6 BEER BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR THE BETTER
THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF INEBRIATION BUT A PLACE OF APPRECIATION.
-LUKE DEDO, BREWER, KEWEENAW BREWING COMPANY
For two hundred years, from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth, the local brewery was the place for friends to meet, to talk about politics, or to catch up on the news. They were breweries, yes, but they were also unofficial community centers.
Think about how bars have fostered communities. The idea for the Boston Tea Party was hatched in Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern, a watering hole for several of the fathers of the American Revolution. The labor movement may have been born on the floor of auto plants in Detroit and Flint, but taverns full of industrial workers became rich recruiting grounds for labor organizers. Surprisingly, illegal bars for wealthy patrons known as speakeasies gave women’s equality a boost during Prohibition. Before Prohibition, bars and taverns were men-only establishments; women were not allowed unless they worked there—in one form or another. But not only were women allowed in speakeasies—as a way to boost profits—many women ran their own.
Brewer after brewer whom I met talked about how they wished to return to what they called the pre-Prohibition pub. Even though many of their taprooms are in modern buildings, these brewers designed their taprooms and pubs as places where people would talk with friends and strangers, not sit and watch sports on a bank of TVs. Brewery taprooms are fostering all kinds of communities. Breweries are places where friendships are born and built over beer. People come for trivia nights and concerts. They meet at brewpubs after special events like kayak or bike trips, or to travel together to visit another brewery or a major sporting event in another city.
The roles breweries can and do play in community building are endless. They can become places where communities are mobilized to support charities and schools; they can lead efforts to improve towns and neighborhoods; they can spearhead projects to build nature trails and pick up trash along the highway.
Your local brewpub can aid its community in more symbolic ways as well. Sometimes a brewery can be the public face of a neighborhood or actually help to define a town’s identity, rejuvenating residents’ pride.
And sometimes, a brewery is a place for the dearly beloved to gather …