Beer’s patriotic connection to the founders of our country
This Independence Day weekend feels very different from any other in our lifetimes. Normally, there would be parades, barbecues and beer all weekend long, topped off by fireworks last night. This year: No parades. Socially distanced barbecues. And illegal fireworks have been snap, crackle, fizzling for weeks.
But can we talk beer? Those suds are as much a part of our heritage, I’d argue, as apple pie and the red, white and blue.
Our founders spent their evenings writing and arguing over the Declaration of Independence, tankard in hand, in the taverns of Philadelphia during the very hot summer of 1776.
John Adams and his colleagues spent time at City Tavern, a then-new popular watering hole just a few blocks from Independence Hall. It burned down in 1834, but was rebuilt in time for the bicentennial in 1976. (The tavern has been shuttered by the pandemic, but plans to reopen when Philadelphia gets the green light.)
There weren’t too many American breweries at the time John Hancock added his autograph to the declaration, but as European brewers emigrated and settled in towns across the new republic, they started breweries.
The high point came in 1873, when the national total reached 4,131 breweries. But fewer than 800 breweries managed to reopen after Prohibition was repealed, and the decline continued as companies merged and were acquired. The low point was 1984 with just 44 companies operating 83 brewing facilities.
Since then, craft brewing has rebounded in a big way. Last year, the nation tallied 8,386 breweries — and America’s status as a brewing nation has risen accordingly. Whenever I travel to judge international beer competitions, brewers from other nations inevitably want to know what’s going on with our brewing scene. California’s 900-plus breweries added $9 billion to the economy in 2018, the highest of any state.
All told, American breweries brought in $80 billion and created 550,000 total jobs in the industry — 150,000 of them work at breweries and brewpubs. But there’s no denying the toll of the pandemic shutdown: A recent Brewers Association survey found that total brewery sales had decreased by about 30%, and many breweries reported being down by as much as half. But some 40% of those brewers said they were still somewhat or much more optimistic about the future.
So as we enter the next phase of the pandemic shutdown, with breweries reopening their taprooms and brewpubs to customers for the first time in many months, it’s worth remembering how much they embody the spirit that made this country great.
As you plan your weekend celebrations, remember this quip by Founding Father Samuel Adams, who lent his name to a Boston brewery: “Let no man thirst for good beer.”