Abstract
Making beer is a multifaceted endeavor. Arguably, there are over 14 production stages in beer making, which can be simplified down to three stages – the brewing stage, the fermentation and maturation stage and finally, the packaging and distribution stage. Each production stage provides an opportunity for the brewery to engage in [more] sustainable views and practices. Given the focus of this edited volume, we were particularly interested in the economic, environmental and social sustainability attitudes and actions of craft breweries located in urban areas. Specifically, we wanted to explore the similarities and differences in sustainability attitudes and actions among urban craft breweries, as well as different brewery types, categorized here as brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional craft breweries. Using the three pillars of sustainability, we developed a survey designed to ascertain the attitudes and practices embraced by these brewery types. Findings show minor differences among the brewery types under the economic pillar, while brewpubs significantly differed from microbreweries and regional/regional craft breweries under the environmental and social pillars.
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Notes
- 1.
One barrel equals 31 US gallons, or about 330 12 oz bottles, or 248 16 oz pints.
- 2.
Traditional refers to the high quality base ingredients (i.e. malted barley).
- 3.
The authors, however, would define nanobreweries by its production rate, i.e. craft breweries producing less than 1000 barrels per year.
- 4.
Applied geography conducted by the authors found that each of us lives less than 10 miles from a microbrewery.
- 5.
As production scale increases, the number of workers also does, and expands from the brewer to other positions in such fields as marketing, merchandise, distribution, logistics, human resources, accounting and so on.
- 6.
Hoalst-Pullen et al. (2014) denoted the beginning of the brewing process as the cracking or crushing of malt into grist. Arguably, we acknowledge that one could start at the true inception of any beer, which is the recipe.
- 7.
The Brewers’ Association (2015a) defines “Regional Craft Breweries” as ones that are independent and producing predominately traditional or innovative beers. They define “Regional Breweries” as ones making between 15,000 and six million barrels. Thus, we combined these two definitions into one category to identify the craft designation as well as size.
- 8.
- 9.
Although the loophole for many microbreweries and RCBs is to sell “tours” or related merchandise (serving glasses) and in return, provide “free” beer.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Ben Brandstetter for sharing his knowledge of beer with us. Thanks to Rob and Sarah for their cross cultural education and understanding of divinely inspired urban breweries. Finally, we are grateful to all the breweries that participated in our survey.
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Patterson, M.W., Hoalst-Pullen, N., Pierson, W.B. (2016). Sustainability Attitudes and Actions: An Examination of Craft Brewers in the United States. In: Gatrell, J., Jensen, R., Patterson, M., Hoalst-Pullen, N. (eds) Urban Sustainability: Policy and Praxis. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26218-5_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26218-5_10
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