"Although our individualistic instincts may rebel against this drive toward the collective, they do so in vain and wrongly. In vain because no power in the world can enable us to escape from what is in itself the power of the world, and wrongly because the real nature of this impulse that is sweeping us toward a state of super-organization is such as to make us more completely personalized and human"
–Teilhard de Chardin “A Great Event Foreshadowed” 1945
In 1979 there were only forty-four breweries in the United States. The number had consistently been shrinking throughout the century and many expected it would shrink to five. Since then, however, a so-called Renaissance of American Craft Beer has taken place. As of this past March there are 2,360 craft breweries alone (this number does not include the large industrial producers). This inspired the founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, to claim he has not seen a purer expression of the goals of his movement. This is not the first time beer has lead the way in food production; many believe the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago began with cereal grains for beer production. Through this more recent revoultion Craft beer illuminates the future, not just for food production, but global living.
When a big company like Budweiser produces a beer, they want to sell as much as possible; consequently, they remove any flavors that may be disagreeable to anyone, and in so doing remove all flavor. Local communities often provide the primary support for Craft Beer, consequently the taste of these beers becomes as diverse as the regional cuisines (and these days, even more diverse). The owner Lawson’s Famous Liquids, for example, does not sell his beer outside of Vermont. It’s a local beer.
This kind of production influences a different kind of market place. The breweries do not see themselves in competition with the others; in many cases they actually support each other. The artisanal and scientific brewers at Crooked Stave, for example, used the facilities at Prost to produce their beers until recently. The two breweries are potential competitors, both trying to sell to those interested in craft beer, but they worked with each other to their mutual benefit.
We’re also lucky enough to experience collaborations between brewers. Avery Brewery in Colorado and Russian River Brewery in California collaborated on their Belgian style beer “Collaboration not Litigation Ale” when they discovered each produced a beer called “Salvation”. Rather than go to court, they worked together. There are also international collaborations like Devils Backbone in Virginia working with Thunder Road in Melbourne, Australia. In this way the industry works with a horizontal power structure. They each pursue individual flavors while networked within a uniform and communal philosophy.
The changes in the brewing industry can be understood within the context of other recent changes in culture. Just forty years ago anyone who wanted to use a computer needed to travel to one. A few individual massive computers housed all of the worlds computing power. In the 1980’s the personal computer disrupted that paradigm. Instead of having a few isolated computing centers, we each became a distributive center. Similarly, not too long ago, a few newspapers monopolized our access to information. Now everyone with a smart phone and a twitter app has the ability to broadcast to millions instantly. Encyclopedia Britannica and the music industry failed to recognize these trends. They believed a few could provide information for the many until they encountered Wikipedia and Napster. The Craft Beer Industry is similarly disruptive. We used to get our beer from forty-four distributing centers, now we have close to 3000. Power is distributed horizontally, not concentrated in a few centers.
Trends like those lead Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, to claim we have entered the Third Industrial Revolution. These revolutions are marked by radical changes in energy, communication, and transportation. As he consults companies and cities around the world, he urges them to invest in buildings able to create renewable photovoltaic energy. The Bouygues Batiment Ile-de-France, for example, produces more energy than it needs and enough excess to power 4,600 homes. Rather than a few power centers that distribute energy to a grid, these buildings could each collect and distribute energy. Craft beer seems to be showing us the possibility of this type of structure outside web-based platforms.
While Craft Breweries are connected to their local communities, they also promote the enjoyment of diversity, global collaboration, and provide yet another example of how many small-scale distributive centers can overcome Goliaths like Coors. As a species we pursued beer around 8,000 BCE and it helped us form larger communities and a partnership with the land; now, with optimism, it seems we can pursue beer once again to extend our empathy, this time globally, and recognize cooperation does not make us less individual and less human, but more so.