes a lot longer to drive, say, 30 miles in Chicago than it does in Portland in most situations. The time spent in travel is a bigger factor than the distance for most people. I can't imagine that the strong possibility of getting stuck in terrible traffic isn't a demotivating factor for many Chicagoland residents when considering whether to drive to a destination, especially if you're thinking about grabbing a pint after work (a very common time for taproom visits).

I'm guessing a typical resident of those metro areas can access close to twice as many breweries in a given amount of commute time. Just a rough estimate. Keep in mind that a much bigger chunk of Chicagoland residents live a large distance from the city center than do the residents of those less sprawling metro areas, but I'm sure that a resident of downtown Chicago has practical access to fewer breweries than does a downtown Portlander as well.

You can nitpick at my word choice or estimates, but it's unrealistic to disagree with the broad point.

 

Oh, boy! Is this turning into a Finch pileon thread!?

Finch is still around, no?

Anyways, there issues may include beer quality, but they really run way deeper than that...

 

Your broad point seems to be built on guesswork and assumptions. Not saying the broad point is definitively wrong, but it’s fair to ask how you came to something such as “surely is significantly lower”.

 

It's always about quantity more than quality in Chicago, isn't it?