All posts by The Beer Professor

Neil Reid is Professor of Geography and Planning and Director of the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center at the University of Toledo. He studies and writes about the beer industry.

Craft Beer, Festivals, International

The Gift of Beer

November 30, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

When people learn that you enjoy craft beer, it is not unusual for them to give you some as a gift. Nowadays, it is common for my oldest daughter to give me craft beer as a birthday or Christmas gift. But every now and then I receive a gift of beer on occasions when I do not expect it. Such was the case last week when I was in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (colloquially known as Den Bosch) in the Netherlands. I was there to attend a workshop on Cities4People: Towards Smart, Safe and Sound Cities. The workshop was held at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS). On the first afternoon of the workshop I made a presentation on craft breweries as a neighborhood amenity, and their role in contributing to the quality of urban life.

Presenting on craft breweries as a neighborhood amenity at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science in Den Bosch, the Netherlands

After the afternoon presentations were complete there was a beer and wine reception, where workshop participants could network before dinner. Halfway through the meeting, Caroline Crevels, one of the organizers of the conference presented me with a gift. It was a gift of craft beer. What impressed me the most about this particular gift, however, was the effort and thoughtfulness that had went into selecting it. Caroline had visited a local bottle shop (Bottle Shop Den Bosch), and told the individual on duty that she was looking for a gift for a visiting craft beer lover and scholar. That individual then curated a selection of four beers, explaining to Caroline the significance of each one. Caroline took notes, and referred to these when presenting the gift to me. I was extremely touched with the care that she had taken.

Caroline Crevels (left) presented me with a gift of craft beer at a reception held at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science in Den Bosch, the Netherlands.

The four beers that Caroline presented me with were:

De Cam Oude Geuze: a Lambic-Gueuze brewed by Geuzestekerij De Cam Brewery in Gooik, Belgium. It has an ABV of 6.5%.
Imperial Stout: a Russian Imperial Stout brewed by Samuel Smith Old Brewery in Tadcaster, England. It has an ABV of 7%.
Oeteldonker: a Dry Hopped Amber Ale brewers by D’N Draok Brewery in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. It has an ABV of 6.1%.
Odravein: a Barley Wine beer brewed by Põhjala Brewery in Tallin, Estonia. It has an ABV of 12%.

The four beers I received as a gift while in Den Bosch, the Netherlands

Of the four beers, the one that peaked my interest the most was Oeteldonker. As Caroline explained, the Oeteldonker is brewed once a year, and the beer and the timing of its release is connected with the Carnaval season in Den Bosch. Carnaval is a celebration that takes place on the three days preceding Ash Wednesday. Although connected to the religious observances of Lent, Carnaval’s origins can be traced to pagan spring festivals. Carnaval was a time to feast. During Medieval and posted-Medieval periods, food remaining from the winter had to consumed, lest it would soon start to rot and decay.

Oeteldonker Beer, which is released on 11/11 each year

While I was familiar with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, LA and the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I have to admit I never knew that there was a similar event the southern Netherlands. It does, however, have a long history. Indeed Carnaval has been the subject for a number of 16th century artists, including Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. His 1559 painting The Fight between Carnival and Lent shows the juxtaposition of the religious (see the church on the right hand side of the painting) and the secular (the inn/tavern on the left hand side). The abstinence associated with Lent was preceded by a period of feasting. Beer features in Bruegel’s painting. At the bottom center-left of the painting is a large man riding a beer barrel. All indications (meat pie on head, pork chop attached to barrel, butcher knives in his belt etc.) are that he is a butcher. As butchers provided meat for Caranaval, his appearance in the painting is appropriate

The Fight between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Source: Wikipedia Commons

A close up of the butcher riding the beer barrel in Bruegel the Elderr’s painting

While the real spectacle of Carnaval does not begin until the three days before Ash Wednesday, preparations start on November 11 (11/11) each year. On that date, city councils vote for a Prince of Carnaval for their town. When the first day of Carnaval arrives, the Mayor of the town nominally transfers his or her authority to the Prince. Once this happens, normal daily life is suspended and the party begins. In Den Bosch, the city temporarily changes its name for the three days of Carnaval, and is re-named Oeteldonk. The name Oeteldonk has its genesis in Den Bosch’s geographical setting . According to my research “donk” refers to either a sandy hill or a low lying swamp (or perhaps a sandy hill in a low lying swamp). The word “oetel“ is thought refer refer to a Bishop Adrianus Godschalk who, in the late 19th century, wanted to ban carnival. The bishop was from the village of Den Dungen, where Van den Oetelaar was a common last name. Oetel is, therefore, a playful reference to the bishop. A symbol of Den Bosch’s Carnaval is the frog. Frogs were common in the swampy land surrounding Den Bosch. A defining characteristic of Carnaval is the reversal of social roles and the suspension of norms about desired behavior. The color and spectacle that is Carnaval can be seen in this video.

Oeteldonker beer, brewed by Brouwerij D’n Draok in Den Bosch, is inspired by Carnaval. It is brewed once a year, and is released on 11/11. Only 1,111 bottles of Oeteldonker are bottled each year; so I feel privileged to have one. In Germanic folklore, the number 11 is considered the “fool’s number”, and much of Carnaval involves playful, yet foolish, behavior.

The four beers were given to me just before the American Thanksgiving holiday. My oldest daughter, Kirsty, was visiting my wife and I from Cincinnati for that holiday. And, as Kirsty is also a craft beer aficionado, I thought it would be nice to share them with her. So before we sat down for our Thanksgiving meal, her and I opened and shared each of the four beers. As we did so I reflected on the generosity of Caroline and my other Dutch friends, and gave thanks for their wonderful generosity and friendship.

History, Neighborhoods

From Mills to Breweries: Charlotte’s NoDa Neighborhood

November 8, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

I was in Charlotte, NC recently. I was there to attend the 42nd annual Applied Geography Conference. As is customary in my conference travels, I used any spare time I had to explore the local craft beer scene. This was my third visit to Charlotte, since 2012, so I actually was quite familiar with the growth of the city’s craft beer sector. During my last visit in 2016, I had visited three Charlotte breweries (Birdsong Brewing Company, The Unknown Brewing Company, and Heist Brewery) as part of a Charlotte Brews Cruise tour. Charlotte has also been one of my case study cities for my academic work on America’s burgeoning craft brewing industry. With my colleague Isabelle Nilsson of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, we examined the impact of craft breweries on property values. Our research showed that being within one-half mile of a craft brewery increased the value of single-family homes by 9.3%. In another piece we examined the role that craft breweries have played in the revitalization of Charlotte’s historic NoDa neighborhood.

NoDa is a fascinating neighborhood, with historical ties to North Carolina’s textile industry. Production of textiles began in North Charlotte (as NoDa was known then) in 1903 with the opening of Highland Park Mill No. 3. Two other mills were subsequently opened in the neighborhood- Mecklenburg Mill In 1905 and Johnson Mill In 1916. At that time, North Charlotte was geographically separated from the city of Charlotte, being located three miles north of the city.

In close proximity to the Highland Park and Mecklenburg mills were mill villages. These villages, constructed by mill owners, provided homes for the mill workers and their families. Mill villages had basic services such as a school and a church. At the nexus of the two mill villages was a commercial district, where services such as grocery stores, a barber’s shop, a drug store, etc. could be found.

By the mid-1960s, low-cost labor in developing economies in Asia and Latin America posed a serious threat to the American textile industry. Mills closed and employment dwindled. The impact of this overseas competition was felt in and around the Charlotte region, The Highland Park Mill No. 3 and the Mecklenburg Mill closed in 1969, while the Johnson Mill closed in 1975. The closing of the mills signaled tough times for North Charlotte. People left the neighborhood, seeking employment elsewhere and abandoned homes fell into a state of disrepair. Poverty, crime, low-income housing, drug houses and prostitution came to characterize the neighborhood.

The revitalization of the neighborhood began in the 1980s, when two artists, Paul Sires and Ruth Ava Lyons, opened the Center of the Earth Gallery on North Davidson Street. Other artists quickly followed, and North Charlotte became a small, but thriving, arts community. The neighborhood still faced challenges, however, and remained rough around the edges. The Great Recession of 2007-2009 was not good to the neighborhood , which was now known as NoDa. The neighborhood survived, however, and today is home to a diversified range of businesses, including cafes, restaurants, bakeries, yoga studios, and breweries.

The first brewery to call NoDa home was NoDa Brewing Company, which opened its doors in October 2011. Today, the neighborhood is home to ten breweries. While in Charlotte, I had the opportunity to visit four of them Birdsong Brewing Co., Heist Brewery, Protagonist, and Wooden Robot Brewery. Of the four, Heist has the strongest connection to the neighborhood’s historic textile industry. It is, in fact, located in the old Highland Park Mill. Inside the brewery, their is a framed description of the mill’s history.

Heist Brewery is located in the historic Highland Park Mill

The history of Highland Park Mill is displayed in Heist Brewery

Visible from Heist Brewery are a number of the single-Storey homes once occupied by mill families. Some of these have been restored by local residents. The mill homes are protected by protective easements, a legal document signed by both the homeowner and Preservation North Carolina, which prevent homeowners from making changes that compromise the home’s historical integrity. As recently as 2015, NoDa’s refurbished mill homes were selling for anywhere between the high $200,000 and the mid $400,000.

An old mill worker’s home in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood. This home is visible from Heist Brewery.

Charlotte has a vibrant craft beer scene. As is the case in many cities I have visited, craft beer has a habit of connecting the beer drinker with a community’s history. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that many craft breweries, in search of inexpensive real estate, occupy older abandoned buildings in historically interesting neighborhoods. Thanks to my wonderful hosts, Isabelle Nilsson and her husband Jeff, I had the opportunity to experience the NoDa neighborhood, complete with its wonderful craft breweries and fascinating history.

Craft Brewing And Industry 4.0

October 22, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

In my last blog entry I wrote about a recent trip I made to Budapest, Hungary. I was there attending the annual conference of the International Geographic Union Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. The theme of the conference was Rethinking Economic Geography in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship, Employment and Industry 4.0. My presentation at the conference was about the applicability of Industry 4.0 methods to the craft brewing industry.

So what is Industry 4.0? Put in historical context Industry 4.0 is referred to, by many, as the fourth industrial revolution (see diagram below). It is in fact, a “general term for networked, digitized production; machines and products are seen as networked and intelligent components that can exchange data locally, globally and among companies.” The different parts of an Industry 4.0 manufacturing system include the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, automation of processes with robots, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence (AI). For example, the Internet of Things (whereby machines connect and communicate with each other) permits manufacturers to use sensors that collect real time data on manufacturing processes. These data, in conjunction with powerful analytical techniques, can provide manufacturers with insights into inefficiencies in their manufacturing processes. Acting upon these data and analysis allows manufacturers to realize increased levels of productivity. In short an Industry 4.0 factory is a smart factory.

The four stages of the evolution of manufacturing
Source: Machines4u.com

While concepts such as the Internet of Things and big data might seem a million miles away from making craft beer, there are, in fact, several examples of breweries utilizing Industry 4.0 technologies. These include New Belgium Brewing who have production breweries in Fort Collins,Co and Asheville, NC. A major problem that New Belgium faced was unscheduled downtime on their bottling line. This meant that the brewery was not bottling as much beer as it could. To address the problem, New Belgium utilized what is known as a Manufacturing Execution System (MES). An MES is a computerized system which allows manufacturers to “track and document the transformation of raw materials to finished goods. MES provides information that helps manufacturing decision makers understand how current conditions on the plant floor can be optimized to improve production output.” The MES allowed New Belgium to identify the sources and number of downtime events. They were then able to take steps to remedy them. Downtime fell by 50%, and there was a significant increase in bottling efficiency. As a result, the number of cases of beer being produced per week increased from ~150,000 to ~200,000. All of this was achieved without any new capital investments.

While New Belgium is a relatively large craft brewer (the 4th largest in the United States), Industry 4.0 methods have been utilized by smaller craft breweries. Take Sugar Creek Brewing Company of Charlotte, NC. Opened in 2014, Sugar Creek specialize in Belgian-style ales. Annually, the brewery produces ~5,000 barrels of beer. When Sugar Creek realized that they were losing $30,000 a month due to excessive foaming they knew something had to be done. Excessive foam in bottles coming off the bottling line was a particular problem. Somewhere between 10% and 13% of a batch of beer was being wasted. The brewery turned to IBM and Bosch for help. Sensors were installed on the production line and the generated data were analyzed. The analysis showed that the excessive foam was created as a result of imbalances in pressure and temperature as the beer went from tank to tank on the bottling line. Armed with this new knowledge, Sugar Creek were able to make adjustments that solved the problem and reduced waste. An added bonus was more controlled and precise fermentations which resulted in better flavored beer. A short video explaining how Sugar Creek benefitted from Industry 4.0 technologies can be viewed here.

Sugar Creek Brewing Company of Charlotte, NC have utilized Industry 4.0 technologies

The two examples above clearly demonstrate the benefits of Industry 4.0 to the craft brewing industry. In addition to New Belgium and Sugar Creek, there are other craft breweries that are using Industry 4.0 technologies. These include Deschutes Brewery of Bend, OR and Tröegs Brewing of Hershey, PA. In reality though, I wonder about how many craft brewers are in a position to take advantage of Industry 4.0 technologies. Most craft brewers are quite small. Many, for example, do not have their own bottling or canning equipment, and so utilize the services of mobile canning companies. As one observer noted, “the use of sensors throughout the premises would seem appropriate in larger facilities. Smaller microbreweries would specifically struggle with the adoption of this advancement, due to height of cost. Smaller locations might not possess the space large enough to see any success either.“ While Industry 4.0 technologies may not become widespread in the craft brewing industry, those breweries that are able to utilize them are likely to realize unforeseen and unprecedented improvements in efficiency and productivity.

International

Hungary For Beer

October 11, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

I just returned from four days in Budapest, Hungary. I was there attending the annual conference of the International Geographic Union Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. I served as Chair of the Commission between 2010 and 2014, and so enjoy going to their annual conference to catch up with old friends, and even perhaps make some new ones. Trips such as this also provide me with an opportunity to explore the local beer scene. I had last visited Budapest in 2015, so I was curious to see how the craft beer scene there had evolved since then.

The first written record of brewing in Hungary dates to the twelfth century. During the sixteenth-century, manor houses and monasteries had their own on-site breweries; but it was not until the seventeenth century that what might be considered the first industrial scale breweries were established. By 1910 four brewing companies (Dreher Antal Brewery, First Hungarian Brewery, Kobánya Civil Brewery, and Haggenmacher Breweries) produced over ninety percent of beer consumed domestically. Despite the dominance of the Big Four, the Hungarian market supported an additional eighty-six smaller breweries. In 1948, the Hungarian brewing industry was nationalized. It remained that way until 1983. Between 1948 and 1983, a single state-owned brewing company (the Hungary Brewery, and its successor the Trust of Hungarian Beer Breweries) was responsible for producing all of the beer brewed in Hungary. Budapest was the main center of production during this period, – producing seventy-six percent of the country’s Beer.

Hungarians consume approximately sixty-three liters of beer per capita annually (2017 data). This placed them sixteenth out of twenty-eight European countries listed in a Brewers of Europe report. Like many other European countries, Lager is the most popular type of beer in Hungary, accounting for between eighty and ninety percent of beer consumed. Most Hungarian beer is produced by three breweries – Dreher Breweries (owned by Asahai Breweries of Japan), Borsodi Brewery (owned by Molson Coors) and Heineken Hungaria.

I enjoyed some Dreher Lager (and a shot of Jägermeister) while in Budapest

In recent years, craft beer has grown in popularity in Hungary. Modern day microbreweries made their appearance starting in the 1990s. According to a report by The Brewers of Europe the country was home to sixty microbreweries in 2017, up from twenty in 2011.

In addition to craft breweries, craft beer bars are also becoming increasingly common, particularly In Budapest. Indeed in an August 2019 piece CNN listed Budapest among the fifteen best beer cities in the world. While wandering around the center of Hungary’s capital city, I came across Beer Brothers Craft Beer Bar. It had fourteen Hungarian craft beers on tap. I visited Brothers twice during my short four-day stay in Budapest, trying a total of three different beers. The first was Stroman, a New England IPA from Ugar Brewery. Ugar is located in the town of Törökszentmiklós (population 23,000), eighty miles southwest of Budapest The second and third were both from Mad Scientist Brewery – Madhouse, a New England IPA and Lumber Sexual, a Brut IPA. Mad Scientist Brewery is located in Budapest.

Beer Brothers Craft Beer Bar has 14 Hungarian craft beers on tap

Madhouse, a New England IPA, brewed by Mad Scientist Brewery

The second craft beer bar I visited was Neked Csak Dezso!. Although the sign on the outside said that it was a Brewpub and bistro, there was no brewing done on site. It was, quite simply, a craft beer bar. Although the service left a lot to be desired, this is a really impressive craft beer bar. First it is quite large. Second it has thirty-two craft beers on draft, over twenty-five of which were from Hungarian breweries. There were also a nice selection of craft beers that could be purchased to go. I arrived at the bar near closing time, so I only had time for one brew. I opted for Fruit Works, a Raspberry Gose from Brew Your Mind Brewery. The brewery is located in Szekszárd, a town of thirty-two thousand people, ninety miles south of Budapest.

*Neked Csak Dezso!* had a fine selection of craft beers to go

*Fruit Works, a Raspberry Gose from Brew Your Mind Brewery*

The third and final craft beer bar I visited was First Craft Beer & BBQ, located in Budapest’s Jewish Quarter. The brewery has two locations in Budapest – a brewery/taproom and taproom/restaurant. It was the latter I visited. There were twenty beers on tap, nine of which were their own creations. I opted for their Belgian Cherry Fruit Beer.

This was my second visit to Budapest. My last visit was in 2015. My sense is that the craft beer scene has grown since then. There are certainly more craft breweries in the country. As noted above, there were sixty in craft breweries in 2017 (the most recent year for which I have data), compared to forty-six in 2015. From casual observation, it seems to me that the craft beer scene in Budapest is more vibrant than it was four years ago. There do appear to be more craft beer bars, and craft beer does seem more readily available in cafes and regular bars. I like Budapest. It is a vibrant city. I look forward to returning some day.

Overlooked Neighborhoods

September 29, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

Recently, I came across an interesting article on the website ozy.com. It was titled Overlooked Neighborhoods: Little-known Gems in Well-Known Cities. The premise of the article was pretty straightforward. When we visit a city, we tend to keep to well-trodden paths. These can be restaurants we have read about in guidebooks, museums that are on everyone’s must-visit list, or a green space such as a famous park.

But dare to look beyond the tourist traps and our own comfort zone, and we will see that every city has lesser-known neighborhoods that are worth spending time in. This particular article identifies seven such neighborhoods:

Abasto, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bridgeport, Chicago, USA
Narvarte, Mexico City, Mexico
The neighborhood surrounding Reitarska Street, Kiev, Ukraine
Břevnov, Prague, Czech Republic
Little Five Points, Atlanta, USA
Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, USA

It is is an interesting list, albeit a little U.S.-centric. What I found particularly intriguing about the descriptions of these seven neighborhoods is that beer is mentioned as a key part of the urban fabric in four of them (Abasto, Bridgeport, Brevnov, and Over-the-Rhine). In the cases of Abasto, Bridgeport, and Over-the-Rhine, craft beer bars and breweries, in particular, are mentioned, while in the Břevnov neighborhood of Prague, the monks at the monastery there first brewed beer in the year 993. This makes it the earliest record of beer being brewed in the Czech Republic. In a completely separate piece on Pittsburgh’s overlooked neighborhoods, Kelly Abrogast, shines the spotlight on the city’s Troy Hill neighborhood. According to Abrogast, Troy Hill is Home to “some of the best beer you’ve ever had”. Troy Hill is home to Penn Brewery.

Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood

The fact that craft beer (whether in the form of craft beer bars or craft breweries) are considered a key contributor to interesting and vibrant neighborhoods does not surprise me in the slightest. In a 2016 piece in The Atlantic, James Fallows identified eleven signs that a city will succeed – one of those signs was the existence of at least one craft brewery. As noted by Fallows, “a town that has craft breweries also has a certain kind of entrepreneur, and a critical mass of mainly young (except for me) customers.” As Fallows correctly notes, craft breweries are a magnet for young people. As market research has demonstrated, it is the Millennial cohort who are driving the growth of the craft beer sector. A craft brewery or craft beer bar in a neighborhood attracts young people, not just from the immediate neighborhood, but from other parts of the city, and even farther afield. Beer tourism is increasingly popular, and craft beer drinkers visiting cities search out those neighborhoods with craft breweries and craft beer bars. A craft brewery opening up in a neighborhood is akin to putting up a welcome sign. It is saying to people, come check us out. This neighborhood is ok; good things are happening. In some cases, such as the Ohio City neighborhood in Cleveland, OH or the Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood in Denver, CO, craft breweries (Great Lakes Brewing Company and Wynkoop Brewing Company respectively) were pioneer investors who kick-started the redevelopment of these respective neighborhoods. In other cases, such as the Pearl District in Portland, OR or the North Davidson (NoDa) neighborhood in Charlotte, NC the craft breweries and craft beer bars have followed other investment into the neighborhood. Whatever the sequencing of investments, many of these neighborhoods have had new life breathed into them.

Great Lakes Brewing Company was the catalyst for the redevelopment of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood

According to Denver Public Library, “back in the 1980s, Lower Downtown Denver was what we called “a little sketchy” – a lot of places were boarded up, and ones that were open were populated by the underground crowd, drifters, punk rockers and late nighters. Today, the bustling restaurant – sports bar – brew pub district looks like the Seattle or Portland we all longed for, with a huge variety of food choices both native and exotic, all kinds of great beer, espresso, chocolate, and other delicacies, and a wide array of clothing and accessory stores, art galleries, and high-end lofts.”

Back in 2016, I spent a few days in Stockholm, Sweden. While there I visited the Nya Carnegie Bryggeret (New Carnegie Brewery). The brewery is in an old lightbulb factory in the Hammarby Sjöstad neighborhood. In the early 1990s, Hammarby Sjöstad was a run-down, polluted industrial and residential neighborhood that was considered unsafe by outsiders. By the time I visited it in 2016, it had underwent a remarkable transformation. As a result of significant investment, it was an attractive neighborhood with apartments, shops, offices and, yes, a brewery.

*The Nya Carnegie Bryggeret (New Carnegie Brewery) in Stockholm’s HammarbySjöstad neighborhood is in an old lightbulbg factory*

The example of Nya Carnegie Bryggeret shows that craft breweries often thrive in overlooked neighborhoods, but they can also succeed in overlooked buildings. Through the process of adaptive reuse, craft brewery entrepreneurs will take an old abandoned church, fire station, automobile dealership etc. and turn it into a vibrant craft brewery. Craft brewery entrepreneurs are attracted to distressed neighborhoods because real estate is often relatively inexpensive.

Some people living in an overlooked neighborhood, may like it that way. So they may not necessarily welcome a new brewery and other investment and the visitors that they attract. Rising property values may force long-standing residents out of the neighborhood. Along with my colleagues, Jay Gatrell and Matthew Lehnert, I write about this in an upcoming book chapter. The chapter looks at the historical evolution of Cincinnati’s Over-the- Rhine neighborhood. Despite once being dubbed the most dangerous neighborhood in the United States, residents of Over-the-Rhine had for decades been suspicious of outsiders and the change they sought to bring to the neighborhood. This suspicion manifest itself in the Over-the-Rhine Peoples’ Movement who fought against gentrification of their neighborhood. In the end, their cause was a lost one and millions of investment dollars later Over-the-Rhine is very much a changed and more vibrant neighborhood.

Further Reading:

Reid, Neil. Craft breweries, Adaptive reuse, and neighborhood revitalization, Urban Development Issues, Volume 57, Issue 1, pp. 5–14.

Reid, Neil, Jay D. Gatrell, and Matthew Lehnert. Leveraging brewing history: The case of Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine Neighborhood”. In Thakur, Rajiv, Ashok K. Dutt, Sudhir K. Thakur, and George Pomeroy (Eds). Urban and Regional Planning and Development: 20th Century Forms and 21st Century Transformations, Springer: Dordrecht (forthcoming).

History

Signs of the Times

September 21, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

My wife and I visit Cincinnati, OH several times throughout the year. Our oldest daughter lives there, so we take every opportunity we can to spend time with her. Plus, we both really like Cincinnati. It is an interesting and vibrant city. For me, it holds some special memories. It was the first large American city I ever visited. I arrived in the United States in 1985, to attend graduate school at Miami University in Oxford, OH. To get from Oxford to Cincinnati is about a fifty minute drive, so it became a favorite destination during my two years at Miami.

Every time my wife and I visit Cincinnati it is usually for a couple of days, which gives us enough time to visit a museum or park or some other attraction that we had never visited before. On our most recent trip, we made a visit to the American Sign Museum (AMS). According to its website, the AMS is the “largest public museum dedicated to signs in the United States”. The 20,000 square feet museum has over two hundred items on display, the vast majority of which are neon signs. The signs date from the late nineteenth century up thru the 1970s. As you might imagine the signs for a plethora of businesses and products – drugs, paint, gasoline, restaurants, bars etc. Some of the signs catch the eye more than others. A 1963 McDonald’s sign is particularly eye-catching. It features Speedee, a character who was eventually phased out in favor of Ronald McDonald. Another classic piece of Americana on display at the AMS is a Big Boy statue, which dates from the 1960s.

The McDonald’s sign on display at the American Sign Museum

Not surprisingly, there are also a number of beer signs. So I thought I’d use the remainder of this blog entry to look at some of the brewery/beer signs and tell the story behind them.

Sunshine Beer: Sunshine Beer was one of the beers brewed by the Sunshine Brewing Company of Reading, PA. The brewery, opened in 1880, was owned by Peter Barbey & Son. Colloquially, the beer was known as Sunny. Some old television commercials advertising Sunny can be viewed here. Sunshine Brewery closed in 1968 and the building was demolished during the 1970s. A video of the brewery being demolished can be found here.

Kaier’s Beer: Kaier’s Beer was brewed by the Chas. D. Kaier Brewery of Mahanoy City, PA. Kaier was a German immigrant, arriving in the United States at the age of nineteen in 1857. He opened the brewery opened in 1880. Kaier was quite the entrepreneur. In addition to the brewery, he owned forty taverns, an ice company, an opera house, a hotel, and a host of other business in Mahanoy City. During Prohibition, the brewery remained operational by producing both legal (no greater than 0.5% alcohol by weight) and illegal beer (3.2% alcohol by weight). The illegal beer was transferred by a pipeline down the Mahanoy Creek to a barn on the city’s Vine Street where it was put into kegs. The brewery had ‘spotters’ stationed on all roads leading into Mahanoy, who would inform the brewery when Federal agents entered town. Keg filling operations were then temporarily suspended. By 1951, Kaier’s was one of the largest breweries in Pennsylvania, producing 183,500 barrels of beer. In 1966, the brewery was sold to Henry F. Ortlieb Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, who closed the brewery in 1968.

Seitz Beer and Ale: Seitz was a brewery in Easton, PA. Opened by Frederick Seitz in 1821, it was the town’s first brewery. At its peak in 1933, the brewery employed seventy people and produced 70,000 barrels of beer. In 1874 Seitz built a bottling plant, allowing the brewery to become the first brewery in Pennsylvania to sell beer in bottles. To keep the doors open during Prohibition, Seitz produced a non-alcoholic brew called ‘cereal beverage’. At the same time, Seitz was pumping beer by a hose under the Delaware River to neighboring New Jersey. New Jersey had not ratified the eighteenth amendment banning alcohol. As a result the Federal ban on alcohol was not as severely enforced in the state. Similar to the Kaier Brewery in Pennsylvania, Seitz were tipped off when Federal agents were about to show up. Seitz eventually closed for business in 1938.

Broadway Brewery: Broadway Brewery started out its life as San Francisco Brewery in 1853. The founder and owner, Jacob Frederick Sprecht, was a German immigrant. By 1862, the brewery was under new ownership and was renamed Broadway Brewery. The name reflected the brewery’s location on Broadway Street. In 1893 the brewery was destroyed by a fire. By August of that year a new brewery had been built and was up and running. Although the name was retained, the new brewery was located on 19th Street. By 1899, the brewery was producing twenty thousand barrels annually. It had fifteen employees and eight horse-drawn beer wagons, which delivered beer to San Francisco saloons. On January 17, 1917, the Broadway Brewery became part of the California Brewing Association (CBA). CBA was a co-operative designed to give member breweries greater buyer and selling power. By the end of the year, however, the Broadway Brewery was closed.

Ballantine Beer: Ballantine Beer was brewed by P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company, founded in Newark, NJ in 1840. Its founder, Peter Ballantine, was a Scottish immigrant. At its peak, during the 1940s and 1950s, it was the third largest brewing company in the United States. Its popularity during this period was helped by the fact that Ballantine was the first television sponsor of the New York Yankees. Starting in the mid-1960s, due to competitive pressure, Ballantine entered into a period of decline, from which they would not recover. In 1972, Falstaff Brewing Corporation purchased Ballantine. The new owners closed the Ballantine brewery in Newark, choosing to brew Ballantine’s various beers elsewhere. In 1985 Falstaff was purchased by the Pabst Brewing Company. Over time Falstaff and Pabst modified the recipes of the various Ballantine beers. A number of Ballantine beers are brewed today, including the Ballantine IPA. The Ballantine neon sign on display at the American Sign Museum is in its original crate. As the label on the top right hand corner of the crate indicates, the sign was manufactured by Adversigns Inc. of Berwick, PA in the 1950s, and was shipped to the Penn-Sheraton Hotel (now the Omni William Penn Hotel) in Pittsburgh, PA

Sign at the American Sign Museum explaining the history of the Ballantine beer sign

These are just some of the beers signs on display at the American Sign Museum. There are others, of course, including signs for Heilman’s Old Style Lager, Hudepohl Beer, and Schoenling Beer. These signs are an important piece of American brewing history. It is great to see that they have survived the decades and, thanks to the American Sign Museum, are here for the general public to enjoy.

Beer Tourism

Bed and Brew

August 16, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

With the growing popularity of craft beer we have witnessed a concomitant increase in beer-related tourism. This is a topic I have written about in a previous blog entry. Most beer tourism involves short two or three day getaways, usually to a town or city where there are enough breweries to keep the beer drinker happy for a couple of afternoons and/or evenings. Beer tourism can be big business and can bring significant sums of money into a local economy. For example, a study by Grand Valley State University estimated the economic impact of beer tourism on Kent County, MI to be in excess of $12 million. Much of this impact was due to the fact that Kent County is home to the city of Grand Rapids, one of the premier craft beer producing cities in the United States. The study found that the 42,000 beer tourists who visited Kent County during the spring and summer of 2015 accounted for fourteen thousand hotel nights at an average cost of $148 per night.

While most beer tourists stay at a hotel in close proximity to the breweries they plan to visit, in a few cases it is possible to stay in a hotel or other lodgings owned by the brewery. Perhaps, the best known example of a brewery hotel is the DogHouse Hotel. Touted as the “world’s first craft beer hotel”, the DogHouse is located on the grounds of the BrewDog Brewery just outside of Columbus, OH. The hotel has thirty-two themed rooms, with draft beer on tap in each. Given that the DogHouse Hotel is only a couple of hours from where I live, you might think that I have stayed there already, but I have not. It is on my ‘to do’ list, however. Another well known brewery that owns a hotel is Dogfish Head. Their sixteen-room hotel (the Dogfish Inn) in Lewis, DE is a short twenty-minute drive from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Unlike the DogHouse Hotel, the Dogfish Inn does not offer beer on-site – the idea is to get visitors to visit bars and restaurants in the surrounding community.

While I still have to make it to the DogHouse Hotel, I did recently have the opportunity to stay onsite at another brewery – The Inn at Springfield Manor in Thurmont, MD. My wife and I were visiting Maryland and Virginia to celebrate a family birthday and my wife’s step-father, knowing of my love of beer, booked us a room at the aforementioned inn. The Inn is situated on a beautiful 130 acre estate. But there is more to the estate than the Inn. On site, they brew beer, distill spirits, and ferment wine – something for everyone, as it were. The Inn has eight rooms. We stayed in The Edelweiss Suite, named after one of the types of lavender grown in the Inn’s lavender fields.

The Inn at Springfield Manor, where we stayed two nights.

The view from the front steps of the Inn at Springfield Manor.

*Our complimentary flights of four sangria and four beers.*

We arrived at the Inn late afternoon. After checking into our accommodation we headed to the outside bar area. As part of our room package, we received a complimentary flight of drinks. My wife opted for a flight of four sangrias, while I went for a flight of four beers. While the bar offers small plates to munch on, more substantive fare can be purchased from the food truck that is on duty. That evening’s food truck specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches, so I had a very tasty grilled cheese and pulled pork sandwich for dinner. As the evening wore on, the outside bar got increasingly busy. Given the limited number of rooms available at the Inn, most of the folks enjoying the craft beer/spirits/wine were either locals or tourists staying in other accommodation.

We had a wonderful two-night stay at the Inn at Springfield Manor. The setting was idyllic, the service was friendly and attentive, and the craft beer was tasty. Following our stay at the Inn, we got into our car and headed to our final destination. Chincoteague Island, VA, where we were meeting up with family from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. On our way there, we stopped for lunch at RAR Brewery in Cambridge, MD. Later in the day, after checking into our hotel in Chincoteague, we headed to Black Narrows Brewing Company for a late afternoon beer. Overall a great trip – quality time with family and a few breweries thrown in for good measure.

We had lunch at RAR Brewing in Cambridge, MD

Enjoying a late afternoon beer at Black Narrows Brewing Comp[any in Chincoteague Island, VA.

Beer Styles, Rituals

A Time For Everything

July 25, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

I have lived in Toledo, OH for twenty-eight years. One of the things that I like about living in this part of the country is the seasonality of the weather. We have hot summers (average high July temperatures of 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and cold winters (average high January temperatures of 18.4 degrees Fahrenheit). In between we have beautiful spring and fall weather. Before moving to Toledo, I lived in the Phoenix, AZ for four years, where the average high July temperatures are 106.4 degrees Fahrenheit. I still recall June 26, 1990 when the temperature hit 122 degrees Fahrenheit – a record for Phoenix that stands to this day. Before emigrating to the United States in 1985, I lived in Scotland. When people ask me about the weather in Scotland, I jokingly say that if you watch the nightly news, there are one of two weather forecasts – wet with dry periods, or dry with wet periods. Glasgow, where I spent four years as an undergraduate student, gets on average 13 more inches of rain per year than Portland, OR.

The Book of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) states that, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens“. And so it is with beer. Just like the weather in Toledo, OH, beer is also a highly seasonal beverage. While all breweries have their year-round flagship brews, almost every craft brewery that I know have seasonal releases – Märzens in the spring, pumpkin ales in the fall, Christmas ales in the winter, etc. Some seasonal beers I really enjoy ( Märzens), while others (pumpkin ales) I can take or leave.

Over the years, I have come to realize that there is a seasonality to my own beer drinking habits. For example, I consume considerably more beer in the summer months than other seasons. This is directly related to the weather. During the winter months, when I spend more time indoors at home I simply do not drink as much beer. For example, I rarely drink beer at home when it is just my wife and I watching a movie on TV. If we have guests, that is a different matter, especially if at least one of those guests is a beer drinker. During the winter months I also go out less to bars and restaurants.

Summer is a different matter. At home, during the summer months, I spend more time outside, mowing the lawn or doing other yard work. Yard work of any type usually ends with a beer to two. Summer is also grilling season, and I never grill without a beer in my hand. One of my favorite summer beer rituals occurs right after I arrive home from work. I usually get home before my wife. So I take advantage of this time, grab a beer from the refrigerator, and sit on the front stoop and consume it. As I sit there, I observe the comings and goings of the neighborhood. I see others arriving home from their workday. I say “Hi” to folks walking their dogs, and even to those not walking a dog. More often than not, Barbara my neighbor is in her front yard pottering away. Barbara is an elderly retired African-American lady, She was there when we moved into our house in 1994. So as I sit and drink my beer, Barbara and I will exchange pleasantries and chat for a few minutes (usually about our yards). Sitting there with a beer in my hand also provides an opportunity to reflect on the workday just completed and to plan for the one ahead. Another habit that I gotten into is to take a photograph of the beer that I am drinking and post it on social media (Facebook and Twitter mainly). I have posted some of these pics below).

In terms of the styles of beer that I drink, I tend to have quite eclectic tastes. Unlike one of my friends who seems to have an IPA in his hand every time I see him (you know who you are Joe), my taste in beer is pretty wide ranging. Even within the space of one evening I can shift from a Lager to a Sour to an IPA. I do however, drink more Stouts and Porters during the colder months, with more Lagers, Sours, and Fruit beers in the summertime.

But sitting on the front stoop of my house with a beer is by far my favorite beer drinking ritual. There is quite a lot of evidence that having daily rituals are beneficial in all sorts of ways – from promoting creativity to giving us a greater sense of self awareness. According to one observer, “rituals, in essence, provide the structure and substance to our every day lives, and without their comforting presence, our lives are thrown into disorganization, uncertainty and chaos.” Who wants disorganization, uncertainty, and chaos in their lives? – certainly not me. Rituals can of course take many forms – exercising first thing in the morning, having coffee with friends at a local coffee shop, taking an afternoon nap etc. Apparently the Swedish movie director, Ingmar Bergman and the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, took walks everyday to recharge their batteries. As far as beer is concerned, some people have attributed their longevity to having a daily beer. When Mildred Bowers, from Mount Pleasant, SC, turned 103 in 2016, she revealed that a glass of beer at 4pm every day was one of the keys to her longevity. I am not sure if my summer beer drinking ritual is going to add one day to my life, but it sure improves the quality of my life on those days when I do have one.

History, Ohio

Carillon: Honoring the Past

July 3, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were planning an overnight trip to just north of Cincinnati, OH. We were going there to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The drive would be approximately three hours. And given that we’re planning to leave mid-morning we decided to look for a possible lunch venue along our route. Anytime we are on the road and have a lunch stop, I always try to see if there is a brewery where we can eat and have a beer. We figured we would be near Dayton, OH around lunchtime, and so I looked for breweries there. In my search I came across Carillon Brewing Co. I had read about Carillon a few years ago and had always had an interest in visiting it.

Carillon Brewing Co. is a little different than most craft breweries. It is located inside Carillon Historical Park. The park is a sixty-five acre open-air history museum that depicts the history of Dayton from the late-1700s to the present.

Carillon Brewing Co. was established in 2014. One of the brewery’s claim to fame is that it is the nation’s only production brewery that is located inside a museum. Inside the brewery itself, there are displays highlighting Dayton’s brewing history. Like many other city’s across the United States, British-inspired ales were the dominant type of beer produced. When German immigrants started arriving in significant numbers in the 1840s, they introduced Lager to the city. By the 1880s there were as many as fourteen breweries operating in the city, and by 1900 Dayton’s breweries were producing three million gallons of beer annually.

This map inside Carillon Brewery provides information on Dayton’s brewing history in the 1850-1856 period

According to the brewery’s website, all of the beer brewed at Carillon is a “historical recreation of the earliest brews made in Ohio’s breweries.” Many of the processes used to brew the beer replicate those of the nineteenth century. Beer is brewed in open kettles, fermented in oak barrels, and is unfiltered. And when available , Ohio-grown hops are used. Beers on the menu include Coriander Ale, Irish Red Ale, and Pale Rye Ale (no IPAs!). The staff at the brewery are dressed in period costume. With my lunch, I opted for their Ginger Pale Ale. In addition to brewing beer, bread using spent grain from the brewing process is made daily onsite. My wife and I enjoyed some with the soup we had for lunch, and purchased a loaf to take back home with us.

For $150, Carillon offers you the opportunity to be a brewer for the day. It is quite a long day, which starts at 11:00 am and runs until 7:30 pm. While we can read about the process of brewing beer, and even look at diagrams that identify the various steps, it is my belief that there is nothing like a little bit of hands-on experience to enhance one’s understanding.

While craft beer has bought us a unprecedented diversity of wonderful beers (The Brewers Association recognizes over 150 different styles of beer), it has, I believe, also contributed to a growing appreciation of brewing history. This is manifest in any number of ways. In my town of Toledo, OH, for example, the Toledo Historical Museum organize a History and Hops Brewery Tour, in which participants learn about the city’s brewing history. The tour starts at one of the city’s craft breweries – Maumee Bay Brewing Company. In a similar fashion, the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (BDCURC) in CincinnatI, OH offer a number of walking tours that recount that neighborhood’s historical connection with beer. In St. Louis, MO, the Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum offer the Beer Barons Tour. The cemetery contains around forty burial sites that have a connection with St. Louis’s rich brewing history. The tour provides people with an opportunity to learn about the city’s beer entrepreneurs.

Individual breweries are discovering and recreating old beer styles that have not been brewed in decades. For example, breweries in Louisville, KY are brewing their version of pre-Prohibition Kentucky Common beer. The city’s Apocalypse Brew Works produce a Kentucky Common beer using a 1912 recipe from the Oertel Brewing Company; a recipe that calls for corn grits.

Kentucky Common – a beer style that was popular in the Louiseville, KY region in the pre-Prohibition era is now being produced by a number of Louisville breweries. The one pictured here was brewed by Louisville’s Bluegrass Brewing Company.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, DE have an Ancient Ales series, whose recipes are based on residue discovered on chemical analysis of drinking vessels from various sites around the world. They do this in partnership with University of Pennsylvania archaeologist, Dr. Patrick McGovern. The result has been beers with evocative names such as Midas Touch, Chateau Jiahu, and Birra Etrusca Bronze.

History is important. It grounds us in our roots, helps us understand change, and can inspire us to learn more. And thanks, in part to craft beer, there seems to be a growing interest in the history of both beer and brewing. This is a good thing.

Community, Craft Breweries, Economic Development, History

Where Community Convenes

June 20, 2019 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

Last month I was in Altoona, PA. I was there at the invitation of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation (ABCDC), who had asked me to give the keynote address at their Annual Meeting. ABCDC’s President and CEO, Steve McKnight, had read my blog entry, Craft Breweries as Third Places, and wanted me to share my perspective on the topic to the broader Altoona-Blair County community. I drove to Altoona from my home in Toledo, covering the 328 miles in a little over five hours. Shortly after checking into my hotel I met up with Steve who gave me a tour of downtown Altoona, with a focus on the redevelopment initiatives that are under way there.

Promotional material for ABCDC’s Annual Meeting

Altoona has a population of just over forty-four thousand people. Like many cities in that part of the country it has lost population over the years. It’s population, in fact peaked in 1930, at just over eighty-two thousand. It is what is known as a shrinking city. Like many shrinking cities, Altoona is grappling with the challenge of how to stem, perhaps even reverse, decades of population decline. Third Places may be one piece of Altoona’s revitalization jigsaw.

Altoona’s population has been declining since 1930

Altoona owes its existence to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The community that would eventually become Altoona started out, in 1849, as a staging area for the construction of the rail line. Such was the importance of the railroad that in 1925, fourteen thousand of the area’s seventeen thousand industrial workers were employed by The Pennsylvania Railroad.

Like many American cities, Altoona has a proud brewing history. Also, like many American cities that history follows a familiar pattern. At various periods prior to Prohibition. Altoona was home to nine breweries. Two of those – the Oswald Brewing Company and the Altoona Brewing Company – survived Prohibition. But as with many smaller breweries they did not survive the post-Prohibition era, when economies of scale became the keys to success and smaller breweries were either bought by larger competitors or simply closed down. The Oswald Brewing Company closed in 1935 and the Altoona Brewing Company closed in 1974. Some of the beer produced by the Altoona Brewing Company included Altoona Bock, Horseshoe Curve Porter, Altoona Pilsener Beer, Altoona 36 Beer, American Maid Ale, and Pops Brau Beer.

Today, Altoona is home to two breweries – Railroad City Brewing Company and Marzoni’s Brick Oven and Brewery. The Railroad City Brewing Company, of course, is a nod to the important part played by the railroad in Altoona’s social and economic history. I love it when a brewery pays homage to some aspect of its local community, be it a historical figure, local landmark, or industrial heritage.

Railroad City Brewing Company is contributing to the revitalization of downtown Altoona, PA

After a walk around downtown Steve and I dropped into Railroad Brewing Company, where we met up with some of ABCDC’s staff, as well as brewery owner Matt Winrick. The brewery opened in 2016 and is a key part of the revitalization that is happening on Altoona’s 11th Street. Along with the recently opened coffee shop across the street, The Clay Cup, Railroad Brewing Company has become a vibrant local gathering spot (aka Third Place) in the heart of the city.

Community gathering spots, otherwise known as Third Places, were the focus of my presentation the next morning at the annual meeting of ABCDC. I have written about Third Places in a previous blog entry. It is a simple concept really. According to Ray Oldenburg, who coined the term, a Third Place is nothing more than an informal public gathering place. They are places outside of the home (first places) and work (second places) where we gather with friends, work colleagues, family members etc. According to Stuart Butler and Carmen Diaz, they are places where we “exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships“. Michael Hickey refers to Third Places as “the Living Room of society“. Despite the simplicity of the concept Third Places play a key role in creating social capital and a sense of community. A wide variety of venues in a community can function as Third Places, including libraries, coffee shops, and churches. Indeed, the subtitle of Oldenburg’s classic work on the topic, The Great Good Place, “cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other great hangouts at the heart of a community”, hint at the diversity of venues that can serve as Third Places. And, while not on the radar when Oldenburg was formulating his ideas, craft breweries are emerging as vital Third Places in communities all across America. Oldenburg was fearful that Third Places were becoming less popular, and that America was experiencing a decline in what is termed its associational life. The same fear was echoed by Harvard’s Robert Putnam in his classic work Bowling Alone.

Railroad City Brewing is emerging as a gathering spot for locals in downtown Altoona.

ABCDC’s Annual Meeting was held at the Blair County Convention Center. There were approximately 250 people in attendance. A copy of my presentation is available here. During my talk I presented some statistics from the Social Capital Project that highlighted the decline of associational life in America:

Between 1974 and 2016, the percent of adults who said they spend a social evening at least several times a week fell from 30% to 19%,

Between the mid-1970s and 2012, the average amount of time Americans (25-54) spend with coworkers outside the workplace fell from 2.5 hours to just under one hour per week

Between 1972 and 2016, the share of adults who thought most people could be trusted declined from 46% to 31%

Third Places, including craft breweries, can play a critical role in reigniting our bonds with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even family members. Towards the end of my presentation I presented some challenges to those in the room. With respect to Altoona, I asked:

• Where are your existing Third Places?
• Are you utilizing these to their full potential?
• If not, why not? How can they be better utilized?
• Where are your potential (as yet unused) Third Places?
• Why aren’t these being utilized?
• What needs to happen for the community to utilize them?

While Third Places can emerge organically (e.g. a neighborhood bar), I believe that it behooves a community to think strategically about the concept – hence the questions I posed above. Although I was in Altoona for less than twenty-four hours, I got the sense that the city is thinking strategically about Third Places and the role that they might play in the city’s revitalization. When I visit a city like Altoona, I often wonder what it will be like two, three, or five years down the road. Altoona is close enough to Toledo that I may just make a return visit to take a look.

TheBeerProfessor