For most of its history, beer has not only been the most consumed of all the fermented beverages, it has also been the center of most communities. Many communities in Europe and in the early history of the United States were even planned around a brewery itself. In fact, the Plymouth Colony came ashore in Massachusetts when they did due to a shortage of beer on board. Ale houses were often used as meeting places more most community organizations. Imagine what would have happened if they hadn't!
This same sense of importance on breweries and their communities continued up thought prohibition, with breweries like Speoztel in Shiner, Texas and Tivoli in Denver, Colorado keeping their workers employed during the years that they could not brew their beers, often brewing sodas as a subtitute. Shiner head brewer Kosmo Speotzel would bring 'near beer' out to the workers in the fields to keep up the spirits of the community.
After prohibition, when many breweries never re-opened and only a dozen or so resumed brewing operations, this community feel seemingly disappeared. Sure, a handful of small breweries remained and continued to be important in the community, however other breweries such as Anhieser-Bush, grew so large that the community was taken out of the equation.
With there now being more breweries in the United States than before Prohibition and the boom in craft beer the last 30 years, this sense of community has come back. Many often focus on the increased quality of beer now, showing that love and attention have come back to beer. In fact, in many ways the quality of small batch beer is better than it was before prohibition. What many are coming to realize is that the community is coming back as well.
Most breweries these days have a heavy involvement in the events around their community like supporting festivals that donate to charities or even giving portions of their profits to directly. For example, the profits from sales of their Ladder Truck label from Pedernales Brewing Company in Fredericksburg, Texas are donated to nearby Fire Departments andRanger Creek Brewing and Distilling in San Antonio, Texas often has animal shelters stop by during their monthly open houses.
The Taverns of old that used to brew on site, have been replaced with the brewpub and most production breweries now distribute outside their communities, most have tours and events weekly and monthly that bring the community together. Freetail Brewing Company in San Antonio often sees many folks from the community, and surrounding areas, stopping by hours before a bottle release to enjoy a little camaraderie.
A big example are the open houses that many breweries will have monthly, often on the forst Saturday of the month. Independence Brewing in Austin and Ranger Creek Brewing in San Antonio have incredible turnouts each month (Both Independence and Ranger Creek happens to have its February Open House's tomorrow). Folks often come with lawn chairs and their dogs to hang out for the afternoon. All are usually family friendly and folks who don’t even know each other are often talking as if they’ve know each other for years.
If you've yet to visit a brewery, or at least attend an open house, you need too. If you have a favorite brewery in you area, or you’re visiting from out town, look up the local places and see what they have going on. You won’t regret it. Besides, the worst that happens, is you have a great local beer and makes some new friends. So come on out and get involved your community!
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