Is our stein half empty or half full?
Two interesting beer articles today.
Check out the piece in The Sun today by my colleague Sam Sessa detailing the demise of brewpubs in Baltimore, many pushed out by higher rents. Gone are the Baltimore Brewing Company, Sisson’s aka Ryleigh’s and most recently Capitol City in Harborplace.
Meanwhile a piece on the opinion page of today’s The New York Times by Brooklyn Beer’s Garrett Oliver argues that “today the United States has by far the most exciting beer culture in the world, and America’s 1,500 craft brewers are undaunted by the prospect of a juggernaut that would have 30 percent of the domestic market.” Oliver says craft brewers need not fear the proposed merger of Miller and Coors because the “age of American industrial brewing is over.”
What do we think? Is our glass of craft beer half empty or half full? Or is it that good beer can no longer be brewed in high-rent settings?
Comments
Stories like this can be touchy and had some of the other local beer groups going crazy today. Here's a copy of what I wrote on DC Beer:
I don't write in too often on issues as I have fun reading everyone else's opinion, but as an interviewee for the Sunpapers article today, I feel some clarification is needed. I agree with a lot of the opinions expressed here and unfortunately, newspaper stories can sometimes get twisted.
Three of us that were interviewed essentially shared the same opinions, that while we are always sad to see any type of closure of a beer venue or brewery and consider that a negative, there are too often extenuating circumstances involved and not all of them are negative. Did we lose Sisson's Brewpub or did we gain the award winning Clipper City Brewery?? We could all see the writing on the wall for Cap City in the High Rent Inner Harbor district, but we still have other Cap City venues right down the road, and although BBC is gone, we can still get some of their bottled product. The bottom line is that the products themselves are thriving and the growth is indisputable.
What we tried to convey to Mr. Sessa was that we beer lovers will seek out a good product no matter where it is. How many of us have driven more than 2 hours for just a few beers. Brewpubs are important because they help establish neighborhoods and provide a common ground for people who truly enjoy beer. Cap City was almost set up as a tourist haven right from the start and we all knew that. BBC was a true hangout and probably missed more than most, but what are we to do? Places come and go and new establishments will pop up. We should be thankful for the wonderful and thriving beer culture we have here in the mid-atlantic region and in my opinion we are seeing more and more younger people taking part in it's growth. We are the apostles of Beer!!
Posted by: Dominic Cantalupo | October 19, 2007 5:25 PM