Dataset

Many of the findings from the data collection were fairly unsurprising. There was a good deal of concentration in the industry across the Northeast and the West Coast and less concentration in the Midwest and South. There were, however, substantially more brewers in the Southwest and the Great Lakes region than was initially expected. The map above shows the lack of even distribution across the states, but it also highlights the validity of the many weaknesses of the study. It seems prevalent that counties containing several breweries tend to be adjacent to at least one other county also containing at least one brewery. Whatever the reason for the clustering effect observed in the map, this is somewhat concerning evidence that a county is, in fact, not an ideal unit for analyzing an area’s economic and demographic makeup. The map also demonstrates to the previously unaware the disparity in the size of American counties. The list of breweries, attached as Appendix 2, specifically indicates the city or town in which each of these breweries is located. In certain cases, such as the massive Coconino County, Arizona, it is difficult to tell if the breweries are within close proximity of one another in a single area (in the case of Coconino County, perhaps Flagstaff) or are evenly distributed across an area larger than all of Massachusetts. All the statistical regressions in this study do not distinguish between these possibilities, which could be a problem.

Four US counties have over five craft breweries in them. They are, in order, Boulder County, Colorado¹⁵ with 6, Cumberland County, Maine (the Portland area) with 8, San Diego County, California, with 12, and at the top with 14, probably not to many people’s surprise, is King County, Washington (Seattle). Notably missing are places like Denver County, Colorado, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, and Cook County, Illinois. While a review of the Brewing News maps being used would suggest that those areas contain clusters of breweries, a further examination reveals that almost all of those breweries are in fact Brewpubs, and thus not relevant for this study.

The West Coast, Northeast, and Rocky Mountain regions showed little surprising data, with most of the nation’s breweries clustered close to one of the oceans. The patterns of breweries appearing especially in these regions points to the idea that if metro areas were used instead of counties, more informative statistics may emerge. Around most counties with a high concentration of breweries, there are a handful of other counties with less. It is probably not unreasonable to assume that in these counties, which are often largely suburbs surrounding a dense urban core, the demand for beer produced in that county includes the populous areas not far away, not just the county in which they reside. For now, this is a problem with which we must contend.

One area which yielded more breweries than expected is the Great Lakes region, especially Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. While the area is well known for having a culture of beer drinking, it is generally associated with the larger brewers such as Miller in Milwaukee and there are a limited number of craft beers from the upper Midwest featured in a typical Northeastern liquor store. There could be several explanations for this. This is probably just a matter of output, with many of these breweries being smaller and relying on local brand loyalty to support itself. This would explain one trend, which is that these breweries seem to be far less concentrated in urban areas than elsewhere in the country. It should also be said that, as noted above, there were many breweries on the map listed as “microbreweries” or “regional craft breweries” and with a few exceptions, they are treated as such the purposes of this study. It is worth considering that some of these breweries may be regional producers of certain types of non-craft beer whose distribution does not extend beyond the Upper Midwest.

The South is by far the most sparse area covered here when it comes to breweries but a few counties do stand out, particularly Buncombe County, North Carolina (Asheville) with 5 breweries and Travis County, Texas (Austin) with 4. Travis County is no surprise using the hypothesis examined here; it is widely considered to be a young, hip city. Buncombe County, while not too far off from the demographic projection (it is overwhelmingly white, voted strongly for Obama, and has a population big enough to support a couple of breweries), comes as a bit of a surprise, as Asheville doesn’t come up much in discussion about great places for craft beer. Other than those, most counties in the South have at most one brewery. A few exceptions to this are Wake County, North Carolina (Raleigh), with 3, and Fulton County, Georgia (Atlanta), St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (Covington, in the New Orleans Metro Area), and Pulaski County, Arkansas (Little Rock), each with 2. Mississippi ranks as the least brewery-intensive state covered, with only one microbrewery in Hancock County.

Overall, the Southwest does far better than the Southeast. This is curious from a traditional, input-oriented view on regional economics as, were access to inputs the most important thing for breweries, the availability of water would likely be a hindrance. In that region, the county containing the most breweries is Maricopa County, Arizona (the Phoenix metro area). While Phoenix has not attracted the sort of attention that San Diego or Seattle does when it comes to brewing beer, it is a large metropolitan area with a good deal of young professionals. It is therefore not shocking that the area has a craft beer presence. Maricopa County also stands out in being tied with Orange County, California for the most brewery-intensive county to be won by McCain in 2008.¹⁶ Liberalism seems to be a strong trend among brewery intensive counties with some caveats. Overall, 107 of the 288 counties which at least one microbrewery makes a home, voted for McCain. However, out of the counties containing three or more breweries, only 7 of the 37 went for McCain.

As far as income goes, it is certainly true that none of the most prominent craft beer areas is suffering particularly badly. However, it is also true that very few of them are huge outliers when it comes to wealth. For counties with three or more breweries, the range of median income is between $40,089.00 In Humboldt County, California, and $74,344.00 in Orange County, California. Most of the results in between fall somewhere between the high 40 and low 60 thousands, far from impoverished, but also curious considering the claim made earlier in the paper that craft beer is driven in large part by individuals earning over $100,000. Part of this may be explained by the weaknesses of median income as a statistic. For example, there are plenty of people in Orange County, California making considerably more than $74,344. Perhaps it is they that are supporting the craft beer industry.¹⁷

¹⁵ Boulder is the base of operations for the Brewers Association.

¹⁶ That McCain had an advantage in being Arizona’s Senator is worth noting, but with Obama winning only 44% of the vote in this very large area, it seems fair to assume that the results would have been similar had Obama run against an otherwise similar non-Arizonan.

¹⁷ It’s worth mentioning that prices also vary from region to region. A more complete analysis would incorporate a regional price index in order to capture real income.