Microbreweries, Place, and Identity in the United States
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Steven M. Schnell and Joseph F. Reese
Abstract
Since the mid-l980s, over 2,300 microbreweries and brewpubs have sprouted and flourished in the United Stales. We argue that this expansion is about more than just beer. It is also about a desire on the part of many Americans to re-connect with place .. Such breweries are often proudly and self-consciously local, and often use imagery and stories associated with a particular place as a means of promoting their brews. Thi active, conscious creation and maintenance of attachment to place is termed neolocalism. This chapter provides an overview of the geography of microbrewing and its historical development in the United Stales. It then analyzes how ale names and visual marketing imagery used by microbreweries tap into this powerful concept of neolocalism, and how these images serve to create local loyalties and identities. We argue that such imagery offers a valuable window into the neolocalism movement and the process of place attachment.
Introduction Over the past thirty years, more than 2,300 small-scale brewpubs and microbreweries 1 have opened and flourished across the United Stales (Brewers Association 20 13a). These
1 For
our purposes, when we speak of " microbreweries," we are includ-
ing two categories ofbu incsses, microbrcwcries and brcwpubs. Amicrobrewery i generally defined within the industry as a brewery that
breweries represent a fundamental shift in the nature of brewing and beer consumption, one with distinctly geographical implications. In terms of percent of the beer market, they represent only a sma ll fraction of the total. But what the microbrew drinkers lack in volume, they make up for with their devotion to the new, the unique, and the local. The beers brewed by the microbrewers have more distinctive flavors than the pale lagers brewed by Budweiser, Coors, or Miller. Instead, they are a diverse array of brews that can be found nowhere else, creating a truly local experience. At
produces up to I 5,000 barrels annually, and ells no more than 25% in
Significant portion of this chapter initially appeared in different fonn in Schnell, Steven M. and Reese, Joseph F. 2003. Microbrewcrics as tools of local identity. Journal of Cultural Geography 21 (I): 45 70, and in Schnell, Steven M. 2013 . Deliberate Identities: Becoming Local in a Global Age. Journal of Cultural Geography 30( I): 55 89. Both articles copyright © JCG Press, Oklahoma State University, reprinted by pennission of Taylor and Francis Ltd., www.tandfonlnie.com, on behalf of JCG Press, Oklahoma State University.
an onsite restaurant. A brewpub is a brewery that sells more than 25 % of its beer on the premises in a restaurant setting. Further complicating matters is the rise of the tcm1 "craft brewery," defihcd by the Brewers Association as "small, independent, and traditional ," with a production of less than six million barrels a year, and which cannot be more than 24 % owned by another company that is not itself a craft brewery; this latter part of the definition is an explicit attempt to exclude the craft brew offerings of the major brewing companies (Brewers Association
. M. Schnell (~ ) Department of Geography, Kutztown University, I OS Graduate Center, Kutztown , PA 19530, USA e-mail : schnell kutztown.edu
]. F. Reese Geosciences Department, Edinboro University, 219 Meadville Street, Edinboro, PA, USA e-mail:
[email protected]
2013b). Though there is a distinction between microbrcwerics and brewpubs, the line between the two can be quite fuzzy. Some brewpubs bottle their beer for sales elsewhere, while some microbrcweries also run their own brewpubs In this chapter, we use the tenns "craft brewery" and "microbrewery" alike to refer to both brewpubs and microbrcwerics; for our purposes, the distinctions between the types are not particularly relevant.
M. Patterson, N. lloalst-Pullen (eds.), The Geography of Beer, DOl I 0.1 007/978-94-007-7787-3_ 1S, Springer Scicncc+ Business Media Dordrccht 2014
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the same time, they offer reprieve from the rising sea of giant national chains that have taken over retailing in every realm and crushed local businesses. Many brewpubs have also catered to our craving for uniqueness by providing one-of-akind social settings, common ly decorated with local hi storical photos, maps, and other artifacts of a place's personality. In part, the growth of microbrewerie · simply reflects a change in taste. Most microbreweri es put the bulk of their effort into darker ales and hoppier concoctions, more akin to many European beers, than into the pale lagers that characterize the American industry giants. We suggest, however, that the prolifera tion of microbreweries also derives in part from the desire of people to break away from the smothering homogeneity of popular American cu lture, and reestablish connections with local communities, settings, and economie . This tendency is a movement termed "neolocalism ," defined as the conscious attempt of individuals and groups to establish, rebuild , and cultivate local ties, local identities, and increasingly, local economies. (Flack 1997; Schnell 20 13; Schnell and Reese 2003; Shortridge 1996; Shortridge and Shortridge 1998; Zelinsky 20 II). Geographers and other observers of the Ameri can cultural scene have long bemoaned the ob literation of local character and identity in our commun ities (e.g., Relph 1976; Kunstler 1993). However, in myriad small ways, Americans are attempting to reclaim a sen e of place and a distinctive landscape in the face of our globalizing economy. Amidst the fragmenting effects of postmodernity, David Harvey has argued, "people are increasingly reasserting personal or collective identities, identities that are often rooted strongly in place, as a con cious counter to these forces that di srupt and uproot traditional community structures" ( 1990, pp. 302- 303). Indeed , in recent years, parts of the general public have become di sillusioned with the homogenous sea of WaiMarts and McDonalds that have rendered one American town virtual ly indistinguishable from another. In response, they have actively attempted to create new senses of place, new connections with the places they live, and new locallybased economies. In the words of Marquis and Battilana, " not on ly has the local remained important, but in many ways, local particularities have become more visible and sa lient" (2009, p. 283). One category ofbusine ses that has been an important player in thi s neolocal movement is the microbrewery. Microbreweries have purposefully catered to these cravings for connection through targeted marketing strategies that emphasize local identity and di stinctiveness. In the process, these establishments have become important purveyors and promoters of place attachment in local communities. Sense of place and place attachment have long been concerns in cultural geography. However, they have generally been treated as things that people simply have, not things that they create and actively maintain. This view is particularly
5. M. Schnell and J. F. Reese
striking when contrasted with the long-standing interest of cultural geographers in the conscious creation, manipulation, and interpretation of symbolic landscapes (e.g. Cosgrove 1998; Cosgrove and Daniels 1988; Duncan 1990; Forest and Johnson 2002; Harvey 1979; Moore and Whelan 2007; Rowntree and Conkey 1980). We feel that sense of place and place attachment must also be viewed as active, conscious processes, not as passive qualities. In our technologicall y connected, highly mobile increasingly globalized country, local place attachment and identity require much more conscious effort than in the past. Some cultural groups, of course, have long maintained connections to large-scale regions, be they ethnic homelands or nation-states (Nostrand and Estaville 200 I). Our subj ect here, however, is identity on a much more local scale. We are interested in the ways that individual communities create and maintain identities for themselves, the ways in which they actively foster the development of a rooted sense of place. An exa mination of microbreweries can help us gain insight into the active ways that these sorts of attachments are being strengthened in communities throughout the country. In 1997, geographer Wes Flack published a study that hypothesized that cravings for attachments to loca l places were driving the microbrewery revolution . Intri gued by Flack 's hypothesis, we expanded on his work in two ways. First, we updated his research to see if the regional and social trends ofmicrobreweries continued. In the intervening twenty years (most of Flack's data were from 1992), the industry underwent hyperactive expansion, growing six-fold by the 1990s, followed by a downturn in the late 1990s, the first in nearly a decade of expansion. Some thought that the downfall of the indu try was imminent, and that microbreweries were a passing fad (Dwyer 1997; Flaherty 2000; Khermouch 2000). Today, however, microbreweries and brewpubs have entered another period of substantial growth. Their numbers are greater than ever, and as a result, are becoming increasingly main tream. They are taken serious ly as a local economic force by many politicians and local officia ls. They also now have a more extensive network of craft-brewing association for support and guidance. Second, we wanted to examine the conscious ways that microbreweries foster neolocalism. To do this , we-examined images that breweries use to portray and market a sense of place. Flack ( 1997) describes the yearning people feel for locally brewed beer. But how does a sudsy liquid engender uch strong pulls of hometown loyalty? The President ofHeincken USA, Mike Foley, argued that " people are looking for so mething very different as part of a behavioral tatement. ... With a micro, they ' re not drinking a brand at all, but an idea" (Khermouch 1995a). The " idea" for many i connection to place. We examined this idea through the lens of the imagery that breweries are using to promote their local ties. By interpreting the images on
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